There’s only a few days of CampNaNoWriMo left. The fourth week of Camp went really well. I wrote consistently every day. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself. I usually have at least one day every week that just doesn’t work out the way I hoped. That didn’t happen this week.

Now, even with all of my success on the consistency front, I’m still not likely to win Camp this time. I’m still far behind. There’s nothing to say I couldn’t have a couple fantastic days and manage to win, but I don’t think that’s likely. At this point, I’ll be more than happy just to continue my consistent, steady pace.

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be about building good writing habits. A lot of times, even when I win, I don’t walk away with better habits than when I started. I’m a procrastinator by nature so the end of the month is always a mad dash to make up for the words I should have written in weeks prior. Writing thousands upon thousands of words in 48 or 72 hours is a pretty sure way to burn out. I do it to reach my goal and then I need a break. Taking that break erases any writing habits I might have been forming.

Instead of sprinting to reach my target word count this month, I’m going to try staying consistent. If I don’t burn myself out sprinting to a win, I might be able to keep up this pace in August. I think keeping a consistent pace will get me more words written in the long run. Since I’m writing serial fiction, building up a consistent writing habit is better for me overall. I’d slid into a lot of bad habits over the last few months and the stress from those bad habits just made it harder for me to get my work done. CampNaNoWriMo has helped me break free of that cycle and I don’t want to go back to the way things were before.

How’s CampNaNoWriMo going for you? Have you won? Have you cultivated a good writing habit this month?