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SO really, I found that my best strategy was deciding what I wanted Tim to do and spelling it out on my plurk and in plotting comments. Then, even if you go AWOL or if threads just don't pick up that month, you have a general thesis to work with.

There's a LOT that you can assume Waver is able to do, and the mods are pretty chill with anything that isn't "game" breaking. Since the game is relatively simply put together, this gives you a lot of leeway. Which...is tough for me, a person who LOOOOOVES rules and guidelines, but makes it really really forgiving when you need to slow down.

I think the most important thing is deciding what direction you want to move in and pursue it. Kick back and decide what Waver would do given his druthers in the real world and trim back/add on from there. What worked for me was deciding 1. what ways I wanted Tim to grow, 2. what habits he would need to maintain, and 3. what information he would want to be traffic. 

So, in terms of 3. info, I wanted him to be kind of on the ground floor of gossip, so early on in the game, I had him get in on helping with repair/basic hotel stuff and visiting the library a lot. I just cleared it with the mods, basically asking if he could get baseline gossip about events. They gave me the go-ahead to assume he knows a little bit about petty drama, stuff like that, and to invent non-essential NPCs for any given interaction. I use this to guide his non-event activities and behavior.

In terms of 1. ways I wanted him to grow, I picked magic studies and a few of his worst characteristics to play with (control freak is one that's great for CR building), and I use those to guide how he behaves in events. 

Then, I fill in the blanks with 2. habits that need to be maintained. So in Tim's case, working out, digging for supplies in the basement, lurking around the library, sleeping, and cooking. Those are nice ways to either have built-in starters for non-events, or built-in reasons to be bumping into people. 

Having a good grip on the stupid mundane stuff like this makes it LIGHTYEARS EASIER to figure out what I want to do when events/TDMs pop up, bc I just compare the events to his daily life and say "what works and what gets fucked up". It's also a nice gauge for how jacked I want him to get in any given thread. Plus, when I zone out, I can ask CR to handwave encountering him in one of his daily routines and just broadly describe the state he's been in. 

IDK IF THIS HELPS YOU AT ALL, BUT THIS IS WHAT HELPED ME CALM DOWN AFTER MY FIRST MONTH.