so apparently my grace period already is up as I was promising a certain someone to take part in the next NaNo and I believed it to be next November, but apparently the April Camp is a thing.
If there are any other aspiring authors out there looking for motivation then check out http://campnanowrimo.org/ - I even found other German speaking enthusiasts to try and share a (virtual) cabin.
It might even be easier to win as you can start from 10 000 words, for me I set myself a target of 20 000 words and hope that I can achieve it, who knows maybe I even manage to get the count up to full novel size.
If you take part - good luck and may your muse bless you!
There’s also a Camp NaNo in July. The past few years they’ve had 1 or 2 “camps” every year that are less structured than the main November event. I’ve had fun with it the past few years, though I usually do the July one
Well lets see how this one goes and then I might do something small for July…
though to finish a novel at the milestone age I am at this year would be satisfying!
I am off to a great start. Did 1065 words this evening after work, so my fairly low goal of 20 000 words might even be reachable by next week already if I manage to keep that rate up and also put in some more words at the weekend.
All this time I felt that small spark, sometimes a few words flickered up from it and I had that need to write a little. Small texts, sometimes I even used brute force to extort some more words out of it, but that muted the spark and the passion fled.
But it was my luck that when the spark returned @SteveAdamo held the writing competitions and I enjoyed taking part a lot. The spark became a tiny quivering flame, slowly burning away my inhibitions.
And now that the NaNo camp is fully under way I feel like I have that roaring fire nearly consummating me from inside - I have so many words I need to get out of my system!
I barely can sleep and I can’t wait to get home when I am at work.
When I read this saying the first time I felt mocked, made fun of, even debased.
But now I realize it is true “You are an author if you need to write. If you have all these words inside you and need to get them out, else your head will explode.” - am not sure where I read it but I hated it.
Because for the last 5 years I tried again and again and I could not enforce it.
Now I can’t even sleep while the words are piling up.
its all you, my friend… only you can decide if this is right for you, and keep yourself motivated when the process gets difficult… and it seems you’re doing just that…
i applaud your tenacity, and absolutely wish you the best of luck with the camp, and all your future writing endeavors!
Well, in speaking of that… (not to be naggy) any chance that @SteveAdamo will revive the competition? Sadly, I wasn’t a user when the competitions began… and now that the insanity of Alpha 1 is over and we have more of a mature community, maybe we can unleash the minds of the people once more?
yes, we will indeed revive the Writer’s Workshop… the last round was somewhat special, in that @sdee suggested we fold the competition into an opportunity to have the winning entries as in-game journal entries… so, perhaps something along those lines can be considered once more…
either way, we’ll see the competition surface in some form or fashion… stay tuned…
From today on winning is possible in the Camp.
For me I am on par wordwise to win on the 30th but may already finish tomorrow given the right circumstances.
This whole event was a rollercoaster ride of elation and despair. When some (minor) health problems hit me I was thrown back by five days.
I am glad that I set a measly goal of 20 000 words as target, but for someone working full time on one hand and having no practice in regular writing at all on the other hand I believe I did quite okay.
Right now I am at a wordcount of about 16 000 and as I learnt that I can crank out about 2 000 words within 3 hours I should be able to “win”.
In regards to my novel that means the first act is done with about 33% of the novel finished, for a beginner like me I like to believe that this is not too shabby.
But my hunger is wakened and I won’t stop there.
July camp will be coming around and no - I don’t plan to do the second act then.
I set myself the goal to finish act 2 in May and act 3 in June.
So when the camp comes around my goal will be the whole 50 000 words, which is a lot for the camp, but my novel then will be the English translation.
And while I am at it I will give the finished German novel its final workover.
Its a very ambitious plan, but if I manage to pull that one off it would mean I can release my first ever novel already in August and even in two languages at the same time.
Its ambitious but also feasible and even if some roadblocks come along I know I can release at least this year.
I rather hope that my work will find an audience that can appreciate it.
For now I am happy that its working out as well as it does and I will let out a victory roar here in this thread when I finally hit my 20K words!
only you can decide if this is right for you, and keep yourself motivated when the process gets difficult… and it seems you’re doing just that…