Camp NaNo: Week Two Pep Talk

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“How do I even know if I can do the job?”
“By simply, simply trying.”

NaNo is my favourite time of year. I have likened it to a holiday, the eager anticipation mixed with nerves on NaNo-eve is certainly familiar. NaNo is special and a good part of what makes it so special is the community. Camp NaNo even more than regular November NaNo has community at it’s heart with the cabin system. May I just say we have the best cabin this session? Rocking it Rumbelle style heh 🙂

We’re now halfway through and there have been ups and downs. Sometimes it can seem like it’s all doom and gloom, especially because we are now so far from the start but also so far from the end. However, it’s been heartwarming to read in the chat about the successes we’ve had. There have been some truly mind blowing word counts reached but success is more than volume. We’ve reached word counts that are a stretch for us personally and that really is what NaNo is about. It’s not about beating
some high set number, it’s about beating what before seemed impossible for the
individual.

It’s day fourteen and our word counts are very different. However, whether you have zero words, 3k, 10k, 20k, 50k or more you are one of us. We are all writers and we all love to write, it’s what we have in common even though we originate from all over the globe. Writing isn’t always easy. There are days when we are tired, when we are ill, when we plain don’t feel like it or we sit there and no words come to mind.

We all come from different places, with different factors at play conspiring to keep us from making our goals. The secret is simple. Perseverance, determination, dedication, focus, effort, concentration etc. So easy to say and yet so very hard to do. It’s about butt in chair (or wherever you write) and putting one word after another. That’s what we do, whatever speed we type at, whatever our end goal is, we just keep on trucking.

We’re going to have bad days, it happens. What’s important is to move on and try again. New goals, new challenges and of course that overarching one at the end of the month. No matter what stage we’re at now, it’s still possible, there’s time. We’re also going to have amazing days. Days where we type so much our joints ache, because the energy is so incredible all we want to do is write.

Whatever the challenges Camp NaNo throws at us, we are going to climb our own personal mountain. Whatever goal we have set ourselves we’ve got this. We have so got this!

We believe in you.