The familiar NaNoWriMist obsession has taken over... I'm still in my pyjamas and I'm already here, getting excited over the earliest entries to the Lettery and the prospect of many more to come now that I've begun to advertise!

Today's schedule looks something like this:

Begin the dreaded accounts
Advertise every element of the group
Begin prize list
Contact everyone who offered to help
Do things that are not NaNoWriMist-related (for example eat)

The trouble with really enjoying something is that it starts to get too important and distracting. I think the dog would be able to tell you that I spend too much time on this computer at the moment! On the other hand, I've spent the whole summer not really needing to think so it's good for my brain to have a challenge. Right now, though, I'm going to let the dog out. It sounds urgent.
 

Today has been all about the money, or at least all about how to do some inventive but successful fundraising. The difficulty with this sort of thing is that all the best ideas have been done before, and anything new requires a huge amount of thinking about.

Luckily, I've had the whole afternoon and a willing victim to refine ideas during and at. Thanks to an inspired idea from a relative I have created "The NaNoWriMists Lettery - CLOSED" . Everyone should check it out and take part! Spread the word! Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell your family! Make people join WDC just to enter the Lettery! It's going to be great!

I've also drawn up a very, very rough prize list and done some more work on the sections which means that tomorrow something useful will appear in "The NaNoWriMists Prize List 2008" . As yet it is impossible to say what the prizes will actually be, but there should be some details of what they'll be awarded for. Don't hold your breath, it's not particularly polished yet.

That's about all for now. Over here in Britain it's technically Monday now, and I tried to go to bed over two hours ago but NaNoWriMo has already got a terrible hold on me. There's a distinct possibility that I'm developing a) an eye infection b) sleep madness or c) both.
 

The scary part is over... I've quickly checked the Writing forum for inspiration and purged it of all last year's messages... all 33 pages of them. There's something that feels almost sacrilegious about deleting so much communication but believe me, if I left it all in then we'd quickly be swamped. Nevertheless it's one of the hardest parts of preparing for a new NaNo, believe it or not!

I've still got the almost equally hard things to come though: the creation of banners and posters to advertise shamelessly, the drawing up of rules, the endless agonising over accounts to try and second-guess the quantity of gift points which will be around at the end of the month and therefore available for prizes. Perhaps this year I should just set a budget and use the left over points for something else? On the other hand, that means the prizes won't reach their full potential. Something to think about.

Although I'm quite excited, I'm also pretty trepidacious. This year, out of necessity, has to mark the point where I begin to delegate. Not only will that allow the group to expand even more, it'll also free me up a little now that my future is starting to get uncertain. This time next year, people, I'll be getting ready to go to university. That's a terrifying thought for you! So I need to find reliable, responsible people who I can trust with my baby and not have to keep an eye on (or at least, just one eye every now and again) but who will be able to take the group in a new direction. I've a few ideas but it's impossible to predict how things are going to work out.

Now to get down to the nitty gritty business of advertising and planning (possibly not in that order). The difficulty of being away from home so much is that all of last year's accounts and lists are carefully, safely saved and backed up... on my other computer. Perhaps sensibly I've chosen to use paper for the planning this year. Let's see if I manage not to lose it before 2009.

Later: I've now done the legwork for my latest innovation, the Turbo and Casual sections. I have absolutely no idea if it's going to work or not, but I'm hoping that by sending the awe-inspiringly fast writers off to their own little world of speedwriting, I can help everyone to get motivated, either by competing against other fast writers or by not letting them compare themselves infavourably against people with incredibly fast fingers. On the other hand it might split the group too much and result in a disappointing lack of community spirit. We'll have to wait and see!

One last thing: the prize list is terrifying me. I hate making that thing, because I have no idea how many gift points will be floating around at the end of the month and I also have no idea what kind of prizes will end up being appropriate for the group. In the next two or three days I need to think of a focus for this year. Anyone got any ideas?