Writing and Camp Nanowrimo
This is a public entry.
I continue to f-lock stuff about my life, but to talk publicly about my writing, so suffice to say I'm doing okay and my online class is nearly done, now let's talk camp nanowrimo!
If you haven't even heard about it, or don't know details, it's basically nanowrimo (write 50k of a novel in a single month) in the summertime. They've launched a new site for it, which isn't totally set up and therefore July is sort of a beta-version and August is supposed to be the full version. My intention was to write during BOTH months.
These past two months, I've been doing 750words.com. After a really busy semester when I transferred to UMCP, I did virtually no writing during the school year. I wrote a couple short things, and some drabbles, and a comparatively small amount of fanfiction, but that was it. 750words got me writing daily again. In June I was dedicated to maintaining my streak, which meant doing SOMETHING every day, even if I didn't feel like it. As a result, I wrote about 53k words in June. Some of it are short, unrelated things, but some of it has continuity. I was doing this 25 Days of Writing exercise that essentially helps you build a new character (I only did the first 11 days and intend to finish out the prompts sooner or later), wrote about 10k of this silly thing that's technically fanfic, and wrote about 18k now about these two characters I really like, in second person.
Overall, it was just REALLY good for my writing, and I'm really happy with myself for basically reaching a goal I have set for myself eight times in eight years without ANY planning, when it's something I try to do every November and fail as often as I succeed. I know this isn't a 53k word novel, it's bits and pieces, but it's still really cool!
Anyway, long story short, I broke my streak at the start of July because I was fretting about camp nano and just forgot to write, and since then, I haven't been writing every day like I had been for I believe 37 days. I haven't really written anything since the first, although I have been RPing. I'm basically scrambling to finish things for my class and to write a 8-10 page paper, so I have a good excuse. But I'm a little disappointed in myself for stopping when I had a good thing going.
And re: camp nanowrimo. I wanted to do it in July, but I had about five different ideas, and couldn't settle on one. Even worse, some I'd technically started, and that always feels like cheating for nano. I wanted to do it right. So I told myself I was committing to this idea I have that involves two psychics who are best friends and depend on each other an awful lot, where the main plot would pertain to my one main character's grandfather. I'm not doing that now. I know I'm not gonna start writing until the 10th or 11th because of this paper, and I know if I try and do a novel in 20 days, instead of a month, I'll drive myself insane. PLUS I will then tell myself to start ANOTHER new novel in August, which is just moronic. There's no way I'll be done with this, putting it aside if it's going well will be damaging to it, and yet I'll feel really bad "cheating" especially when Lydia might do camp nano with me in August, and I want to do it "right" if we're doing it together.
So, I'm going to chill out about it until my class is done. And I'm going to work on the story idea I already have 18k words for. I'm feeling these characters a lot. Even though, at first, I just added a scene every couple days when I felt like writing assholes and violence, it's starting to have continuity. It's really experimental (second person much?) and even though it sort of has the overarching plot of "these two drug-cookers are trying to legitimize themselves in the world of underground crime" it's mostly just me playing with their interpersonal dynamic. They're horrible to each other, and the stuff I've already written is really gratuitous. I hesitate to even call it a "novel," but I'm okay with it being a "story." Now that I'm sort of committing to it, when before it was a casual thing I wrote if writing it would be good for my daily words, I'm thinking about plot and story structure and rising and falling action. I'm realizing that if I'm writing about criminals, I probably need to figure out who the "good guys" are and they need to start causing trouble for my narrators.
I'm excited about writing these guys still, I feel good about doing it a little more "seriously," but even though I'm sort of telling myself I'm writing a novel in a month, I don't want to make it a "big thing." I'm really good at doing that, and generally speaking, it's bad for my writing. The past two years, these past two months as much as anything, have proven that a certain amount of structure is good for me (keep track of your writing every month; write every day) but beyond that, just let things happen organically. If I don't pressure myself too much, I feel really good about myself.
So, yeah, we're doing this thing. Drug-cookers in July, and then since I intended to back-burner them anyway, in August I'll be writing about the psychic besties no matter how July goes. Hopefully I'll take a day out to plan a little before then, and I'll be able to feel good about that, too.
I continue to f-lock stuff about my life, but to talk publicly about my writing, so suffice to say I'm doing okay and my online class is nearly done, now let's talk camp nanowrimo!
If you haven't even heard about it, or don't know details, it's basically nanowrimo (write 50k of a novel in a single month) in the summertime. They've launched a new site for it, which isn't totally set up and therefore July is sort of a beta-version and August is supposed to be the full version. My intention was to write during BOTH months.
These past two months, I've been doing 750words.com. After a really busy semester when I transferred to UMCP, I did virtually no writing during the school year. I wrote a couple short things, and some drabbles, and a comparatively small amount of fanfiction, but that was it. 750words got me writing daily again. In June I was dedicated to maintaining my streak, which meant doing SOMETHING every day, even if I didn't feel like it. As a result, I wrote about 53k words in June. Some of it are short, unrelated things, but some of it has continuity. I was doing this 25 Days of Writing exercise that essentially helps you build a new character (I only did the first 11 days and intend to finish out the prompts sooner or later), wrote about 10k of this silly thing that's technically fanfic, and wrote about 18k now about these two characters I really like, in second person.
Overall, it was just REALLY good for my writing, and I'm really happy with myself for basically reaching a goal I have set for myself eight times in eight years without ANY planning, when it's something I try to do every November and fail as often as I succeed. I know this isn't a 53k word novel, it's bits and pieces, but it's still really cool!
Anyway, long story short, I broke my streak at the start of July because I was fretting about camp nano and just forgot to write, and since then, I haven't been writing every day like I had been for I believe 37 days. I haven't really written anything since the first, although I have been RPing. I'm basically scrambling to finish things for my class and to write a 8-10 page paper, so I have a good excuse. But I'm a little disappointed in myself for stopping when I had a good thing going.
And re: camp nanowrimo. I wanted to do it in July, but I had about five different ideas, and couldn't settle on one. Even worse, some I'd technically started, and that always feels like cheating for nano. I wanted to do it right. So I told myself I was committing to this idea I have that involves two psychics who are best friends and depend on each other an awful lot, where the main plot would pertain to my one main character's grandfather. I'm not doing that now. I know I'm not gonna start writing until the 10th or 11th because of this paper, and I know if I try and do a novel in 20 days, instead of a month, I'll drive myself insane. PLUS I will then tell myself to start ANOTHER new novel in August, which is just moronic. There's no way I'll be done with this, putting it aside if it's going well will be damaging to it, and yet I'll feel really bad "cheating" especially when Lydia might do camp nano with me in August, and I want to do it "right" if we're doing it together.
So, I'm going to chill out about it until my class is done. And I'm going to work on the story idea I already have 18k words for. I'm feeling these characters a lot. Even though, at first, I just added a scene every couple days when I felt like writing assholes and violence, it's starting to have continuity. It's really experimental (second person much?) and even though it sort of has the overarching plot of "these two drug-cookers are trying to legitimize themselves in the world of underground crime" it's mostly just me playing with their interpersonal dynamic. They're horrible to each other, and the stuff I've already written is really gratuitous. I hesitate to even call it a "novel," but I'm okay with it being a "story." Now that I'm sort of committing to it, when before it was a casual thing I wrote if writing it would be good for my daily words, I'm thinking about plot and story structure and rising and falling action. I'm realizing that if I'm writing about criminals, I probably need to figure out who the "good guys" are and they need to start causing trouble for my narrators.
I'm excited about writing these guys still, I feel good about doing it a little more "seriously," but even though I'm sort of telling myself I'm writing a novel in a month, I don't want to make it a "big thing." I'm really good at doing that, and generally speaking, it's bad for my writing. The past two years, these past two months as much as anything, have proven that a certain amount of structure is good for me (keep track of your writing every month; write every day) but beyond that, just let things happen organically. If I don't pressure myself too much, I feel really good about myself.
So, yeah, we're doing this thing. Drug-cookers in July, and then since I intended to back-burner them anyway, in August I'll be writing about the psychic besties no matter how July goes. Hopefully I'll take a day out to plan a little before then, and I'll be able to feel good about that, too.
