Category: camp nanowrimo

Goodbye and Good Riddance NaNoWriMo

Well, it’s happened.

I woke up to the news this morning that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) will be no more. They’re shutting down.

Part of me hopes this is an April Fools’ prank. Part of me feels like a weight is lifted from my shoulders.

After the controversy in 2023, and so many more issues (which you can read about here), and the mess that was early 2024, I denounced them entirely.

Ironically, 2023 was my best writing year where I finished my draft in December.

Perhaps that proved that I’m past needing external validation to write a full-length novel. Perhaps that was the first sign it was time to move on. Still, I held out hope. I hoped the admin would clean up the mess that was 2023 and give the long time users and volunteers and supporters a reason to come back and support the cause.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. After the events of 2023, I was on the fence. I’d been an ML for 8 years, NaNoWriMo was something I supported fully and at one time defended through any vitriol, but 2024 was a rough year. I wasn’t in the right headspace for any volunteering, any creative writing or creation at all. Then, before I could make the decision, all the MLs and volunteers were let go with little mention. Some of us didn’t even get an email.

I grieved NaNoWriMo just as I grieved the other handful of deaths I had in 2024. I went through all the stages of grief:

Denial (No, NaNoWriMo wouldn’t…)

Anger (How could I have not known?!)

Bargaining (Ok, NaNo is sucking right now, but they’re making positive changes. I’ll return when they’re better)

Depression (Great, another thing that’s fucked up in the world and triggering my anxiety through the roof)

and

Acceptance (Fuck ‘em).

That’s about where I am right now. Does it absolutely suck that NaNoWriMo as an organization is over? Yes.

But, at the same time, the program has done what it set out to do when it started in 1999. It had a hand in building writing communities all over the world, it helped writers find the drive to tell their stories. It proved to writers that yes you CAN write that novel.

Several writers have taken up the challenge and have amazing work to show for it. I wrote an entire series over a decade out of the 15 years I participated. I have a lot more finished novels because of NaNoWriMo.

I have a million words thanks to NaNoWriMo.

I’m thankful, but at the same time, good riddance. I hate to be blunt, but they dug their own grave with everything that happened in 2023/2024 and even way before that.

The website change in 2018/19- awful.

The increase of donation reminders over writing pep talks to help fund the website- awful.

The allegations in 2023 and the fall out into 2024- awful.

How they treated users and volunteers who only wanted answers- awful.

That being said, I hope the positives of NaNoWriMo live on. The writing community, the steadfast belief that anyone can tell a story, and the frenzied writing of a lot of crap to fertilize a beautiful future novel that the story could be.

All this toxic BS of blaming users and volunteers, ableism, and gaslighting can go.

So what do we do now?

Thankfully, from the fallout of NaNoWriMo in 2023/2024, a lot of other organizations and programs have stepped up. Plotterati, Royal Road’s Writathon, Writetrack, among several others.

Here’s a decent list. Maybe give the internet a few days to catch up. When I did my search, NaNoWriMo was still listed in most of them.

As a writer, join or make a local writing group. Keep the idea of “writing dangerously” and “by the seat of your pants” alive and well.

Donate to other writing projects, or charity.

As for me, I’m still writing. I still have a writing community.

That’s what matters most.

Keep writing. That’s all we can do.

Programs and organizations may come and go, but the writing will always be there.

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Update: Days 5-9

Between a few days off, a roadtrip and a holiday, the writing still continued smoothly, even though we entered the dreaded week 2!

April 5th

Today was an interesting day. I didn’t start writing until the evening, after a wonderful massage and a nice long hot

bath. I finally had some self care after my long stretch of work days, and it helped. I now have a somewhat loose outline for the main project I want to work on for Camp NaNoWriMo. I wrote a little bit in everything and worked on some blog posts and an outline. Overall a decent writing day.

WC: 1571

April 6th

I woke up early, despite not having to work, and got my words in early in the morning. I did some homework, and worked on my main project in the evening. Overall, a productive day both writing wise and in everything else too.

WC: 1575

April 7th

Writing was split up quite a bit today. A few rushed words in the morning in a few projects, then the rest of it at work. I was hoping to get more words today, since I’m off for a weekend away tomorrow, but beggars can’t be choosers. I did get words in everything and some homework done before the weekend, so really I could it as a win.

WC: 1502

April 8th

Road trip! For most of the day, my fiancé and I drove up to Sacramento to see John Mayer in concert. I got a little writing in the car, but writing definitely was not my priority for the weekend. Still, I managed to get a few sentences in all that I could.

WC: 1135

April 9th

Happy Easter! Another day spent in the car, this time driving home from Sacramento. A very enjoyable roadtrip with the man I love, but once again writing wasn’t a priority. Homework was, and that gave me a pretty good buffer of words once I got home, but not the best writing day.

WC: 665

Camp NaNoWriMo Update Days 1-4

Here we are again in April during Camp NaNoWriMo. Usually I do pretty well in November, and April and July mostly suffer, but I’m hoping to blog every day (or if not every few days) to keep myself accountable for the month.

So far, the writing year has been good to me. I’m hoping to keep that momentum up in April. With any luck, it will be the best month yet.

Here’s the breakdown of the first few days of Camp NaNoWriMo April 2023

April 1st

Overall, a good day. A Saturday, and homework is always due on the weekends, so that means words. Do I like counting words for homework? No, but it does give me a little buffer. It’s a work day too, so that means a decent amount of downtime to get a few words down. I made sure I got words in almost everything I’m tallying this month, which is, a lot. Except I didn’t get any words in the current editing project, nor in the project I am aiming to make the most progress in for Camp NaNo. There is always tomorrow!

WC: 1,445

April 2nd

Once again, homework is important to complete and means more words. Other than that, yet another work day (Day 3/5), which means a few sentences here and there in EVERYTHING this time, plus a little extra when I can. The writing bug has struck and I’m excited for the month!

WC: 2,282

April 3rd

The first Monday of April and oh man did it feel like it. No work done before I left for work (day 4/5!) which meant a lot of fumbling on my phone for words. Still managed to write a little in every project, thankfully, and that was it on the Most Monday feeling Monday.

WC: 1,006

April 4th

Tuesday, I managed to get a lot of words down before work (Day 5/5; I am ready for a few days off!), which means the undeniable tension to write has faded. Writing on a keyboard/laptop is so much nicer than pecking on a phone, though I have been known to do both. Due to some tech/syncing issues, the work I did at home did not sync to my work devices until after I got home. I could have done more work, but tech issues did not help.

WC: 1,440

Not too bad for the first few days of April. Better than I expected, quite honestly, with as disgusting as April has been in the past few years.

I hope I can keep it up over the rest of the month!

WC Total: 6,173

June Results and July Goals

June has been the most amazing month for the first time in a long time. I’ve had several writing successes in the last month, along with successes in school and life in general. I hope I can keep it up as we roll into July.

Here’s how I did in June.

June Results

Write One Short Story/Finish the short story from May

I wrote one short story in the form of the Flash Fiction contest. I also finished the short story from May after waffling on it for a few weeks, and started another short story which I hope to finish in the next month or so.

NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge

This year, I really enjoyed round one of the challenge. It has been so nice writing something short and sweet with a 48 hour deadline. I love the feedback and the opportunity to edit through and improve with every challenge. I’m excited I was able to get it done and submit a great story.

BONUS Result #1: NYC Midnight’s Microfiction Challenge

I actually forgot about the microfiction contest for NYC Midnight. I placed 13th, which meant I got to write in the second round the week after the Flash Fiction challenge. 100 words is a lot harder to write than 1000, as strange as it sounds, especially with a genre like romance, but I made it through and submitted a story.

Finish the 2021 NaNoWriMo Novel

Finally, after eight long months of working, I can finally say the first draft is finished! Writing a thousand words a day for nearly every day in June really helped push the story along . I was really able to enjoy the plot and the characters again and reach the finish line. Now it’s time to go back to book one in the series and get some edits done.

Bonus Result #2: 1000 Words of Summer

As a substack reader, I found out about Jami Attenburg’s 1000 Words of Summer, where the goal is to write 1000 words every day for 2 weeks. I was able to use it to work through the last few chapters of the 2021 NaNoWriMo novel. I was so inspired by the challenge, and felt so accomplished with 1000 words a day that I have a new goal for the rest of the year (once I’m done with editing).

Along with my other goals in June, I also finished another class for my Bachelor’s in English. I celebrated another birthday and I’ve begun to be more conscious about my health. Making the shift from writing new content to editing has been a bit difficult, but it’s getting easier the more I attempt.

Word Count: 31,934

July Goals

Write One Short Story

Even though I haven’t always finished the short stories within the month I make it a goal, I really am enjoying the process of writing a short story in a month. I’ve already done at least 8 for the calendar year if I count the submissions for NYC Midnight’s competitions, and I plan to keep it up for the rest of the year. Maybe I’ll even catch up and do more than one in a month.

Camp NaNoWrimo

For Camp NaNoWriMo this year, I want to edit the first book in the current series I’m writing. Now that I’ve finished the 2021 NaNoWriMo novel, I would like to go back to book one and get edits done. I’m over halfway through with hand edits and then it’s time to start typing it up and making it look pretty. My goal for Camp NaNoWriMo is 30,000 words edited, but as usual, I’m always pushing for more.

What goals do you have for July?

March Results and April Goals

March has been absolutely crazy, with a lot of weird and bad news. It seemed like everything seemed to consipire against me completing my goals and making progress on anything really. The whole month of March was not a good writing month, or even a good school month, and I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and waiting for the next setback.

March Results

Write One Short Story

The short story started out so well at the beginning of the month. Then, I had my first non-writing day in 277 days. After that, the short story seemed to flounder and then stay on the back burner for school and work and anything and everything else.

Finish My 2021 NaNoWriMo Project

It wasn’t in the cards this month to finish my 2021 NaNoWriMo Project. With hectic schedules, more in-depth homework assignments and new stressors, it just wasn’t the month to finish anything. I’m hoping to take a break and come back to it fresh in the next couple months.

Attend a Writing Conference Online

This goal is actually one I have been able to somewhat complete. While I didn’t actually attend any of the live conference, I am able to watch the recordings and gain the knowledge from them. I am excited to gain more knowledge from this conference and learn all I can.

In March, I read three books that I honestly did not think would be my cup of tea, but pleasantly surprised me. I didn’t really think I would like spicy adult romances with smut in 90% of the chapters, but the story sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. Unfortunately, it adversely affected my writing time, so I aim to find a balance over the next few months.

March was quite a tough month. I got some bad news regarding a beloved family pet, Hazel, and the last bit of the month was touch and go as far as everything goes. She turns 14 today, and I am hoping to give her the best birthday ever. Please, if any of you have pets, give them a nice cuddle or a treat and show them you love them.

Hazel

Word Count: 3,509

April Goals

Finish/Write One Short Story

I have to say, I really enjoyed the short story I was writing for March before everything went to pot. It is a really strong idea and I want to see it done, and possibly work on the second half of the story in April. I’m hoping to get back into my routine of writing daily again, especially since March was so hectic and not a good writing month at all.

Camp NaNoWriMo

This year, for Camp NaNoWriMo, I’m not planning on working on one project, but multiple. A short story, a memoir or two, poetry, edits. Anything and everything, I am counting toward Camp NaNoWriMo, and I’m hoping to have some fun with it.

Poetry

April is National Poetry Month, and I’m hoping to get a small piece of poetry written every day to encourage the habit of writing every day again. Who knows? Some of it might even be half decent.

NYC Midnight’s 100 Word Microfiction Challenge

I’ve signed up for the Challenge and I’m really hoping that at 100 words I can find some time to get it done between homework and all of the other creative projects I have going on. Here’s hoping I can make it happen.

I’m really hoping April is a better month than March was, for multiple reasons.

July Results and August Goals

July has been one hectic month, but thankfully it is finally over. Here are the results:

•Camp NaNoWriMo

I managed to get a total of 35,140 for the month of July and hit my goal of 35K, but just barely.

•Flash Fiction Contest

The first round is complete and submitted, even though it was terrifying to try something new. Keep a look out for a full post on that later.

•Finish Edits on Book One of the series.

I made excellent progress in my editing goals this month, but the book still isn’t totally finished. I got stuck in the middle yet again, but I’m extending my deadline one more time. Unfortunately, this will not be the last round of edits like I had hoped, but it’s getting closer.

•Continue to blog

A few things have come back, and are appearing here and there. I’m working on building a better schedule, so stay tuned.

August Goals

•Finish edits on book one.

I’m only giving myself until August 15th to finish these edits. Four chapters to go!

•Flash Fiction Contest

Round Two is the end of August and I’m super excited for it.

•Reading at least one book

Recently, I’ve begun reading more and I have forgotten how much I’ve enjoyed it. Stay tuned, there may be a few book reviews coming up.

•More Blogging

This should be a given, but I have a lot of things to blog about and I’m going to get more out there.

Stay tuned for more!

April Results and May Goals

Well, another month of writing and goals done. April is always a bit of a tough month for me, with difficult anniversaries, but it ended up working out well in the end.

Goals from April:

  • Camp NaNoWriMo: 40,180
  • Ghost House Heart: 14,770
  • I finished Under Grey Skies with a total of 138,799 words and 11,247 words of notes. ( with 24,501 words during Camp NaNo)

Goals for May

  • Continue Ghost House Heart
  • Start Editing previous books in the series
  • Write 30,000 words of anything and everything (Look out for new blog content!)
This month was hit and miss to start, but in the end I smashed goals!
Finally, after months, this beast is complete.

March Results and April Goals

Compared to January and February, March seemed to move very slowly. With everything that’s been going on with the world and the virus, and home life and work life (yes, I am still working), it’s been hectic.

Here’s how I did on my goals from February:

  • I did not finish Under Grey Skies
    • I did reach the 75% mark and renew my interest in writing and finishing this novel
  • I prepared for Camp NaNo in the best way I knew how
    • By letting the idea swirl around in my head and waiting as patiently as I could for April to arrive.
  • I did not write a short story by hand
    • Unfortunately

I did however write a total of 18,360 words for the month in various projects.

Here are my plans for April:

  • Camp NaNoWriMo
    • Ghost House Heart: Minimum of 30K words (with little to no filler)
  • Finish Under Grey Skies
    • Every chapter I finish gets me closer to the end and it’s getting exciting. I have an outline and I’m ready to get this thing finished!

Wish me luck!

Camp NaNoWriMo News

Hello Everyone! April is just around the corner, and that means Camp NaNoWriMo!

This year, I’m working on two projects. Finishing up my project from NaNoWriMo 2019, and starting a new project.

Under Grey Skies: Doing my best to finish up my 2019 NaNo Novel by the end of April.

Book Nine of the LOVED series.

Earth: There are no more children to save. There are no more lost souls to wake. Everything should be perfect, but Jared has disappeared, and Qu has been set to wander the earth. The only person that can stop him is Emily. Chasing Qu, she runs into someone she never expected. 

Widren: With Qu gone, the island and the city have become what they were meant to be, a paradise. Randa must find the boy, but no one can help her. He’s a mystery that might just stay a mystery forever.

He was always in the background, never thought of himself as anything special, but she saw him.  

GOAL: Write “The End”

—–

Ghost House Heart: Death is only the beginning. When Blanche loses her fiance in a tragic accident, she thinks there is nothing left for her. Until she learns there may be a way to bring him back. Now she will do anything to bring him back, even if it means risking her own life. 

GOAL: 30,000 words.

This Camp NaNoWriMo will definitely be interesting, since I’ve never worked on two projects at full speed like this before and even with the chaos of the world, I’m still working full time.

Wish me luck!

(There’s still time to join me for Camp NaNoWriMo Here, just create a project and link it to the event. I’m always looking for more buddies, this is Me.)

February Results and March Goals

Wow, compared to January, February seemed to take forever, and March is already flying by in a blur.

In February 2020:

  • Wrote 6,396 words in various projects
  • Wrote a Short Story, BY HAND!

Unfortunately, I didn’t do much else as far as writing goes. Sometimes, other things in the world come first before my writing and this month, my health affected me in a big way. Breaking news, it is alright for other things to come before writing sometimes. I plan to make March a better month for writing and goals.

Goals for March 2020:

  • Finish Under Grey Skies (I mean it this time!)
    • I have several chapters left, a direction and a plot, I just need to put my butt in the chair and get writing.
  • Prepare for Camp NaNoWriMo in April.
    • I have an idea, some plotting done and a cover created. Let’s see how far I get before the burn to write strikes again.
  • Write another short story by hand
    • New goal that I came up with in the middle of last month. There is just something so freeing about writing by hand (even if it skews my monthly writing totals).

Stay tuned for updates during the month!

 

 

July Update #2

Guess who finished Camp NaNoWriMo with 55K?

This girl!

The story is still in full swing, so back to writing I go!

July Update #1

Camp NaNoWriMo is in full swing.

I set my goal for 25K and told myself I would write every single day this month.

Well, on July 10th, I hit 25K.

I hit 25K in 10 days, and there’s still 21 days left in July.

So I have now increased my goal to 60K for July but I’m hoping I’ll get more words than that.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Status Update and Plans for the Rest of 2019

Hello all!

It seems like it has been forever since I last posted an update here. The past few months have been wild with work and judo and everything else in between. First a quick update over the last few months, and then onward with the plans for the rest of 2019.

In the past few months, I have started with a new medical company at my job, which is just about as stressful as it sounds, starting and adjusting to the new company and the lack of trust that causes in the patients, especially since not all the pieces are quite in place yet. Along with that, the Judo club I have been going to since July of 2017 closed its doors at the end of April. That means that along with the new medical company at work, I’m now trying to help start a new judo club as well.

All of these new activities and new projects have made it difficult to write over the past few months, but luckily that turned around in June. I finally finished my NaNoWriMo project from 2018 and broke through the huge block I had had for months. That primed me for what I’ve been working on since July.

Camp NaNoWriMo!

This year for Camp NaNo, I’m working on a piece that I started in 2010 and then put away for a while, or got stuck and then got busy with school, I can’t quite remember. I titled it The Kiss, and that name just stuck. So far, with five days of a lot of writing to look back on, things are going well. I set my goal for 25K and I’m sitting at around 10K once I add today’s word count.

So far, the story is cooperating well, but we’ll see how that goes for the rest of the month.

Looking back on my writing plans from earlier this year, I’ve realized I’m probably not going to reach my goals that I set in January, before everything seemed to hit.

I had wanted to write one million words from November 1st, 2018 to November 1st, 2019, but judging by the word counts I’ve had in the past few months, sitting around just about 150K for the last eight months, I doubt I’m going to make one million words unless I do nothing but write for eight to twelve hours a day. So I’m changing my writing goals now, in July.

Instead of one million words, I’m going to do my best and write every day and see how far I get. Whether it’s five words, or five thousand words, I’m going to see how far I can get if I do a little bit (or a lot) of writing daily. The goal, I’ve had to remind myself, isn’t number of words, but projects finished. However many words that takes.

Over the years I’ve been working on my series, I’ve left a lot of holes to fill. There are parts of each book written, parts that need to be typed up, and parts that I haven’t even fleshed out since I’ve changed the series so many times. Finally, I think I have a decent trajectory of where I want the series to go, so it’s time to go back and fill in the holes in the months before November.

In November, I plan to start book nine of the series, which I had intended to be the last book in the series. Thanks to plot bunnies, and of course lovable characters, book nine will now be the penultimate book. I’m hoping that if I stay motivated enough, and continue to write every day, I can have that book finished by January of 2020.

There will be a lot going on, but I think if I stay focused, I can get it all done and continue my writing dreams.

In short, here are my plans until 2020:

July: Camp NaNoWriMo The Kiss. Goal- minimum 25K, but I want to see how far I get if I write every single day. It’s not too late to join me

August: Continue The Kiss; Continue with books 3, 4 and 5 of the LOVED series. Goal- Anywhere from 25K upwards.

September: Finish The Kiss (if not complete); Continue with books 3, 4 and 5 of the series. Possibly attend a local writing conference (It’s in the works). Goal- 25K and upwards.

October: Finish up any projects that aren’t complete by the end of the month. Plan book 9 for NaNoWriMo 2019. Goal- Minimum of 30K.

November: NaNoWriMo! Book 9 of the series. Goal- 50K minimum (to win), but I plan to shoot for at least 100K.

December: Finish book 9. Supplement with fanfiction for a palate cleanse. Goal- minimum 25K or to completion.

We’ll see how things go, but stay tuned for updates!

Moodboard for Camp NaNoWriMo’s The Kiss