NaNoWriMo Camp 2021 — April
What is Camp
This article is the English version; if you are interested in the Italian version, you can find it here: NaNoWriMo Camp 2021 — Aprile
In April, there will be a “minor” event linked to NaNoWriMo, the NaNoWriMo Camp; it is an event both in April and July, “minor” as it has objectives less stringent than the main event in November.
For more information on NaNoWriMo, you can see my previous articles:
The suggestions for participate are very similar to those of the November event. I report below the main indications/advice:
1. Why register for the Camp
Registration for the Camp rather than starting from the November event can be an easier way to start and to see how you are, as there is no initial constraint of writing at least 50,000 words which can be a difficult goal for those who are the first time starting and are not familiar with and used to writing.
3. Create your project and choose the objective
Choose your objective; in previous years, it was possible to choose various types of objectives, but from this year (at least for the moment), only the objective can be selected by the number of words; however, there is a conversion table in case you want to use another type of objectives:
- The editing objective — The number of words of the objective corresponds to the number of words you want to edit.
- The time goal — The number of words in the goal corresponds to the total minutes you will want to spend (for example, 60 minutes a day for 30 days = 1800 minutes, it’s a goal of 1800 words), in this case, the conversion seems strange to me. Still, It is not important to have high numbers but to respect the objectives set as much as possible.
- The objective of pages — The number of words of the objective corresponds to the number of pages that you will want to write multiplied by 250 (also, in this case, 250 is an average number but which varies from language to language, an average value has been established for practicality).
The goal I have chosen is to edit 15,000 words; I want to take part of what was written for the November 2020 NaNoWriMo event and expand it and give it a coherent form making it the first draft possibly as clean and correct as possible (but I will have to be careful not to be too perfectionist because otherwise, I would run the risk of not getting to the end of the writing, for corrections there will be the next phases after the Camp, or even during if I had to reach the goal quickly).
4. Search a community
This suggestion is the one I consider most important so I indicate it again, you can search for a community from the NaNoWriMo site itself (it allows you to search directly for national communities); I consider this necessary because in this way, you can participate with others people who want to participate like you and you can encourage each other and help you when doubts or problems arise. It will surely make this experience more accessible, more enjoyable, and more effective.
5. Outline
Prepare an outline of the story you want to write (either if you’re going to write a new one or if you want to edit an already written one that you may not have made the lineup of or maybe, if you had already written it, it could be an excellent opportunity to review it).
Define the following points before the start of the Camp:
- The theme of the story
- The characters
- The places
- The various scenes
- The timeline in which the events will take place
- Documentation
Performing these steps before the start of the Camp will allow you to have a clearer idea about it that you will want to write having a track to follow and limiting the interruptions to writing as much as possible (such as, for example, to look for documentation or to choose the names of the characters).
These points are not isolated, but each can affect the others (for example, you will not immediately know the places where you want to set the story, but by defining the scenes, you will realize what they could be, maybe you realize that you would need an extra character or that a character is not very useful for the development of the story), so you will quickly have to modify them as you prepare the lineup.
6. Write every day
From 01/04 to 30/04, write every day (possibly), respecting your daily goal. This can be useful for creating a great habit as I talk about it more in-depth here — Why Writing Every Day Can Be Useful and Camp could help with that.
Participating in the Camp, especially with a community, can be an exciting experience and can also be helpful as an experience for the November event (or even for the next Camp in July), whether you are participating for the first time but also if you have already participated, it will allow you to get involved and write.
Thanks for reading; if you liked it (or even if you didn’t like it) or if you have any considerations about it, let me know in the comments.
