Have you been wanting to write more?
Is there a story or poem buried in you that wants to get out?
Are you tired of making excuses that you don’t have time to write?
If you answered YES to any of these, I hope you’ll join me at Camp NaNoWriMo this month!
Camp NaNoWriMo stands for Camp National Novel Writing Month and it happens every July. It’s a virtual writing camp; as in, you can write from the comfort of your home, office, cafe, park, car, wherever you want to write from. This year, I’m imagining that I’m writing from a cabin on a beautiful mountain lake like the one you see above. ?
There are two things that I love about Camp NaNoWriMo.
First, you can set a goal for your writing project that’s words, pages, lines, hours, or minutes. You don’t need to feel constrained by word count–you can choose a different measuring guide. For me, I’m going back to the basics. I’ve set a goal of 930 minutes, which is 30 minutes a day for 31 days. I can write or revise anything, and my ultimate goal is to make writing a daily habit again.
The second thing I love about Camp NaNoWriMo is the emphasis on community. During regular NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, you’re part of a worldwide community of writers trying to reach their novel writing goals, but you don’t have a specific group of people to cheer you on. But at Camp NaNo, I have a virtual cabin of fellow writers all posting about their latest writing trials, tribulations, and triumphs. No matter how bad it gets, we encourage each other to keep going. It’s the main reason why I’ve been part of Camp NaNo year after year.
Something different I’m doing for this year’s cabin is setting the intention for all cabin mates to post on our cabin’s online board how we felt when we wrote that day. Was there was anything that helped or hindered your writing? Did you surf the web LESS before writing? What helped you do that? Was writing hard today? What was that due to? Did the time of day help you to write? Did listening to music help you? Stuff like that.
I’m doing this because I want to hear more about the QUALITY of your writing time rather than the QUANTITY of your words. The prime reason is because I want to enjoy the process of writing more and I want to learn from others how they do it.
If this appeals to you and you’d like to join my Psychedelic Psychopomps cabin (thanks to my writing friend, Catherine, for introducing this word to me), post a message below or contact me. We still have a few more spots open and we’d love to have you on board.
Hope to see you around the camp fire!
ps. In case you’re wondering, psychopomps are the conductors of souls to the afterworld. Since writing can involve soul searching and reaching into the deepest depths, this name felt just right.
Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? Peg is also the creator of Fear & Writing, a workshop for procrastinating writers from all walks of life.