The Intuitive Way to Plan During Preptober (for NaNoWriMo)

Happy October! Que annoying posts about the scent of fallen leaves and pumpkin spice lattes.

Cinnamon and cloves, aside, fall is for writing.

You might even know October as “Preptober” if you’ve taken part in past NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month challenges in November.

🪦 RIP NaNoWriMo

As of this writing in October 2025, NaNoWriMo is no more. They’d been in the news for some not-so-awesome reasons. I wrote about some of them here as I share my sustainable, more suited to women NaNoWriMo alternative.

A few years ago, I quit attempting NaNoWriMo-style writing challenges. I found them leaving most people (mainly women) overwhelmed, burnt out, and feeling defeated.

Before 2021, inside my writing community, we used to play with NaNoWriMo. I say “play” because, as an intuitive writing coach, I encourage my clients to do things on their terms — like writing 50,000 words of content instead of a novel. Or writing 20,000 words of content and 30,000 words for a book.

While many business owners are all too familiar with all the writing that comes with running a business — website copy, sales emails, blog content, podcast show notes, social media captions, proposals, email newsletters … so much writing! I’ve been writing professionally for 20+ years. Half of those in the online space, with three books and a decade of blogging. So I know just how much writing a business owner does.

Business owners decide to write books for many reasons. A book can serve as a calling card for their business, or perhaps it’s a personal passion project. Writing for a large project, such as a book, is a different beast for several reasons. 

I first took part in this book writing project during NaNoWriMo in 2017, and published that book over three years later. It took three years because I ignored my NaNoWriMo draft. I was so tired at the end of that November, cranking out 1,667+ words a day, that I didn’t want to even LOOK at that draft. That draft had been collecting digital dust for an entire year before I picked it up again.

How do you plan to write a book?

A business owner inside my writing community recently asked this:

How is a big project like a book different from writing a blog post? How can you be more creative about writing longer pieces?  

There are many nuances to writing a book, and having published a mini-book and a memoir/self-development book, and drafted another book, I have some experience. 

When you’re writing your first book, it can feel super challenging. It’s because you haven’t yet created the neurological container for writing a book. And once you DO write your book — you’ve proved to your unconscious mind that yes, you are an author — making writing the next book 99% easier.

If you decided at the last minute to write a book or simply hate planning, the good news is that you can take the unfussy road to book writing and fly by the seat of your pants. Prepare to be flexible! You can totally do this.

Here’s an intuitive approach to planning for Preptober when you have a business to run:

1. Preptober Planning.

In October 2017, I made very loose plans. I had a rough idea of the topics I wanted to write about. I grabbed 30 index cards, pulled out my Sharpies, and cranked up Metallica with the goal of one topic on each card. The whole process took 15 minutes.

2. Getting ahead on content creation. 

Because I knew that I’d spend November writing 1,667 words a day on my book, I didn’t want my blogging to be an afterthought. And I had been blogging pretty consistently for five years at this point. I planned out my blog topics for November and wrote them all over the course of a week in October. Here is what my process looked like:

Monday - draft blog 1

Tuesday - edit blog 1 and schedule, draft blog 2

Wednesday - edit blog 2 and schedule, draft blog 3

Thursday - edit blog 3 and schedule, draft blog 4

Friday - edit and schedule blog 4

That’s a month’s worth of content written in a week in 1-2 hours a day. Another approach you can take if you plan ahead is to work on November content starting in September.

3. Surrendered First Draft (SFD) book writing.

Within the container of NaNoWriMo, knowing I had 30 chapters (and would later combine or scrap some), I created a spreadsheet to track each chapter. Each morning (mostly in the morning anyway), I’d either choose a topic randomly or flip through the list of topics, chose the one I felt most excited or energized to write about in the moment and write as fast as I could, SFD style to get to 1,667 words or more. Sometimes, I’d write for 30 minutes and come back to it in the evening. Sometimes, I’d write for an hour. No editing, no revising, no revisiting. I barfed it out, closed the Google doc, and moved on to client work for the day. 

4. Repeat 29 times. 

And then the next day, I did the same thing, I didn't go back and edit, I didn't look at them, I just got the shitty first draft out of my brain, and then got to the next day and did the next one. I did that for 30 days and then went back in, revisited everything, and did some edits. 

5. Putting it all together. 

I created a separate Google Doc for each chapter. So when it came time to put it all together, I could put it in the order that made sense. I still reordered it many times later, which is totally fine. And then, I put it all into one big document as chapters to do a few more full revisions. 

What I’m doing differently with my FOURTH book.

I started drafting my fourth book in the spring of 2024. I’m finalizing edits to get it to my editor this fall and aim to publish in Spring 2026.

This book was a complete joy to write. Easy, fun, surrendered. It was so effortless, in fact, that I barely remember writing it. As a 10+ year intuitive writing coach to author-entrepreneurs, I believe this is the BEST way to write a book — and makes for some darn good writing, too.

Here’s what I did:

• I planned my drafting time around my menstrual cycle and the moon cycle (WHAT?! Wild, I know, but this is THE best way for women to write.

• Blocked time on my calendar for writing and editing - generally flowing like this:

  • New moon until the full moon - write drafts

  • Full moon until the new moon - edit those drafts

  • EASY!

• Read more about this intuitive writing process here or join the writing community here.

Here’s the thing most authors miss — BEing a successful author before they even begin writing.

Sign up for the Intuitive Writing School Community and join a group of business owners dedicated to bringing their books to life. With live co-writing calls, swipes, virtual retreats, and daily prompts, you’ll create a sustainable, feel-good writing habit. —> JOIN US.