Tag Archives: nanowrimo

Posted on by

I want to say a thing.

NaNoWriMo isn’t for everyone but that doesn’t make it bad.

Now I could be doing my creative writing lecturers a disservice but I got the distinct impression when I had to meet with them yesterday that NaNo = negative in their eyes. That to them writing lots of words meant nothing, that there was zero benefit in that. That it was beneath them and should be beneath me, not something for ‘serious’ writers.

On one level I can understand their caution as churning out lots of words doesn’t mean someone learns from them BUT in my opinion how can anyone learn without practice? It’s only through the act of doing that someone experiments and finds out what works and what doesn’t.

The biggest bonus to NaNo in my eyes is that it gives people a greater shot at the entire process. Actually finishing something – typing The End – is hard. Looking at a complete draft is different from looking at a partial one, you can see the whole story arc for instance. Then once the first draft is done, there’s the opportunity to start the next part of the process – first stage revision.

NaNo and writing the words is to quote from Chris Baty to put an end to the “one-day novelist” (aka the I’ll write a novel ‘one day’ person) by making one-day today. It’s a tool. It’s not an end goal. It’s very unlikely that at the end of the month people will have an amazing book – because that takes time. What they do have though is an incredible starting point.

Sorry I don’t know why I’m feeling defensive, especially because I’m failing NaNo epically right now so all my waxing lyrical about how it gets stuff completed is bull in my case. I just do feel defensive of NaNo I guess because in my eyes there is a lot to recommend it. It isn’t a machine which churns out crap. It’s a tool for learning, experimentation and to open up opportunities into other realms of the writing process.

It’s what you make of it.

Reminder: Camp NaNo Rumbelle Style

Posted on by

Hey guys!

There are still spaces in the

Rumbelle Camp Cabin

I hope I’ve invited everyone who has already asked. I’ve manually checked stuff but tumblr had that funny ten five minutes with the notifications. So please if you want to join us and hopefully have lots of fun writing/revising/anything writing related really next month then please don’t delay! 🙂

More info and original post >>> click me

Camp NaNo: Rumbelle Style

Posted on by

Yes it is that time again! I apologise for April as I was a little bit absent but you guys were very chatty without me so I think it worked out 🙂

For anyone that doesn’t know Camp NaNo is different from regular November NaNo in a couple of crucial ways:

  1. You can set your own word count goal (I don’t think there’s a minimum value so set it as high or as low as you like)
  2. They allow you to track time and pages, in addition to words. So you could write a screenplay, edit a story, plan a story, write poetry, whatever you want really.
  3. They have these things called cabins

It is because of these cabins that I am making this post. This will be the fourth Rumbelle cabin and it always goes well. The cabins are for 20 writers and they have like a messageboard thing allowing communication on the NaNo site. I’ve always found it’s easier to write knowing I’m among friends, rather than sitting alone banging my head against the keyboard. I’ve been doing Camp NaNo for years and it always sucks if the cabin is a ghost town so in my cabin:

  1. I post daily facts everyday for inspiration purposes
  2. I post a daily word count challenge
  3. Time zones permitting I run word sprints

Generally I’ve found that so long as somebody’s talking, then the cabin picks up in activity anyway. So got a fanfic you want to finish? Doing RCIJ? Just wanting a boost in the writing stakes?

Camp NaNo is a lot more relaxed than regular NaNo, as I said above you can work on different kinds of writing, or different parts of the writing process, or even on lots of projects at once. Camp is really about just making progress on things, and getting stuff done in a supportive and friendly environment. So there’s no real barrier to joining in the fun 🙂

If you would like to join then sign up and/or create a project on the Camp NaNo site. Then reply/reblog/message me with your NaNo username and I will send you a cabin invite. You must create your project first or the invite won’t work. Any questions or anything let me know 🙂

Rumbelle Camp NaNo – 2 Weeks to Go!

Posted on by

How can you say no to that face? Belle wants you to participate! Hehe 🙂

For anyone that doesn’t know Camp NaNo is different from regular November NaNo in a couple of crucial ways:

  1. You can set your own word count goal (I don’t think there’s a minimum value so set it as high or as low as you like)
  2. They allow you to track time and pages, in addition to words. So you could write a screenplay, edit a story, plan a story, write poetry, whatever you want really.
  3. They have these things called cabins

It is because of these cabins that I am making this post. We currently have getting on for a dozen Rumbelle writers and we can have up to 20 – so still plenty of room! The cabins have like a messageboard thing allowing communication on the NaNo site. I’ve always found it’s easier to write knowing I’m among friends, rather than sitting alone banging my head against the keyboard. I’ve been doing Camp NaNo for years and it always sucks if the cabin is a ghost town so in my cabin:

  1. I post daily facts everyday for inspiration purposes
  2. I post a daily word count challenge
  3. Time zones permitting I run word sprints

Generally I’ve found that so long as somebody’s talking, then the cabin picks up in activity anyway. So got a fanfic you want to finish? Doing Mayday Menagerie? Just wanting a boost in the writing stakes?

Camp NaNo is a lot more relaxed than regular NaNo, as I said above you can work on different kinds of writing, or different parts of the writing process, or even on lots of projects at once. Camp is really about just making progress on things, and getting stuff done in a supportive and friendly environment. So there’s no real barrier to joining in the fun 🙂

If you would like to join then sign up and/or create a project on the Camp NaNo site. Then reply/reblog/message me with your NaNo username and I will send you a cabin invite. You must create your project first or the invite won’t work. Any questions or anything let me know 🙂

Camp NaNoWrimo: Rumbelle Style

Posted on by

Yes it is that time again and just like last year I will be running a cabin!

For anyone that doesn’t know Camp NaNo is different from regular November NaNo in a couple of crucial ways:

  1. You can set your own word count goal (I don’t think there’s a minimum value so set it as high or as low as you like)
  2. They allow you to track time and pages, in addition to words. So you could write a screenplay, edit a story, plan a story, write poetry, whatever you want really.
  3. They have these things called cabins

It is because of these cabins that I am making this post. We had a dozen Rumbelle writers last year and I think it went well so let’s go again. The cabins are for 20 writers and they have like a messageboard thing allowing communication on the NaNo site. I’ve always found it’s easier to write knowing I’m among friends, rather than sitting alone banging my head against the keyboard. I’ve been doing Camp NaNo for years and it always sucks if the cabin is a ghost town so in my cabin:

  1. I post daily facts everyday for inspiration purposes
  2. I post a daily word count challenge
  3. Time zones permitting I run word sprints

Generally I’ve found that so long as somebody’s talking, then the cabin picks up in activity anyway. So got a fanfic you want to finish? Doing Mayday Menagerie? Just wanting a boost in the writing stakes?

Camp NaNo is a lot more relaxed than regular NaNo, as I said above you can work on different kinds of writing, or different parts of the writing process, or even on lots of projects at once. Camp is really about just making progress on things, and getting stuff done in a supportive and friendly environment. So there’s no real barrier to joining in the fun 🙂

If you would like to join then sign up and/or create a project on the Camp NaNo site. Then reply/reblog/message me with your NaNo username and I will send you a cabin invite. You must create your project first or the invite won’t work. Any questions or anything let me know 🙂

Camp NaNoWriMo: Rumbelle Style

Posted on by

im-not-a-what:

still-searching47:

Yes it is that time again. In July there is another session of Camp NaNo and just like in April I will be running a cabin! I know RCIJ has to be posted on the 23rd but for the first three weeks camp could be a boost if anyone wanted it.

For anyone that doesn’t know Camp NaNo is different from regular November NaNo in a couple of crucial ways:

  1. You can set your own word count goal (I don’t think there’s a minimum value so set it as high or as low as you like)
  2. They allow you to track time and pages, in addition to words. So you could write a screenplay, edit a story, plan a story, write poetry, whatever you want really.
  3. They have these things called cabins

It is because of these cabins that I am making this post.

A dozen Rumbelle writers signed up for the April session, and I think it went well so let’s go again. The cabins are for 20 writers and they have like a messageboard thing allowing communication on the NaNo site. I’ve always found it’s easier to write knowing I’m among friends, rather than sitting alone banging my head against the keyboard. I’ve been doing Camp NaNo for years and it always sucks if the cabin is a ghost town so in my cabin:

  1. I post daily facts everyday for inspiration purposes
  2. I post a daily word count challenge
  3. Time zones permitting I run word sprints

Generally I’ve found that so long as somebody’s talking, then the cabin picks up in activity anyway. So got a fanfic you want to finish? Doing RCIJ? Just wanting a boost in the writing stakes? 

Camp NaNo is a lot more relaxed than regular NaNo, as I said above you can work on different kinds of writing, or different parts of the writing process, or even on lots of projects at once. Camp is really about just making progress on things, and getting stuff done in a supportive and friendly environment. So there’s no real barrier to joining in the fun 🙂

If you would like to join then sign up and/or create a project on the Camp NaNo site. Then reply/reblog/message me with your NaNo username and I will send you a cabin invite. You must create your project first or the invite won’t work. Any questions or anything let me know 🙂

This sounds awesome! Is it all right to join the cabin if you’re a Rumbeller but aren’t working on a Rumbelle fic? Maybe if the project takes inspiration from Rumbelle? ;D

Absolutely! It’s called Rumbelle Style because the advert for the cabin was aimed at the Rumbelle fandom. You can work on whatever project you like during the month! It doesn’t have to be inspired by Rumbelle at all. I just figured if we all had ‘liking Rumbelle’ as a common point of interest, it would make for a friendly cabin is all 🙂 So you are more than welcome to join!

Camp NaNo: Week Two Pep Talk

Posted on by
image

“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.

Camp NaNo: Week One Pep Talk

Posted on by
image

It’s the end of week one. The initial burst of enthusiasm has past, the energy from
starting something new has begun to fade. We’re heading into the trenches now, the muddy middles and the end seems so far away. At least that’s how I view the end of week one; for you it might look like something else, everyone is different in the writing process. I can tell what my word count is by how I’m feeling, I don’t even need to hit recount, I know that I’ve reached ‘that part of the book’ without looking.

I love beginnings, I find beginnings easy, it’s the middle I always struggle with. My friend hates beginnings, loathes them and absolutely loves middles when everyone has met and the story is past the awkward set-up stage and things are happening. We talk about week two blues, or the post-50k slump but there are far more highs and lows than just the standard ones.

Whatever your word count and however you feel, just think about one thing for a moment. You have a lot more words at the end of this week, than you did when you started. Progress has been made. You might have had an absolute killer week and be on cloud nine. Your story is awesome, you are ahead with your goals and you are rocking it. Maybe your week wasn’t so great, maybe you’re behind or maybe you’ve decided you loathe your story and want to kill it with fire.

Personally I go from one extreme to the other on a day to day basis, sometimes on an
hourly basis. From the depths of despair to sheer elation when something goes right. We are writing people and that is hard. Non-writers don’t get it and that is our eternal compliment. That is why the NaNo months (whether the challenge is in April, July November), have such magic about them. All around the world there are people going through exactly the same thing.

In this cabin we have a wide spectrum of goals but we are all making the same sort
of journey. It’s all about our personal bests, what we can do, climbing our own personal mountains. It’s the end of week one and whether it went good or bad, it is just the end of week one. There are three more weeks left. It is not the end, it is just the end of the beginning. There’s a long road ahead and we are all going to walk it – together.

Now I’m going to end this pep talk by altering a couple of cool quotes to make them more NaNo orientated. Bonus points if you recognize their origin 🙂

“People are going to tell you can’t write that much, that fast, your whole life. You just got to punch back and say no I can do it. You want people to believe you – make them. You want to write a freaking story, you are going to have to go out there and write it yourself because there are no word fairies in this world.”

“Something wrong?”
“No. I’ve just never written this much before.”
“Well, they say the first 10k is always the hardest.”

“Do you ever give up?”
“Not till I’m all out of words. And sometimes, not even then.”

Posted on by

worryinglyinnocent:

poca-staks

 


Camp NaNo Diary – Day 5

Sorry for being noisy(or asking a ridiculous question) but what does nano mean? And good luck with your goal, looks like you’re almost half-way there.

All righty! 

NaNo is short for NaNoWriMo which in turn is short for National Novel Writing Month. The website is here: www.nanowrimo.org 

In short, the goal is to write a novel (or an amount of stuff equivalent to a novel, IE 50,000 words) in 30 days.

NaNoWriMo is actually in November, but there is also ‘Camp NaNoWriMo’ (www.campnanowrimo.org) which runs during Spring/Summer – this year it’s April. 

This is my first Camp NaNo, but so far as I can see it, it’s basically like a practice run for NaNo. You can set your own word count target (the NaNo word count target is automatically 50K, I just chose 50K for Camp NaNo but you can choose as many or few words as you like), and there are ‘Cabins’ of up to twenty fellow writers, which basically form a large message board where you can encourage your cabin mates and talk about writing. Or random facts about facial hair and ambulances, like in our cabin. @still-searching47 is modding up a rumbelle cabin this year. They’re a NaNo and Camp NaNo vet, so I’ll leave them to add in any more info!

I did NaNo in 2015 and 2016 but honestly I think that with the Cabin experience I’m enjoying Camp NaNo more than actual NaNo. 


which runs during Spring/Summer – this year it’s April.

Actually it runs in both April and July. It’s not a spring or summer thing. I’ll be seeing if any of you guys want to join in the fun in July for a cabin as well 🙂

This is my first Camp NaNo, but so far as I can see it, it’s basically like a practice run for NaNo.

It can be a practice run with options for a lower goal sure but it’s also more than that. They allow you to track time and pages, so you can write screenplays, or work on editing. I know someone who’s outlining/planning a new series. The flexi-goal system makes Camp a very different beast from the traditional 50k/30 days of the original November NaNo.

Personally I prefer Camp as well. I like the cabin system because it’s more community oriented. I also like being able to set my own goal because then the stats adjust accordingly so it’s easier to keep track of where I should be. I would thoroughly recommend NaNo to everyone. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it 🙂