There's an event that happens around the world in November called NaNoWriMo. To quote their description on Google, "NaNoWriMo is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world." I've participated in Nano (as I'm going to call it for short) a few times in the past, as well as some of their smaller Camp NaNoWriMo events that they hold in April and July. I have only completed my goal of 50,000 words once and that was in November 2013 (which Facebook kindly reminded me today with my "WINNER" picture I took). All of my other attempts at fallen pitifully short of my goal, but that's okay - and I'm okay with it. The point is that I tried, and I did my best to enjoy my writing while I was writing it.
Now you might be saying, "Hey, Shada," (which is my nickname, if you've forgotten). "What's this writing business? This doesn't have to do with Star Wars or Disney. Isn't that what you said this blog was about?"
And I would say to you, "Now, you hold on to your horses just a gosh dern minute there, whippersnapper." (My Nano novel that I "won" with as a western of sorts; I'm sorry.) "You give me some time here, and I'm gonna learn you at thing or two about a'plannin' and a'pantsin'."
That just...sounds weird. I am so sorry. Moving on.
The terms "planner" and "pantser" are things that I learned about in the Nano writing community. There were some people who carefully spent the month of October (or earlier) planning out their novel piece by piece. Writing up character sheets. Gathering research and information. They were the "planner" group. Then you have the people who sat down on November 1st with a blank slate. Maybe a rough idea of where they wanted to go. No solid leads or characters. These are the people who are writing by the "seat of their pants" - the "pantser" group.
There are parts of me that have always been a planner. I loved my little schedule/planner in high school that they gave us for free every year. I'd get my different color pens out and color coordinate everything so I knew what was homework, what was personal, what was extracurricular. When our Star Wars Celebration group prepares to go to a convention, I like to have group discussions, make hand-outs, discuss plan of attack and what we'd like to see. I like to know what will be there when I'm going to a certain place. I don't need to know exactly where I'm going to be at 2:15pm, but I like to know the things that are available to me, what times they're open, and what my "must dos" are. And I like to have some things very planned - flight times, pick-up times, dinner dates and times, etc. Things like that need planning. You can't just show up at the airport and go, "Hello, sir, put me on an airplane. I want to go to Florida." That doesn't work. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming it doesn't work.
While I have usually considered myself a planner in my lifetime, I also know that I have a bit of a pantser in me, as well. This goes back to the idea of I don't know where exactly I'm going to be at 2:15pm. I hate hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute schedules. I hate to feel like I've tied myself into a work-day schedule when I'm really just trying to have a weekend off or a vacation day. That drives me batty and makes me more stressed because what happens if I don't obey my schedule? What happens if I fail? See? Not fun for me. When it comes to Nano, I'm also a "pantser". Characters and writing need to flow. If I force myself into the research element of it without really having purpose or care behind it, then I'll just feel stressed and bored and I won't want to write anymore. Not really a productive attitude when you have 50,000 words to write.
These two paragraphs only describe me and my style of writing and vacations and life. Not everyone is the same, and that's okay! It makes life uber-interesting when we're not all carbon-copy cookie-cutouts of each other. We are not the Emperor's Clone Army! (Which, really, is a bad example because even the clones prove that they aren't carbon-copies of each other despite having the same genetic structure...but I digress.)
What I'm really trying to say here is that my planner lifestyle has had to make a huge shift into the pantser lifestyle just because life (and myself) made it that way. I learned that I can't be rigid in my plans and still expect myself to roll with the punches. If there's an issue with one way of doing things, I can't keep doing things that way and not change to something else so I can get a different outcome. I encountered a lot of crap over the years that bucked up against my planning abilities and threw me totally out of whack, so I finally learned to just say, "Fine. You win. We're wingin' this one." And I learned that that's okay. You can be a planner and a pantser, and there's nothing wrong with either of them.
For me, a bit of both suits me just fine, and that's the attitude I'm trying to take toward my planning of our next Walt Disney World trip in December. We've been dealing with so much this year - from personal illness, to family illness, to sudden losses and death, to depression and anxiety, to just living the day-to-day. I didn't plan any of that, and if I'd clung so desperately to a personal plan during all of this craziness, I think I'd be a lot more insane than I currently am. I had to let it go - all of it. I could do what I could do only in that moment I could do it, and that was okay.
I'm keeping that in mind as I'm looking at all of this Christmassy stuff at Disney and reading blogs and gathering information. Some of it makes me really nervous because it's the typical things we hear when we read about Disney. All of the websites tell me to plan - I need a plan. I need to know which park I'm going to go to on which days. I need to make advances dining reservations. I don't have any FastPasses. I don't have a Dining Plan, but it says I should have a Dining Plan. I can't eat that much. Omg. What if we don't make it to blah? What if we can't walk it? What if we're sick? What if it rains?
I hate all of that. All of it. I understand that having a Disney vacation means you have to plan, yes. But I personally believe in not making myself physically ill while planning the gosh dern thing (there's that old Nano novel coming back around again). So when I've been doing my reading and researching, what I've been attempting to do is just make a list. Make a list in my head of things I'd like to see, where they are, when they're available. I have quite the list thanks to lots of different websites, including Disney Tourist Blog. I found their articles to be quite helpful, including the self-tour of all of the decorations at the Disney resorts. This was a big thing on the Nerd Husband's and my list, so it was helpful to find a bit of a guide to get us where we wanted to be.
Also, to allow us a bit more freedom in our time schedule and exploration, we decided to rent ourselves a car for this trip. We have a lot of things we'd like to go outside of the Disney parks, and it can sometimes be rather trying to resort hop using Disney transportation. So we chalked up the extra bit of money (which isn't bad, really), and we're going to test this out to see how we like having our own vehicle while on property. I'm kind of excited to get to drive down there again; it's been a while.
Sitting back and reading all of this again, it sounds a little rambly - but the point I'm trying to make is that maybe you can take a step back from the uber-planning. Even if you just take one day and leave it completely open, maybe that would help. Just a day to say, "Hey, where do you want to go? Let's go play." Because really, that's what it's about, right? Playing and creating memories with your family and friends and loved ones. At least that's what it's always been about for me, and I need to remember that. That should always come first when I sit down and come up with a plan by the seat of my pants.
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