Camp NaNo Redux July 30, 2012

The amazing people over at NaNoWriMo are running another summer camp starting August 1st.

I did not do so well in the June camp, but I have confidence August will be different. For one, the writing is coming easier now. And two, I am going to set myself an entirely reasonable goal.

(Don’t worry, I’m all in for 50,000 words in November.)

Apparently 30,000 words was too much in June–I managed just under 22,000–I am averaging around 500 words a night this month–but that was free-writing with very little thought toward plot and character arcs. Now that I’m working on another novel with an eye to publication, I need to allow myself to progress more slowly. So I’m thinking 20,000 will be a decent challenge.

I wish everyone who is shooting for 50,000 the best of luck. I am looking forward to playing for real in November!

C.

 

Camp NaNoWriMo June 9, 2012

All right, it’s time to confess. I can’t live with the secret any longer.

Sometime around 11:30 p.m. on May 31st, I decided to kick my a$$ out of its slump and get back in the writing saddle. (I may or may not tell you about my slump at some point, but all you really need to know right now is I haven’t been writing – which is pretty deadly for, you know, a writer.)

I love NaNoWriMo. I thrive on structure and goals, and NaNo feeds into my type-A personality perfectly. Camp NaNoWriMo is similar (although the prizes aren’t as good, but as I have a beef with CreateSpace’s new prize structure, I suppose neither’s prizes are all that wonderful, but I digress), in that participants sign up and attempt to write 50,000 words in the month of June.

(You can go to camp again in August too.)

Camp NaNo has been the shove I needed to get writing again. I don’t know what it is about bar graphs, and funky little dart boards, but whatever it is, they totally work for getting me to get words on the screen. I have sat at this computer every night, so far, in June and cranked out more than 1,000 words each time.

Yes, I know you need to average 1,667 words a day to reach 50,000, but as I mentioned earlier, I haven’t been writing – AT. ALL. It was all I could do to open a blank word doc and place my fingers on the keyboard. I had serious butterflies and the shakes. I needed to start writing again or go crazy, but something was holding me back.

Camp NaNo was my breakthrough solution. I’m not going to ‘win’ this month. I will not reach 50,000 words by June 30th, and that’s okay because I’ve already won. I beat the fear inside and started writing again. I’m rusty, and the stuff coming out is drivel, but with every keystroke my skills are returning. By the end of the month I will have 30,000 words (my goal is 1,000 words a day), and will be well on my way to recovering the groove I was in before the writing stopped.

I don’t know if it will work for you, but if you’re looking for that swift kick in the rear to get you back into the writing habit, you could do worse than to sign up for NaNo or one of their camps.

I’m back, and I have the neato bar graph and bullseye target over at Camp NaNo to thank for it.

C.

PS There are two others who also deserve a huge amount of credit for helping me find my way. They said what needed to be said when I needed to hear it. Thank you. xo