Happy Planner Set Up // Setting Up My Writing Planner // Plan With Me // NaNoWriMo

hello everyone it's alana thanks for coming to hang out with me and if you are new here welcome welcome in this video i am going to be setting up my writing happy planner so let's go ahead and jump right in you guys i am not gonna lie i am absolutely terrified and i have been putting this off for a very long time but i am not going to wait any longer and today i am going to set up my writing planner with you guys um a lot of people have asked to see how i use a planner for writing i really haven't been so far um but i decided to officially set one up and stick to just one planner for the month of april i know it's a little bit early to be setting up a planner for april but a couple of reasons i have spring into success coming up and that's going to keep me pretty busy i have some other projects that i'm working on so if i don't do this now i'm not going to find the time to get it done before april starts also another reason a lot of people have been asking to see this and i haven't been wanting to share um but i thought i would crawl or maybe claw my way out of my comfort zone and share just a little bit about my writing okay so i'm gonna start with what we have right here um the planner that i chose to use for my dedicated writing planner is this brand new always believe in your wildest dreams colorful leopard planner from the happy planner spring release um this planner does not officially start until july so i have franken planned it just a little bit however i have franklin planned it in a way that i intended to use a planner for writing anyway so it works perfectly for me um and i will show you guys exactly how i set that up i also have two sticker packs to um just kind of plan the month of april on my main monthly page which i will do with you guys i'm not going to decorate a weekly layout right now because that's um way far in advance and also i'm not even sure that i'm going to decorate my weekly layouts i'm probably just going to do the monthly spreads as far as decorating goes for this planner so i have girl with goals and then the colorful leopard sticker pack to decorate that and then they're sticking i have my characters okay so part of what i'm going to set up for this planner is my character just kind of um like a referral page something to look back to um and then just a little bit of notes about them on the back so i printed out these obviously are not my photos they are just human beings who live in pinterest world who resemble my characters i have been using them on my writing pinterest board for character inspiration so i printed them out and i'm going to put them on some scrapbook paper it's double-sided and then i'm going to slip it into this sticker sheet storage pocket from the happy planner i think that's what they're called let me no snap in sticker sheet protectors i knew it was something like that i threw in the word pocket um i guess it is kind of a pocket i mean it acts like a pocket so anyway pocket or not i'm going to be using one of these to just have my little character inspiration board in the front of this planner um these are intended to like stick a sheet of stickers or a couple of sheets of stickers into your planner and kind of take with you if you're traveling or if you have a theme pre-planned out or if you like pre-plan your planners way in advance and you want to have the stickers in the spread those are great for that i'm going to use them of course for something different today and i'm excited about that so i think that's where i'm going to start i think i'm going to set up my character sheet get it in the front of this planner and then i will flip through how the planner is set up with you guys and then decorate it for the month of april okay so there we go there is my character sheet all set up you guys these freaking snap in sticker protector sheets are awesome so many uses for them and i think they're like six bucks on the happy planner website they did send me these in my squad box which i am so dang grateful for this is an awesome thing i mean yes obviously you can use them for what they are intended for but this would be great for like memory keeping and memorabilia keeping just using as a pocket any kind of whatever you want to stick in there i love it i love it so much okay so yes these are my characters again not my photos not my people just the people who live in my head that i write about um also shout out to all of the people who just automatically thought i was writing a self-help book that's i'm not um maybe someday but no i'm writing fiction so okay i'm gonna snap these beautiful humans into the front oh my gosh i love this so much ah all right now on to the franken-planning months that i have kind of decorated a little bit um to be more suitable for this planner so the months um from april to june and then this planner will start in july with what it actually came with again that's the planner and then it came with um lined vertical color block you guys this is i'm so excited for this planner um but to start april may and june i grabbed some dashboard layout pages from oh gosh uh what was that i don't remember the name of the planner but it is the leopard print mom planner hang on let me just grab it to make your life easier in case you're looking for it i don't know if it's still available anywhere i don't think it's on the happy planner website but this is the planner enjoy the little things leopard print on the cover but the dividers had some kind of silly sassy mom quotes um and while those are great and i love it and i love mom life it wasn't fitting for my writing planner so i decorated it up a little bit i used this super cute squad girl mambi stix for the month of april i just put it right over the quote and then i put some leopard print stickers from the colorful leopards sticker pack right on with her so that it kind of matches what's going on here and then i just put a quote good things are coming also from the colorful leopard sticker pack um just to kind of tie it all together and i love it i think it's so cute okay and then this is dashboard layout it's identical to the desert flowers that i use for my work planner so that's what it looks like then for may i did a free spirit quote sticker from the disney princess mamby stix are they still calling them mommy sticks i'm not sure okay but the disney princess jumbo stickers that just came out in the spring release so i did free spirit and then some more just leopard print stickers to tie it all together and then lastly for june i did my girl pocahontas the world is mine and then some more leopard print okay so now let's go backward and i will tell you guys how i intend to use this planner so starting with the monthly spread for the month of april i am going to treat this monthly spread just like i treated my november spread for nanowrimo i am not doing camp nanowrimo in april i know that some of y'all have asked um i'm not going to even set really a specific like way off word count goal for myself like nanowrimo kind of encourages you to do um like i said i have spring into success i have a lot of projects going on a lot coming up spring is just a busy time of year for our family to begin with never mind the work that i have to do however my writing is still extremely extremely important to me and so i am going to do as much as i possibly can whenever i can squeeze in the time and then also i'm going to prioritize a specific schedule that starts very early in the morning but i'm really looking forward to that so i'm like i said i'm going to treat this like i do um for nanowrimo and i'm going to track my word count on these pages um like the word count that i get for each day and then i'm also going to try to schedule in some double down days and things like that where i try to pump out some extra words and then i'm also going to mark off the days that i know i'm absolutely not going to be able to get any writing done and i'm not going to punish myself for that i'm not going to be hard on myself for that um like easter and things like that it's just i'm just going to forgive myself and move forward and keep going so that's how i intend to use the monthly spread okay now into the weekly spread so of course this is the dashboard layout and because i am past the drafting point of this novel um i am kind of not necessarily rewriting okay i'm rewriting it um but i have the first draft all complete i'm moving into the second draft and if you know me at all i am a uber perfectionist so i am rewriting it um all over again so um this this layout is going to be tracking sprints um and any effort that i put into it what i'm hoping to accomplish this is kind of just going to be like a numbers thing basically and then goals of where i want to be on what specific day so sprints double down days tracking my word count tracking where i want to be or trying to catch up if i have to and then just little detailed notes to myself about where i want to pick up when i come back to my writing so if i know i'm going to have to miss a day or something like that then i will just leave a note for myself and make sure that i pick up from there or add in whatever it was that i thought about to add in i'm also going to color code using probably my zebra mildliners i'm going to color code which act i'm working in and then which chapter i'm working on hopefully this makes sense just from staring at a blank page it's kind of difficult to understand but i am absolutely not at the point where i'm comfortable with actually sharing my writing and the stages and things like that so i'm just gonna explain how i'm using it while we look at a blank page and then hope that it helps you out but if you have any questions of course leave them down in the comments i'm always happy to answer questions and catch up with you guys down in the comments so that is how i intend to use the dashboard layout um like i said april may and june um and then i'm giving myself a deadline by the end of june i want to have this next draft of my novel completely finished all done wrapped up and then when july starts with the new spread that came with this planner let me just show you guys the divider look stay wild be free so cute and then this is what the monthly layout looks like and then this is the weekly layout that comes with this planner okay so while the first portion of this planner i was going to say half but it's not half for the first portion the first three months of this planner are going to be mostly numbers and color coding and sections and just trying to get to a finishing point this portion of the planner is going to be all about edits it's going to be entirely notes for editing things that needed added in things that needed added not added out alana i'm writing a book you guys and i can't i can't speak i can't speak um so things that i want added in things that i want pulled out um i mean you guys know if if you're here because you're a writer then you know how editing works so this is going to be a lot of words and notes to myself and a little bit of numbers of course because i will want my word count to stay up if i'm pulling things out then i need to have things to put back in um if my word count is not staying where i want it to be at so i'm really excited about this color block and then the vertical line layout because i will be able to put up here in the color block the sections that i'm working on either the act or the chapter um maybe a specific character that i'm working on a plot point that needs reworked whatever that may be i'm going to be able to title it in this section of course i will color code it probably use stickers um but that's what i intend to do with this top portion and then it's going to be notes about whatever i'm editing or cleaning up or reworking underneath it and that's how i intend to use the rest of the planner this planner goes through 20 22 20 yes 20 22. um but i just took out all of the rest of it i left in up until december if i do not have this novel completed by december lord help me so i'm giving myself basically that deadline i actually fully intend to be done way before that and i want to publish in the fall that's my goal i'm gonna i'm gonna hold myself to it you guys published in the fall so i bet obviously there's still a lot of work to be done and i'm really excited to have this planner to keep track of all of those things and then it's also going to be like a memory when it's completed there's going to be there's going to be a ton of stuff in here um oh and then one more thing i did put a bunch of notes pages in the back so of course writing is rewriting is rewriting as rewriting and i always seem to need just like note paper scratch paper whatever just a thing to jot something down a note to myself or if there's a plot point that i really need to work through i take myself away from my laptop and onto the page i feel like my brain operates differently when my thoughts are traveling out through a pen then into my laptop sometimes if you're a writer that probably makes sense to you if you're not well you'll just have to trust me on that one um but yeah i mean it you know our brains work differently depending on how we're operating so yes i keep lots of note pages i just used some of the um oh gosh sorry for the shadows it's gloomy outside um i used some of the jungle vibes ones from the happy planner these are all from the happy planner um just some of this pink dot line and then the cute little speckles down the side these are from um an older squad girls happy notes and then just some blank dot grid as well so i should have my fill on that hopefully i won't need any more than this and yeah i'm gonna have these in the back if i need to just grab something to make a quick note oh and one more thing i forgot to share that i actually um intend to use the currently pages as well for um an overall look of where i just was in the previous month and where i want to be by the end of the month that i'm working in so i'm not going to be hard on myself for day-to-day goals and efforts but i definitely want to be at certain stopping points at the end of each month so like i said lots of projects coming up busy schedule but i want to prioritize fitting in the time whenever and wherever i can for my writing um and it's just going to be important to me to land at the stopping point where i want to be at the end of the month like i won nanowrimo this past november you guys but there was a lot of catch-up days like there were a couple of days where i had a migraine or you know thanksgiving where there was no words or very minimal words so i definitely had to do some catch-up it's not as important to me about the the smaller moments the day-to-day when it comes to goals as long as i keep my eye on the big picture which is what i talk about a lot when i talk about goal setting and things like that we have to be flexible about how we get there but we should always keep that destination uh in our mind and prioritize that so that's what i'm gonna do with this planner um okay so now i'm gonna decorate the month of april okay and i am sticking to those two sticker packs that i showed you guys the colorful leopard and the girl with goals um just because i don't heavily decorate up these monthly spreads for my writing i keep it pretty simple some motivating quotes a little bit of decoration and then i need to leave as much blank spots as possible for my writing and my word count tracking and things like that so i'm going to start up at the top here i have this strip quote sticker that says put your heart into it um and then some leopard print from both are from obviously the colorful leopard sticker packs i'm gonna put that right up here and this quote just like this okay i made it easier for myself and took it out of the planner um sometimes i forget to do that even still even after doing it for so long um okay some more leopard print down at the bottom here in the sidebar and i'm gonna do this quote that says be proud of you this one is from the girl with goals okay another one up here beside april um i think i want to put some of those cute little coffee cup stickers that were in here just around the page oh maybe some of these corners too um i ordered a second one of these from the happy planner website so because i knew i knew i was going to use it all up let's see were there only paper ones or were there clear ones um i think it was only the paper ones okay i think i'm gonna use some of these leopard print like corner stickers to mark the days where i'm gonna try to have um double down days it's a little bit risky doing this so far in advance because i don't know if for sure i'll be able to do that but it's okay i'm just gonna mark the ones where i'm gonna try my best to make that happen and then i will put some of the coffee stickers on maybe one or two more quotes and then i'm just gonna call it good okay so i've made some progress i did the just go for it quote sticker up at the top it was all one sticker i cut it in half to just space it out like that i put down the stickers where i'm gonna try to have my double down days um i know that i'm not going to work on easter if i do will be very very minimal so i'm just gonna put this purpose fuels passion quote sticker on here because i won't need that block but i don't want to leave it blank and then i'm going to since this one can kind of be scooched over and not cost me a whole box i'm gonna put the no better time than now quote sticker down here let's see just like that okay so a few of those coffee cups and maybe a quote for right here and then i think i'm gonna call it good okay so there are my coffee cups and um i'm going to put this one more leopard print sticker down in the bottom corner here and i'm going to pair it with this quote from the girl with gold sticker that says you did it because there's nothing wrong with a little you know self-prophesizing success so yeah i think i think that's good let me trim this off and then we will take a look at it i'm happy with it um as i go along i will probably include more stickers and things like that um maybe some more reward stickers normally if i reach like the halfway point and i am where i want to be i will reward myself with something small like boba or something like that um and just as like a motivator to keep going so i will probably put more stickers in as i go along and yeah for now i'm just gonna leave it like this so let me know what you guys think that is my writing planner all set up and ready to go for the month of april if you guys have any questions at all definitely leave them down in the comments and i will look forward to catching up with you there so thank you for hanging out with me this is my writing planner i am terrified to share but time to get out of that comfort zone if you are working on camp nanowrimo in april i wish you the very best of luck if you're writing at all and just working towards your goals i also wish you the best it's incredible it's hard and it's so worth it so again thank you guys so much for hanging out with me if you are not yet subscribed to my channel i hope that you would so we can hang out in future videos just like this one but that's all for now so tell your dog i said hi bye guys

Channel: oh really Alana

Views: 5,713

Keywords: plan with me, planner set up, setting up a happy planner, writers who plan, author tube, writers, nanowrimo, happy planner videos, planner spreads, planner layout, happy planner spring release, planner tips, planner newbie, goal planning, planners, planning, journaling, plan with me happy planner, happy planner stickers, happy planner flip through, oh really alana, happy planner, planner haul, planner stickers, planner pages, setting up a writing planner, goal planner, notebooks

Id: ZoQtGK-rGTg

Length: 22min 36sec (1356 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021