Lasts from July 1, 2015 to Midnight August 1, 2015
Word Count Goal: 30,000 (30K)
Novel: Various
Okay so who out there knows what National Novel Writing Month is?
Most of you right?
Well for those who don't, and I know there are those out there who don't, I'll explain it to you.
National Novel Writing Month happens during the month of November 1st until Midnight of December 1st. It starts and ends that midnight of your timezone mind you, so those who live as far as California tend to end up starting last but we also end last.
Yes, I'm way over here in the USA. Arizona to be precise so my clocks don't change any. No day light savings time.
Anyways, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) started back in 1999 where in 21 twenty-somethings got together with the intent of becoming writers just to do something.
What they hadn't expected was just how much fun they had during that November month all those years ago. As it is said on their History Page:
I think the scene—full of smack-talk and muffin crumbs on our keyboards—would have rightly horrified professional writers. We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half block party.
We called it noveling. And after the noveling ended on August 1, my sense of what was possible for myself, and those around me, was forever changed. If my friends and I could write passable novels in a month, I knew, anyone could do it.
Which is how the whole thing really got rolling.
– Chris Baty
The next year, a friend offered to create a site for them. They were not expecting it to go from just the 21 of them to 150 participants on the site and the Yahoo! Group, much less the explosion of people in the coming years. Year Two was the Year of the Rules, Year Three was the Year of Participants.
They grew and grew and continue to grow to this day.
Now that you have a basic run down of how they started, what is it now right?
It's a chance to write a Novel in a month's time. When you join, you put aside the perfectionist. You put aside the Inner Editor. You become a Writer and nothing but a Writer. It's a time to just get the story down. You can't expect anything polished and you'll probably rip your novel into bite sized pieces once you're done with it and put it back together into something resembling a full novel.
The word goal for that month is 50,000 words.
Well, if NaNo is all about writing a new novel, what is Camp Nano all about?
It actually started as a chance for those who had school or couldn't do the regular Nano to participate in something fun. There was once a site called JulyNaNo but it has since closed due to the fact that Camp NaNo has finally settled into the months of April and July.
As they say on their About Page:
Camp NaNoWriMo is a more open-ended version of our original November event.We have Camp sessions in both April and July, and we welcome word-count goals between 10,000 and 1,000,000. In addition, writers may attempt non-novel projects. Camp is a creative retreat for whatever you’re working on!Okay, so we've gone over that right? Yes?
Let's move on then shall we?
I've been participating in camp for about 3 years now, 2015 being my third year. I plan on working on various stories, hopefully getting further into them then where I'm sitting on them. I can hope right?
It's about what I do during camp every year, but this is kind of the first year that I set my own goal to be between 25K and 30K total word count. Usually I just leave it at 50K, but I can tell you right now that this year has been insane.
Between friends breaking down (long story that a lot of my online friends know about since I turned to them for advice), vacations, reenactments in cemeteries for charity, and colds that would just not die, it has been a ridiculous 5 and half months okay? And yet, here I am, doing camp once more.
But it's fun.
Now, the title says preparing for it, and thus I am. What exactly am I doing? Well, for the most part, I'm rewriting what I've already written. A good chunk of these stories were started but had to be put to the side since my muses kind of...rolled over and died on me with them for a short time.
But I am now in the right headspace to hopefully finish them before November rolls around.
So what do I do to prepare beyond the rewriting?
1: I create Youtube playlists of songs that I know will help my thoughts.
2: I check my Pandora Playlists and make sure that they're still good for my writing. This means that I listen to one or two that I'm wavering on for a few hours each day.
3: I make a list of Netflix and Hulu movies that I can play in the background. Mostly horror since most modern horror movies (outside of a few select ones) don't really need much attention.
4: I make a list of Netflix and Hulu Animes that I like and if they are only available in the original Japanese or not. I tend to save these for last resort kind of things since it means that I need to have my windows a certain way so I can keep an eye on subtitles. I do not know how to speak much less understand Japanese outside of a select few words okay?
I watch a lot of anime. Doesn't mean that I picked it up since most of the anime that I watch while writing tends to be amazingly fluffy. Like Ouran High School Host Club.
5: I plot my stories. At least six (6) chapters.
6: I stock up on items. Such items include:
- Pens
- paper
- White out
- coffee
- sugar
- non-dairy creamer
- instant flavored coffee
- snack foods that I can nibble upon while writing (I have this lovely little trail mix that I like making)
- Soda
- water
- pain meds
- headache medication
- wax tarts for my burner (scent therapy is a good thing)
7: I get back onto a normal sleep schedule. My sleep schedules tend to be late nights with late mornings. I shouldn't do that anyways but during April, July, and November, I tend to set it up so that I can get up before 2 in the afternoon.
I've gotten most of this done. I have a few more things to do but that's to come.
Here's hoping that I don't completely die while doing this yes?
Just wait until November. I'll probably be a zombie most journals I post that aren't scheduled.
Time to continue today's writing.
Happy Writing and Reading all!
