jennadianne

I remember when I was a member of booktube NaNoWriMo was a big deal (in November). At that time I had no interest in writing a book – that’s a lie, I have always had an interest but I didn’t have a story. It seemed like every active reader was trying to write a book and it happened in November.

According to my profile stats I must have got the writing bug in 2017 since that is when it says my account was started. And for the last six years, I have been receiving their emails and ignoring them. That’s another lie, subconsciously the writing bug gets me every year around November and I can only attribute that to their emails. Every November I am motivated to really invest in a block and write. I only get so far before it’s this time of year and I realize I have only written a handful of posts. But I digress.

Yesterday I received an email that somehow caught my attention. The subject was simply Camp NaNoWriMo begins this week! I wish I knew what made me open it… but I did. Apparently there are these “smaller” writing challenges that occur in April and July (titled CAMP NaNoWriMo). The email says these two events are “a chance to try something new with your writing”. What if you haven’t written anything, period. Also, during these “camps” you’re not “locked into” their November challenge of 50k words, you can set your own word goal. Uh, FUCK. THAT. Kudos to the young people, students, stay at home parents that have that kind of flexibility to write 50k words in a month. I am writing this blog post at 630 on a Friday morning not sure I’ll get it done in time to get ready for work. I set my word goal at 10k words. Even that is a lofty goal. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to achieve that. But I suppose that is the point.

Last month I started laying out my character notes and reading Save the Cat! Writes A Novel. I even got one chapter started. And then that was it. I’ve definitely had more storylines and character traits I want to explore but I have yet to do anything with those new ideas. Subconsciously I still think conditions have to optimal to sit down and write. I figured participating in Camp NaNoWriMo might get the juices regularly flowing and create a much-needed writing habit.

I am realistic though, 10k is still a stretch. And come November, there is no fucking way I’ll be able to crank out 50k words. I guess in November the idea is finish your entire WIP (work in progress). HA! Plus, according STC the publishing “industry standard” is 70k for general works of fiction for adult readers. (Side note, this post, right now is 477 words) A lot of the videos I watched talked about how a lot of popular books were started during NaNoWriMo but certainly weren’t completed during that time period, or even in that year. The general theory is that most authors take years to write and “perfect” their stories. Kudos to those that can crank them out – I wish I was able to do that. I’m a slow and steady wins the race type…

All that being said here’s to my recently working title WIP and writing some words in April. (586 words right now)

JS.

PS. I don’t play jokes, so no, this is not an April Fool’s.