Camp NaNoWriMo update
We’re at the two-thirds point
I’m feeling a bit bleary eyed and punch drunk, having written solidly for the last four hours.
My word count now stands at almost 16,500 and there are eleven days left of Camp. So, although I’ve had a few days off, I’m now officially back on track to finish my target of 25,000 words by the end of the month.
But I have a couple of problems.
Firstly, I was already over 15,500 words into my children’s book when I started Camp this month. I’m now up to a total word count of around 32,000 and I’m currently writing what I think will be the penultimate chapter. Somehow I don’t think that it’s going to take me another 8,500 words to get to the end! In other words, I’m going to run out of book to write before I run out of time.
Secondly, there’s the whole quality issue. Some days I’ve just sat down and bashed my words out. Since I had a vague chapter by chapter plot, this is not as disastrous as it might have been; at least I’ve kept driving the story forward. But there’s been very little in the way of finesse at times.
However, I guess there are worse problems I could have.
At least I’m writing, and I’m finally going to finish the first draft. I will take great pleasure in writing the words THE END under my last paragraph. And then I can take a break from it and come back in a few weeks to do some serious editing.
And lest my characters start getting too complacent, I’ve warned them that they need to continue proving their worth. Some will have to magically develop a sense of humour in the second draft, along with interesting quirks and foibles, or they’ll be axed. I am far more ruthless in the worlds I create than in real life. I also have an idea for a subplot that can be developed in the next draft and I’m feeling quite excited about that.
Time will tell whether this project ever sees the light of day, or whether I’ll decide that, at best, it was just good writing experience. I suspect it may be the latter. But it will be nice to complete it, heave a sigh of relief and turn my hand to something else. I may even use my spare days at the end of the month to dive straight into a new project, if I can think of one.
Camp NaNoWriMo has helped provide the impetus for many of us in our cabin to write thousands of words. It’s been great to compare notes with other writers, give and get encouragement, and feel that we’re not alone.
And most of all, it’s been fun! One of our cabin mates found rather odd magic mushrooms that made the trees wave at us, and some of us suffered from insomnia while others slept like the dead after eating them. There’s been a fair bit of indulgence in ‘smores around the campfire, jacket potatoes cooked in the embers, hot chocolate, and cold white wine. (A few of us may have developed writer’s bottom as a result, and the next camp we do will have to be a boot camp to get rid of the excess pounds.) And we’ve had hair-raising encounters with wild animals such as squirrels, goats and rabbit spirits.
Now that’s just given me an idea…
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