How Camp NaNoWriMo Changed My Writing // you should totally go sign up now

Waitwait what? Camp NaNoWriMo?

Yes, my friends. Camp.

*No, actually not the kind of camping that's in the picture. It's all virtual and none of the tents and swags and misty mornings for us. (I just liked the picture, shhh xP)

You've (probably?) all heard of NaNoWriMo. The insane write-50k-in-one-month-and-hopefully-not-die-and-maybe-have-some-part-of-a-novel-that-doesn't-actually-have-red-underline-also-but-probably-not-actually NaNo. And I know a lot of people know about it and back away slowly until they're a safe distance away and then run screaming in terror.

BUT. Don't run screaming this time. Because this is Camp.

It's similar yes, but a whole lot better. You get to choose your own word-count goal. No more 50k! You can go 20, 5, or 100! Whatever you so desire. (Although if you have a goal for 100k and win it please tell me because WHOA) You also get virtual cabin mates and confetti and yes a whole lot of cool stuff. (Including pizza every day if you happen to be in my cabin)

And it's only half a month until April Camp explodes on us in all it's epicness! *flails*


A bit of nostalgic backstory for you...
I did Camp NaNo for the firstest time in April last year (writing the novel-that-shall-not-be-named because I cringe every time the subject gets brought up and I might just go hide in a cardboard box now) and ack it was ahmazing. The biggest thing was probably that I SUDDENLY REALISED I COULD WRITE FAST.

I started Camp with a goal of 8k that I thought I might be able to reach. (haha okay backstory to the 8k is that my sister Clare set hers for 7k so of course I had to go at least 1k higher) And then I smashed myself and wrote that in the first week. I then raised my goal to 15k and reached it on day 20 (and proceeded to chill for the rest of the month).

I'd had no idea that I could write that much in a month, and it really woke me up to writing. It was a sort of "Hey hold it I can do this??"

From then on it's only gotten more insane. I did the second Camp in July and had a 20k goal and reached it easily too. (Probably because that was the first gathering of my very own cabin the Fellowship of the Keyboards. *throws celebration pizza*)  Moving on, I wrote over 80k for actual NaNo (overachiever me went 30k over the win mark so I could finish the first draft).

If I hadn't done Camp NaNo, I never would've done NaNo and I wouldn't have written three books in the last year. (HOLD IT WHOA. Now that I write that out, it seems like a lot.) And I wouldn't have done probably a lot of other things because gosh there's a lot of if I hadn'ts in life. It's amazing what God can do in one little decision we make.


Camp NaNo also introduced me into the epicness of having writing buddies (other than just my lovely sister) that you can word war with and moan with and throw (virtual) pizza at. Because cabin mates (unfortunately also virtual) are the best. (But seriously though, imagine if it wasn't virtual and it would be so epicer than it already is. Unless of course you're not into the frogs and spiders and lizards and mosquitoes that inevitably come with camps.)

Word wars are great motivation to push you on and get some more words out. (And if it's a word war with your toes/nose/elbows it's just to throw responsible-ness out the window and do something crazy xD)



Basically Camp NaNo is a huge explosion of epic, mess, fun, and great writing time. (Or great I-really-should-be-writing-now time. Depending on what sort of person you are.)

I'm (obviously) doing it again this year and I'm super hyped for it. I can't wait to get started. (I should probably be using this time to plot my novel rather than write this blog post but shhh.) This April I'm going to be writing the third and final book of my trilogy and I'm kind of freaking out because it's so important that I don't mess it up and the worst thing: I actually have to defeat the villains now??? What no. They've been winning for the last two books and now somehow I need to think up a genius plan to get rid of them?? So it's super exciting and super I don't even know what's going on but I'm loving it.

So yes. Planning is happening and plot is coming-ish. And we shall see if the beginning of April heralds a post of me completely freaking out because I have no idea what I'm doing.
But with luck you'll get to see a completely coherent post about my novel-to-be and how super planned and ready I am. 

But however that turns out it will be epic fun.


So don't just see all this stuff about Camp popping up around the writer blogs and shrug on with your writing alone. Take a closer look! Grab your friends together and drag them along to a virtual cabin. You don't even have to be working on a novel. Camp NaNo has options for poetry, short stories, editing, whatever! And word, page, line, hour count options too!
Maybe you don't have any writing friends to drag along? Go anyways and meet new people.
All you have to do is sign up and make a writing goal and you're set for an adventure like nothing you've ever done before! (unless you've done Camp NaNo before, in which case it'll probably be just as epic as normal)

I can promise you that you won't regret it.

(pretty certain anyway)

So what are you waiting for??


Are you doing Camp NaNo?
(the correct answer is yes)