What can you do to get ready? Here are 5 things to do as you're getting ready for the Big Day:
1. Get your research materials together and organized. You may not want to trust the web, and some books may be vital to your work. Things like a dictionary, thesauraus, atlas, near at hand may be valuable time-savers as well as those reference works particular to your genre or plot, e.g., Grey's Anatomy if you're going to be the next Kathy Reichs, or Daily Life in Elizabethan England if you're writing a historical romance. Buy what you need, gather what you already have, and put everything near to your workspace.
2. Warn family and friends that you're not being rude when you totally ignore them the entire month of November. Maybe a free autoresponder for your emails will help. And don't feel guilty when they call or text anyway and you don't reply. You're writing, and it's important.