I’ve done National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for many years, and I’m usually successful.For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge that takes place during November, where thousands of participants attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Yay!
This year, I’m finally trying Camp Nanowrimo, which is a July writing challenge with a camp theme! In fact, I’m in an active cabin with quite a few awesome people. I thought I’d talk about a few of the Camp Nano things I’m really excited about!
The Challenge: Camp NaNoWriMo lets users set their own goals, which is great for those writers who find the 50k goal too daunting (or not daunting enough). If you want to write 10k, great! 80k? Great! If you want to focus on editing, sure! If you want to write a screenplay- there are guidelines for that. I’m planning to write at least 50k, so I’ve set that as my goal.
Cabins: In Camp, you can build/join a virtual cabin with other participants, or get sorted into a random cabin by the site, or neither (opt out). I’ve been working over the past week to find and gather active participants into a cabin, and we have ~9 people! Yay! The conversation flows on the message board, and we’re using discord as well. After July, I’m hoping a lot of us will keep in touch, and help one another meet writing goals year-round!
Postcard Swap: This year, I’m participating in a postcard swap set up by an awesome fellow camper, and I’m getting to exchange motivation postcards wit people all over the world! It’s exciting, and I’ve written 9/10 of the ones I’ve signed up for.
There are a ton of other resources, discount coupons for sponsor items, and generally awesome things. I suppose in short, I’m really excited about this challenge I’m undertaking in July. NaNo and Camp NaNo are free to participate in, so if you want to take the plunge, go for it! Welcome!
-ARG
Alpin R Geist 