Day 29: The Post-NaNo Ritual You Need to Know About

It's winner's eve today. Tomorrow is the day you've won or not, and like your mother always told you, if you tried your best then that was good enough. Today's goal is 48,333 and then you're almost finished.
If you haven't hit today's goal, then you'll want to push today so you're not toeing the line at ten minutes to midnight on the 30th. If you're like most everyone else I know that's still writing, seeing this goal met somehow fuels you through the last 1,667 words. You will become like some crazy motivated train that would be going 100 miles an hour if it wasn't for this steep hill of words and plot.

I say, climb it. What's on the other side is totally worth it.

Since I know you'll be too busy celebrating tomorrow to think of things like this, I wanted to share my post-nano rituals with you to guard yourself against yourself. (I can tell by the way you're sitting that you've lost a document or two in your day.)

1) Save a copy of your novel to a disk, USB flash drive, or cloud (frankly I don't know what these clouds are, but hey, if you do, save it there.)

2) Email a copy of the document to yourself at an Internet held account. For example, I use MS Outlook for the majority of my mail, but I don't know how to check that mail when I don't have my laptop with me, so I email my document to my less used gmail account for safe keeping. Google offers gmail for free, so there's no reason not to do something like this.

3) Print. The nerdy nerd in me who might own a Staples customer rewards card (discount card, NOT credit card) might go onto the Staples website, upload her document to be printed, and she may go to the store, pay the $15, and pick up a physical printed copy. This is a cheaper ink option for me and I don't have to babysit my printer and hand feed it paper every five to ten pages. This copy, of course, is the rough draft which needs major work, not a manuscript to be shared. This gives me a hard copy to stash, edit, and make plot notes on when I don't want to be in front of the computer, but do want to work.

4) Wine or margaritas. Self-explanatory.

There you have it. Have a great winner's eve day!