Some of you probably already know what Camp NaNo is, but for those who have no idea, I thought I'd take a minute to talk about it since it always becomes such a regular thing with me every few months or so. I guess it's part of taking this writing thing seriously.
I've been writing for over seventeen years now (if I count the little short stories I did back in Year 8). I've always enjoyed weaving the words, even though I think my consistency leaves much to be desired, and as with most writers, I am full of my own self-doubt and am my own worst critic. Not a lot of people have read/seen my work except for the ones I've created with the knowledge that it would be "seen". If you know what to look for, you could probably find some of my stuff on the interwebs (lol), but for the most part, my stuff's either stored in a hard drive, under an alias or scribbled in numerous notebooks on my bookshelf.
It's only in the last couple of years that I've decided to ease up on the whole closet writer persona, which - I've discovered time and time again - is actually so freaking hard to do, especially when I've spent years:
a) not talking about my writing
b) not letting people read my writing and,
c) not sharing some of my writing.
Yes, I'm that type of writer. I hold the words close to my chest.
No, it's not because I'm sensitive about it. I can take feedback and criticism, it's all I ever ask for when I post stuff online, but, I do feel uncomfortable being in the same room as people reading my stuff. (Don't ask me why, it might be a writer thing. I'm not the only one who gets like this, I swear!)
As a writer, the game plan has always been to write as much as possible. Anyone who's a writer will tell you that the worst thing you can do is to stop writing because writing is like a muscle, the less you use it the weaker it gets. The next thing they tell you is to practice putting your work out there, hence, this blog. I've had numerous blogs before this one, but none of them have ever been so closely connected to Real Life as Lux3lla is right now. I was lax with regular posting on the previous ones (even though I actually tried sometimes) and I hardly ever linked them out, but this time? It's way different (hee!).
The next thing I did was find other people in the same boat as me. Other writers working on their own projects, struggling with the same search for motivation, word count goals and endless pronoun shifts *insert crying face here*. So I revamped my Twitter to be my writer!self. Best decision ever because now I have twitter friends, who are also writer friends, who I can tweet at any time and will understand anything writing related I've ever ranted - or will ever rant - about. And if ever I find myself feeling the need to procrastinate during writing and editing? Yep, you guessed it, you'll find me there. Where you'll actually find other writers. Also procrastinating. (lol).
I find that the hardest thing about writing, though, isn't writing itself, or finding the motivation, or making time. The hardest thing is trying to explain myself to non-writer people. Trying to explain that I have to treat this thing like an obsession. That, yes, I am voluntarily chaining myself to my laptop and hiding away in my room, and no I would rather not be doing something else.
Which leads me to the wonderful world of NaNoWriMo! National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo is a non-profit organisation that helps encourage writers everywhere to get their story on the page. It only happens in the month of November, but the good thing about NaNoWriMo is that the community never truly goes away or stops for the rest of the year. On top of November, there's also April and July Camp NaNoWriMo, which is like a virtual writing retreat that writers can attend. If I choose to camp for the month, my target word count can be anything between 30 and 50k. It's more flexible than November's 50k and I'm able to work on multiple projects at once.
I love NaNoWriMo because, since I've been aiming to be less "closet" of a writer, I've been quite vocal about when I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the month. And I've found that, once I've passed the initial stage of explaining to non-writers what NaNoWriMo is, they tend to leave me alone! (Yasss!) No more weird looks as to why I've been sat in the same spot all day. No more long-winded explanations as to why I'm staying in this evening (or this weekend).
Granted, I sometimes still have to deal with the dreaded "what are you writing?" question, but, still! I'm counting this as a win.
So, now that you guys have the background info, here's the update on my progress.
1,809/15k.
Yes, with 6 days of Camp NaNo left, this isn't looking good for me, but! Remember what I said about multiple projects? All my blog posts this month are going towards my TWC (Target Word Count) and I'm also doing some editing and finishing a manuscript.
It's the smallest word count I've ever done since I started doing NaNoWriMo in 2015, but this one also has the most pieces so I'm okay with 15k. Considering, also, that I wasn't planning on doing Camp NaNo this month at all, I think 15 is acceptable! (prayforme).
Finally, let me end this post with the words that I started my first NaNoWriMo with:
"May the words be ever in your favour."
À la Hunger Games, because it is sometimes a little like that. Except instead of fighting against other kids in an arena that is controlled by gamemakers, I'm fighting against my lazy self.
x
The next thing I did was find other people in the same boat as me. Other writers working on their own projects, struggling with the same search for motivation, word count goals and endless pronoun shifts *insert crying face here*. So I revamped my Twitter to be my writer!self. Best decision ever because now I have twitter friends, who are also writer friends, who I can tweet at any time and will understand anything writing related I've ever ranted - or will ever rant - about. And if ever I find myself feeling the need to procrastinate during writing and editing? Yep, you guessed it, you'll find me there. Where you'll actually find other writers. Also procrastinating. (lol).
I find that the hardest thing about writing, though, isn't writing itself, or finding the motivation, or making time. The hardest thing is trying to explain myself to non-writer people. Trying to explain that I have to treat this thing like an obsession. That, yes, I am voluntarily chaining myself to my laptop and hiding away in my room, and no I would rather not be doing something else.
Which leads me to the wonderful world of NaNoWriMo! National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo is a non-profit organisation that helps encourage writers everywhere to get their story on the page. It only happens in the month of November, but the good thing about NaNoWriMo is that the community never truly goes away or stops for the rest of the year. On top of November, there's also April and July Camp NaNoWriMo, which is like a virtual writing retreat that writers can attend. If I choose to camp for the month, my target word count can be anything between 30 and 50k. It's more flexible than November's 50k and I'm able to work on multiple projects at once.
I love NaNoWriMo because, since I've been aiming to be less "closet" of a writer, I've been quite vocal about when I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the month. And I've found that, once I've passed the initial stage of explaining to non-writers what NaNoWriMo is, they tend to leave me alone! (Yasss!) No more weird looks as to why I've been sat in the same spot all day. No more long-winded explanations as to why I'm staying in this evening (or this weekend).
Granted, I sometimes still have to deal with the dreaded "what are you writing?" question, but, still! I'm counting this as a win.
So, now that you guys have the background info, here's the update on my progress.
1,809/15k.
Yes, with 6 days of Camp NaNo left, this isn't looking good for me, but! Remember what I said about multiple projects? All my blog posts this month are going towards my TWC (Target Word Count) and I'm also doing some editing and finishing a manuscript.
It's the smallest word count I've ever done since I started doing NaNoWriMo in 2015, but this one also has the most pieces so I'm okay with 15k. Considering, also, that I wasn't planning on doing Camp NaNo this month at all, I think 15 is acceptable! (prayforme).
Finally, let me end this post with the words that I started my first NaNoWriMo with:
"May the words be ever in your favour."
À la Hunger Games, because it is sometimes a little like that. Except instead of fighting against other kids in an arena that is controlled by gamemakers, I'm fighting against my lazy self.
x
Haha its scary how much I relate to this! Nice post dude :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading! <3
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