Is anyone surprised I didn’t win Camp again?

I almost made it halfway to my goal. Woohoo!

It wasn’t the best or the worst Camp NaNoWriMo I’ve ever had. That surprised me. With the disastrous state of the world I expected something extreme. I was braced for either the worst month of writing ever or a sudden increase in productivity. Neither happened and I’m a little disappointed.

Overall, I had an enjoyable time. At least a few people in my writing group kept writing up until the end. The achievement feature helped make that apparent. Knowing others were still writing kept me motivated to keep going.

Am I still in love with my project? Of course! I was working on the middle of major rewrite of one of my favorite novels. I could have had the worst month ever and I would still love this story.

Camp was definitely the highlight of the month. I really wish there was more competition for the “best thing about April” award this year, but let’s be honest, there wasn’t much to be excited about.

I don’t want to think about what would have happened with my anxiety if I didn’t have a project to work on all month. I already spent too much of my time worrying even with a month-long distraction. It would have been so much worse if I only had Netflix and Hulu to occupy my time.

Did you win Camp NaNoWriMo? Was it a good distraction for you or did you find the added pressure to be a problem?

This month has been a great reminder that consistency is key.

Not every day is particularly productive. There have been days I barely wrote anything, but I sat down and wrote at least a few words. Doing that has made it so much easier to get to work on the days I feel up to writing more.

I don’t think my best writing days would have happened at all if I wasn’t writing something every day. My highest word count day of the month so far would not have happened at all if I wasn’t committed to writing at least a sentence or two. I went from no words at all for that day to forcing myself to write something before it got too late to suddenly having hundred of new words in Scrivener. It was great and it only happened because I want to go an entire month without missing a day of writing.

Although I’ve been loving the new groups for Camp NaNoWriMo, I’ve found one aspect of the NaNoWriMo website I hope they will change for the July Camp session. The achievements need some minor changes to work properly for Camp. Most of the NaNoWriMo achievements translate perfectly to Camp NaNoWriMo. They’re a great source of motivation and having them show up as notifications in the group message board helps keep things lively. The word count based achievements just don’t translate well to an event when people can choose to set their goal as more or less than the standard 50,000 words. It’s a little frustration to set a goal of 20,000 words and know that I can win the event without getting anywhere close to the 40k and 50k badges.

I’m not sure what I would do to change those badges for Camp NaNoWriMo. Maybe they would work better as percentages? What do you think?

How’s Camp NaNoWriMo going for you? Are you on track to reach your goal by April 30th? Let’s keep writing!

This is unusual. Week 2 was so much better for me than week 1.

My word count wasn’t all that much larger than the first week of Camp, but I felt so much better about writing this week. The world is still scary and we’re still stuck in isolation, but I’m learning to accept it. Maybe I’m just numb now. Who knows.

Seeing all the achievements popping up in my Camp NaNoWriMo writing group has been super inspiring. It keeps the chat alive when we’re all too busy writing or procrastinating to initiate a conversation. It’s also an extra motivation to earn those badges. Other people can see them so I want to earn as many of them as I can.

I’m having a really good time with my project lately. I’ve put a lot of thought into this part of the story since writing the last draft and it is paying off. I know what I want to keep and what I want to change. It’s efficient and I hope the resulting rewrite will be that much closer to perfect.

There’s still a good chance I won’t win Camp this month. I’ve never won so I won’t be surprised. I’d love to break the losing streak, but I’m also pretty comfortable with my comically long track record of failing every single Camp event while more often than not winning the main NaNoWriMo event in November. Win or lose, having a bit more of a community online this month has been a blessing.

If you’re feeling bored or lonely, say hi! I’m usually around. There’s no reason social distancing has to mean less socializing.

How’s Camp NaNoWriMo going for you? Did you find the second week to be easier than the first?

The first week of Camp NaNoWriMo is behind us. Many of my friends have made great progress with their projects. Seeing word counts rise day by day is so motivating and inspiring.

How did my week go? It had its ups and downs.

I wrote every day so far this month! Writing seven days in a row is hardly the biggest achievement. I’ve had much longer writing streaks. However, those writing streaks didn’t happen during a pandemic when I have nothing to do but stay home and worry about my friends and family that are still required to go to work. Being able to turn my mind toward creativity for at least a few minutes every day for a week these days is a huge victory.

The writing groups added this year for Camp have been a fantastic addition. The old cabins were fun, but this takes it to a new level. In my experience, keeping activity going in a cabin was next to impossible. It was nice to collect some like-minded friendly writers for a sense of community, but we rarely kept up a conversation in the cabin itself. Social media already kept us in the loop. There still isn’t a ton of chatter happening in the writing group, but having badge achievements show up in the chat makes things more lively. I love seeing notifications of everyone make progress toward their goals. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Camp moving to the main NaNoWriMo site, but I’m happy with the changes so far.

However, not everything so far this month has been wonderful. Sometimes I think there’s some sort of conspiracy to make sure I stumble at the start of all WriMo events. This time, poor sleep and anxiety created the perfect environment for a migraine to take hold. It was awful. I 100% do not recommend having a migraine while trying to write a novel.

Other than the migraine, the uncertainty of life these days has made it hard to be creative. I know some people have had amazing success with their writing since they’ve been stuck at home. It just hasn’t worked out that way for me. All it takes is one troublesome bit of news to slither into my thoughts and my ability to use the creative side of my brain is ruined for hours.

It’s completely unpredictable too. Sometimes I avoid the news, stay away from social media, and generally just have an upbeat, healthy attitude and I still end up worried and afraid. There’s no way to win. Being informed is scary. Avoiding the news to try to be happy only makes me worry. All I can do is try to give myself some time each day just for me. I’m not great at stopping worries from bleeding over, but I’ve got plenty of opportunities to practice now.

The second week of Camp NaNoWriMo is going to be better than the first. I can feel it.

How did the first week of Camp NaNoWriMo go for you? What do you think of the new writing groups feature?

In just a few hours my timezone will kick off April CampNaNoWriMo.

I’m adding 20,000 words to my 3rd draft for Camp.

Writing has been hard lately. There’s a lot going on in the world and I can’t help worrying. When I worry, I stop sleeping. When I don’t get enough sleep, I can’t think well enough to write.

If I’m going to reach my goal for April, I’m going to have to take care of myself. I need the extra push these days.

I’m ready for the challenge. What about you?

Add me as a buddy over on NaNoWriMo if you haven’t already. If you’re looking for a group to join for Camp NaNoWriMo, tell me your NaNoWriMo handle and I’ll invite you to my group.

I’ll admit, I lost my excitement for Camp NaNoWriMo for a while this month. The state of the world made looking forward to a month of writing nearly impossible. I don’t go out much, but many of my loved ones have to go out every day to work. They’re jobs are considered essential so they’re not likely to be ordered to stay home where they can properly isolate.

Today has actually been the worst day so far for me. This was supposed to be my grandparents’ joint birthday party. This coming week my grandfather will be 92 and the following week will be my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It’s become a tradition to rent out the community room in their retirement community and invite the entire family as well as all their friends to celebrate with an overabundance of cupcakes. My mom and aunts all bake so they always end up making close to a dozen different kinds of cupcakes.

Obviously, it was cancelled.

I haven’t seen my grandparents in weeks and I have no idea when I’ll see them again. My mom and her siblings have taken turns bringing them groceries, but visits aren’t a necessity so I’m staying away.

Maybe feeling down about this was what finally pushed my mind back toward thinking about Camp NaNoWriMo. There isn’t much else for me to feel excited about these days.

I woke up today feeling ready to be part of a community of frenetic, goal-driven writers again. Even if I’m just continuing the project I’m currently working on, it’s going to make all the difference to feel a bit more connected.

I’ve never felt like I needed a NaNoWriMo event before. It was always something nice to give myself an extra boost. Now it’s nearly a necessity. I need the distraction. I need a little space dedicated to something creative and sequestered away from the news of the world at large. It’s too easy to hop on social media to reach out to fellow writers and get bombarded by worrying news. Once I start thinking about that, I struggle to feel creative. I’m hoping my Camp NaNoWriMo cabin can be a place to chat about writing without the risk of running into other topics.

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo? Add me as a buddy!

I also have a cabin for next month! If you’d like to join, tell me your NaNoWriMo username and I’ll send you an invite. There’s plenty of room.

I did it! I made a group for Camp NaNoWriMo.

Right now it’s only myself and a few friends invited to the group. We’ve done cabins for Camp NaNoWriMo together before. Most of us write fantasy and we tend to be more supportive than competitive.

There’s plenty of room left in the group so I’d like to opening it up to you. Are you looking for a place to hang out during the month of April? Do you want to witness me (most likely) continue my Camp NaNoWriMo losing streak?

Let me know in the comments and I’ll send you an invite. Don’t forget to add me as a buddy too!

For official information on Camp NaNoWriMo check here.

The Camp NaNoWriMo updates to the NaNoWriMo website are now live! I’m looking forward to checking out the new features.

I set up my project for next month. My goal is to continue my third draft of The Dreams with a goal of writing 20,000 words during the month of April. Keep in mind, I’ve never won a Camp event, regardless of what goal I set. With the change from a separate site to the main site, I’m hoping that the energy surrounding Camp NaNoWriMo will change and I’ll get a motivation boost.

For now, we only have word count goals for Camp. This is unfortunate for people that have come to use the Camp months to work on time-related writing efforts like editing and outlining. I’m sure people can find word-equivalencies for increments of time if they want, but I imagine more people will just write something to keep everything simple.

Cabins are gone. Now we have groups.

I’m waiting to hear from friends before I endeavor to set up my own group, but I’m looking forward to figuring out what this feature has to offer. Groups need between 3 and 20 members so I won’t bother trying to set it up until I know at least two more people want to form a group.

Are you planning to participate in CampNaNoWriMo next month? Would you like to join my group for next month once I make it?

April 1st marks the start of Camp NaNoWriMo. It will be the first time Camp NaNo takes place on the main NaNoWriMo site.

In the past, Camp NaNoWrimo had its own site with a cabin system as a way to make the April and July events stand apart from the main event in November. For me, the cabin system was always great in theory but terrible in practice. I’d join up with some friends and form a cabin and everything would be great for during the first week or so. Then people would get busy, distracted, or discouraged. The the cabin became a ghost town.

How will things be different this year? How will the system replacing the cabins work?

I don’t know yet. The groups feature on the main website is currently being beta tested. The feature is supposed to be released on March 5, but it might be pushed back to March 10 if things aren’t ready to go this Thursday.

After the rocky launch of the new site last fall, there’s plenty of reasons to be concerned about Camp. Some people rely on the NaNoWriMo site for social support during the events. When the whole site changed, they had to learn a new forum structure and entirely rebuilt their buddy lists.

For me, the social benefits of the NaNoWriMo site is a nice bonus, but I’m perfectly content getting by socializing on Twitter and Discord. When the site has growing pains, I’m fine with stepping back and waiting. I’m not particularly worried about features getting out of beta this month. However, I don’t want my writing friends that rely on the site for connections to feel discouraged.

Hopefully the groups feature will be ready to go on Thursday so we all have plenty of time to get used to it before the writing frenzy begins.

If you’re like me and already getting wound up for Camp, you can add me as a buddy over on NaNoWriMo.

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo in April? What are your thoughts on the Camp events moving over to the main site?

I’m feeling oddly calm considering I have less than 24 hours until I start a month of NaNo madness. It doesn’t feel real for some reason. Maybe it’s denial. Maybe it’s just the heatwave in my area keeping me in a decidedly un-NaNo mindset.

Usually in the month leading up to a NaNoWriMo event I spend a lot of time planning my project. I’m not doing that this month since I’m spending the month of July planning a serial. It’s almost like I’m using Camp to do NaNo prep work!

It’s definitely not conventional. Over the last few years I’ve been moving away from doing traditional NaNos. Even during the main November event, I’ve shifted to continuing ongoing projects instead of starting something new. My projects are just too big to start a new one every year and I feel like I’ve been a WriMo long enough to change things up.

Another reason I want to change things up is my horrible track record with Camp sessions. I’ve signed up for every single CampNaNoWriMo since they started and I’ve failed every single time. The last few times I’ve tried to change things up. I still failed, but I have to believe I’m on the right track. April and July just aren’t good months for writing fresh drafts of a novel for me. I’m not willing to be idle during those months. I just need to figure out how to push myself without setting myself up for failure.

Working on something writing related that needs to be done seems like a safe bet. Having a set amount of time I want to dedicate to my project adds an element of challenge to it and juggling several projects in different phases is another challenge I need to learn to overcome.

I’ve set my goal at 30 hours of planning for my next project. I’m rounding it up to an hour a day. Yes, July has 31 days, but I’m more than sure I’ll end up missing a day. Considering my track record, I’m going to give myself some wiggle room.

I want to try out some new planning techniques. If I find anything to be particularly useful I’ll try to share it with you. Maybe if I try something that really doesn’t work for me I’ll share that as well. Just because it doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else.

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Are you participating in CampNaNoWriMo in July? Tell me about your project! I want to know who is drafting, revising, planning, or doing something I haven’t even imagined!