NaNoWriMo

Tomorrow, I head to Camp NaNoWriMo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it’s exactly how they describe it on their site: an idyllic writers retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life. The point of Camp NaNoWriMo is to complete a writing project during the month of July, track your progress, and give/get online support from your virtual cabin mates.

Last year was the first time I did Camp NaNoWriMo. I had mixed feelings about it and wrote about it here and here. Despite that, I wanted to give it another try. So, I’m packing up my bug spray and s’mores fixings, and here’s what I’m doing differently this time.

#1 GAME-CHANGER: I’M HOSTING MY OWN CABIN
Last year was my first year at camp so I figured it was fine to be sorted into a random cabin with 11 other writers. Out of 12 of us, 7 of us posted on our cabin’s online bulletin board and gave updates, support, and encouragement to each other. It was the BEST part of camp. But I often wondered about the other people. Did they drop out? Were they writing but didn’t want to post anything about it (not even their word count) online? I wondered why they joined camp in the first place.

This year, I wanted to be in a cabin with writers who wanted to reach their goals, and who wanted to consciously do so in an online community. I wanted to be with writers who like to support other writers, and receive support in return. So, I hosted my own cabin this year and personally invited writers I knew to join me.

I’m thrilled with who came on board. Including myself, we’ve got 15 writers: novelists of varying genres, memoirists, poets, journalists, essayists, bloggers, indie authors, traditionally-published authors, and even 3 librarians. (I love librarians so I’m especially psyched about this. Hey, Linda, Andrea, and Christina!) And since I’m the host, I got to choose our cabin’s name: the Badass Honey Badgers. Unlike Honey Badgers in the wild, Badass Honey Badgers give a sh*t, but they don’t give a f*ck (there is a difference). I can’t wait to start writing tomorrow with all these badass writers in my corner.

#2 GAME-CHANGER: I CREATED A DAILY WRITING SCHEDULE

I went to camp last year without a schedule. As a person who loves to complete tasks (hello, I’m ENFJ), that was a BIG mistake. Knowing this, I created a Daily Writing Schedule nine days ago. It includes the day and date, my goal(s) for each day, and space to indicate whether I reached that goal (I like using !!! and happy faces when I complete goals–it’s more satisfying).

To create a realistic schedule, I looked through each day of July to see what commitments I already had, and then picked a goal that made sense to me but still pushed me to challenge myself. Most days, I want to write two chapters. On some days, I will write just one chapter. I’m taking four days off for prior travel and personal engagements. Here’s a pic of my Daily Writing Schedule for your reference.

#3 GAME-CHANGER: I’VE BEEN TRAINING

As you can see from my Writing Schedule, I set goals and started working on them a little more than a week ago. I did this because I knew that I needed to create a habit out of writing one chapter or more before I went to camp. Just like I wouldn’t run a marathon without training at lesser miles each day for months, I knew I couldn’t just jump into camp without having already established some good writing habits. Good writing habits are something I’ve been working on for the past year and a half, ever since I started writing full time. So, this is nothing new for me, but getting ready for Camp NaNoWriMo motivated me even more to make it happen.

#4 GAME-CHANGER: I’VE MADE A COMMITMENT TO STOP MAKING COMMITMENTS

Setting up my Daily Writing Schedule was probably the biggest game-changer this year. Not only does it give me a map to follow each day, it also got me training early, and it helped me to see how I could not take on any more commitments in July.

I’m taking four days off in July: three for traveling to California for a family event, and one day off to celebrate my friend Alisa’s birthday (Alisa, if you’re reading this, you know how much energy it takes to go to a Mystery Lunch and then spend most of the day in birthday revelry).

In July, I also have coaching client meetings, health appointments, an authors meeting, meetups with friends, a reading I don’t want to miss, and the usual cooking, chores, exercise, and admin of life. In addition to personal or family things that might come up at the last minute, it’s imperative that I not take on any more commitments in July if I want to reach my writing goals.

“I can’t, I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo” is my mantra for July.

#5 GAME-CHANGER: I SET A GOAL BASED ON LOGIC AND DESIRE

Last year, I set 30,000 words as my goal purely out of desire. I wrote 10,000 words.

My goal this year is to write 35,250 words. Sounds like a lot? It is. It’s ambitious. It’s a little frightening. But it’s also based on logic and desire, not just desire.

The way I figured this number out is I did a little math. I had already written Act 1 of my novel (in fact, I’ve been revising and rewriting Act 1 for most of 2017, but this is Draft 2 of my novel so don’t worry). Act 1 was 24 chapters and close to 18,000 words.

18,000 words / 24 chapters = 750 words on average per chapter. Yes, my novel has very short chapters.

Looking at my Daily Writing Schedule, I knew I wanted to complete 47 chapters in July.

So, 47 chapters x 750 words = 35,250 words.

Again, a goal based in logic and desire, not just desire, and one that I believe I can reach.

GO FORTH, CAMPERS!

I hope that these five tips gave you some inspiration and ideas for how you can make Camp NaNoWriMo the best possible writing experience for yourself. Camp hasn’t even started, but I’m already grateful that I made these game-changing changes. I feel good. I feel ready. Please feel free to post any questions or thoughts in the comments box below. I’d love to hear from you. Have a great July and if you’re at Camp NaNoWriMo, I’ll see you around the camp fire!

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle. Peg is also a writing coach giving help, encouragement, and feedback to writers from all walks of life.

Only a little over two days left to Camp NaNoWriMo, and so far, I’ve written almost 9,000 words of my novel, SEVEN DUDES, and I plan on writing another 1,000 or so this weekend. That will make my grand total for the month of July at 10,000 words.

Is it a far cry from my original goal of 35,000 words?

Yes, it is.

Am I disappointed about this?

Not at all.

You see, it took me five months from February through June to write a little over 14,000 words. Five months! So the fact that I wrote 10,000 words in just one month is something worth celebrating.

And boy, am I celebrating.

On Monday, Marcus and I fly to Iceland.

That’s right. ICELAND!

I’ve heard for years that Iceland is a magical place. Just to name a few of its unique qualities, it’s home to adorable puffins and Icelandic ponies, beautiful waterfalls galore, the original geyser (geysir), thousands of thermal pools, Hakarl (rotten shark meat), elves, and amazing glaciers.

Now, we’ve been planning this trip since December of last year, so it’s not really a reward for completing Camp NaNoWriMo, but since this trip just happens to fall right after that accomplishment, I like to think of it as my most awesome writing reward so far. It’s more than a reward though; it’s truly a dream come true.

In the end, even though I wrote a few weeks ago that NaNoWriMo doesn’t work for me, I’m actually considering doing Camp NaNoWriMo again next year. It was great to see posts of progress and encouragement, laments about not writing enough, frustrations, and other bits of news from my fellow cabin mates on our online cabin bulletin board. About six of us were active posters and it made for a fun and supportive community.

Thanks, Sablize, Talys, Meg (Storyteller5), Emily, 32847, and HeatherMarie. You all helped me get to 10,000 words in one month. My gratitude goes out to you. Write on, everyone!

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle.

Cabin in the Woods by Katherine Hardy.

 

It’s Day 8 of Camp NaNoWriMo and you know what I’ve realized?

NaNoWriMo doesn’t work for me.

It works for other people.

But it doesn’t work for me.

And that’s totally cool with me.

It’s cool because by going through this, I’m discovering the kind of writer I am.

I still support the concept of NaNoWriMo. I love the camaraderie and collective energy of thousands of other people around the world trying to write and complete their novel (or other writing project) in one month. I like seeing all the tweets from writers struggling and triumphing over their fears and doubts, and getting the words on the page. That is all very cool.

What doesn’t work for me are the word counts. The bean counting. The quantitative indicators of success. For some people, it’s very motivating to log in how many words you write each day and to see the line go up on your handy Camp NaNoWriMo project stats graph. But for me, it has had the opposite effect.

When I started writing full-time back in February, I often did not meet my word count goals for the day. And even if I wrote something that I liked, I felt disappointed at the end of the day that I didn’t meet my word count. After a while, I realized the word count goal was hindering me, not helping me. What does it matter how many words I write per day? I realized that the number of words does not indicate or validate the quality of my work.

So, I let the whole word count thing go.

Then I thought, maybe I should try setting page count goals?

Tried it. It didn’t work either.

Then, I realized that I’m someone who loves finishing things. So, I tried finishing one chapter each time I sat down to write.

That worked.

It didn’t matter if the chapter was 200 words or 2,000 words, if I finished it, and it was what I wanted to write that day, then I had met my goal and I felt good.

The Chapter Model helped me finally get into a groove where I was writing a chapter a day. Right before I started Camp NaNoWriMo, I had finished Act 1 of SEVEN DUDES and 20 chapters. But this past week, I went back to the Word Count Model and it hung me up. After eight days of Camp NaNoWriMo, I’d written just three chapters and a total of 3139 words. I felt down and disappointed, just like I did when I first started writing full-time five months ago.

The NaNoWriMo model works for some people.

It just doesn’t work for me.

I’m letting the Word Count model go. But I’m not dropping out of camp all together. I like finishing things, remember?

I’m still going to post my word count every day on my Camp NaNoWriMo project page, I’m just not going to judge it or feel the need to reach my word count goal. I’m also going to continue conversing with my cabin mates (five out of twelve of us have been actively posting and chatting) online because it’s encouraging and fun.

But will I do Camp NaNoWriMo again?

Probably not.

And that’s totally cool with me.

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle. Peg is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.

Jelly beans photo by FotoDB.de.

I’m leaving for camp in six days!

Well, I’m leaving mentally and emotionally and metaphorically, but not physically. I just signed up to join Camp NaNoWriMo this July. As their site describes it, Camp NaNoWriMo is an “idyllic writers retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life.”

Sounds perfect.

But only very recently did I feel this way.

For years, I thought NaNoWriMo, aka. National Novel Writing Month, was stupid.

I mean, why does anyone need to write a novel in one month? As someone who likes to take a year or more planning, plotting, and writing a book, I didn’t see the value or sense in trying to make people write a whole book in one month. Why shouldn’t writers just work at their own pace? Why just one month? I kept thinking, WHY? WHY? WHY?

But, after slowly but surely working on my novel over the past five months, and feeling lonely and discouraged for many days, I’ve reached a place where ONE, I just really want to finish my draft; and TWO, I’d love to get support and encouragement from other writers doing the same thing.

So, I’m rolling up my metaphorical sleeping bag, packing my hiking boots and s’mores fixings, and I’m headed to Camp NaNoWriMo!

During the month of July, my goal is to write Act 2 and Act 3 of my novel, and thus, finish the first draft. I’m currently at a little over 14,000 words and estimating that it will take around 41,000 more words to tell the rest of my story. That’s a grand total of 55,000 words.

My next five blog posts will be updates from camp and how the writing’s going. I don’t know if doing this NaNoWriMo thing will help. I don’t know if I’ll like my fellow cabin mates–I’m in a virtual cabin with 11 other suspense/thriller writers that I can message and “chat” with–or if everyone’s going to be weird and critical. But I want to try.

So off I go.

If you smell burning marshmallows in the coming weeks, that’ll be me, taking a break from all my writing at camp.

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle. Peg is also the founder of Prelaw Guru, a law school application consulting company, and the author of The No B.S. Guides for prelaw students.