It’s drawing close to Camp NaNoWriMo again, and I’m hoping to actually succeed this time! What is Camp NaNoWriMo? I’ll provide a link at the end of this post so you can get the full info, but in a nutshell Camp NaNoWriMo is all about writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Yes….you read correctly – 30 DAYS!
This will be my second Camp NaNoWriMo – I attempted to participate in April; I don’t know what I was thinking then – that’s when our state academic testing is, and the stress levels for both students and teachers are THROUGH. THE. ROOF. All we do is review, reviews, review. The time after spring break and right up until testing is basically a giant cramming session. Which I’ve always thought was ridiculous – if the students don’t know the concepts by then, stuffing it down their throats isn’t going to make them perform better on the state testing – but that’s what the school and grade level lead teacher said to do, so I had to do it.
Back to camp – I wasn’t successful. I accomplished all of about 3,000 words before I threw in the towel. In a way, NaNoWriMo is like that giant academic cramming session. You write like mad to make the 50,000 word goal by the end of 30 days. Cram, cram, cram. If you average about 1,700 words per day then you’re guaranteed to reach the goal (and go slightly above it). But that’s 1,700 words PER DAY. If life happens and you can’t write that many words every day, then you feel the need to write madly (cram, cram, cram) for the remaining days until you’re back on track word count-wise. What do you get at the end of the month? A 50,000 word document and a label under your avatar that says “Winner!”. As petty as it may sound, I want that label of “Winner!” under my avatar. I want that 50,000 plus word document to put aside, wait until November to revise and then shop it out to beta readers for review. So….I is willingly entering that giant cramming…err, writing…session again in seven days.
Wish me luck!
For more NaNoWriMo info, click here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Along the way with Julia 