This month I'm sending one of my babies to Camp NaNoWriMo. (I loved last week's metaphor so much that I'm going to continue it here. :) ) NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which occurs each November. It's a sort of self-guided writing marathon, in which writers pick a project and aim to write 50,000 words in 30 days. You're supposed to be able to type THE END on Day 30 after your 50,000+ words are written, but most books are longer than that anyway. And 50,000 words in 30 days would be a tall order for even the most prolific of writers. It can be done--I've done it--but it's extremely difficult.
Which I suppose is why the NaNoWriMo folks decided to take advantage of the other months in the year that have only 30 days. Hence the creation of Camp NaNoWriMo for April. The great thing about Camp NaNoWriMo (other than the camp-themed writing activities and social networking events) is that you can set your own goal. For example, I have a new baby and a toddler and a pre-baby body to get back, which means sleep loss and sweets-deprived crankiness. So I committed to writing 15,000 words this month--about 500 each day. Totally doable, especially since I have a nifty new keyboard that allows me to write on my iPhone (I am, in fact, writing this entire post in the car on the way to a destination wedding I'm in this weekend). I'm basically sending my newest novel baby to camp to fatten up, and so far I'm staying on track.
Interested in joining me? It may not be too late for April, and it's definitely not too late to make plans for June, September, or even for the full-blown 50k-NaNoWriMo in November. Head to the Camp NaNoWriMo website to sign up.
Start plotting now!
TJ
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