April Camp NaNoWriMo | how i did, my goals etc.

video: https://youtu.be/9DUKPwjNHJ0
Aprils camp NaNoWriMo was my first NaNoWriMo in April and my third time participating in NaNoWriMo. In Julys NaNoWriMo I wrote book one in my book series, in NaNoWriMo in November I wrote book two and in Aprils NaNoWriMo, I tried to write the final book in the series. now I do want to point out the final book in the series is a novella with a total of 45,000 words while the other two are 52,000 and 56,000 words. I knew from the start the final book would be shorter than the other two because this one focuses on Tosha and her becoming a Banshee.

I declared my project on the 11th of January 2020, because I already knew what I wanted to write. I had set my goal at 45,000 words for the 30 days which equals out to 1,500 words each day something I know I could do with my eyes closed, all that was left to do was wait.

in the time I was waiting I just made a list of things that needed to happen to make it fit in with the other two books so that I could just write like I needed to. 

Before long it was April and I kicked it off with 2387 words on the first day, not to bad I will admit but it was a pretty bad attempt especially since the next day I only was able to write 1126 words.

After that, my work went downhill, with day four and seven getting no words but I got a combined total of 2031 words over the other three days which means I completed week one of Camp NaNoWriMo with 5544 words total.

week two wasn't much better with only getting 1,777 words all week and only writing five days and four of those days were only 19 words a day.

between the 15th and 21st I only got 2,468 words and only wrote two days, on the 21st I decided to give up with writing for camp nanowrimo because of how far behind I was and because of bad writer's block getting in the way.

How to win Camp NaNoWriMo

if you prefer to watch rather then read How to win Camp NaNoWriMo

back in July 2019, i participated in my first every camp NaNoWriMo which was amazing, i set myself a goal of 50,000 words on my project which i was able to hit on day 25 in this post i am going to give you 10 tips on how to survive camp NaNoWriMo and win, all of which i did.

1. Pace yourself

while it may sound like a good idea to sit down and write for five hours each day you will drain yourself a lot faster, work out what you are working towards and then work out what the minimum you have to do each day to win nano. my goal was 50k words so the minimum i had to write was 1612.90 words a day (July has 31 camp days) some days you are going to be over that and other under but if you know that you have to write or spend a certain amount of time each day then the days you go over makes up for the days you are under and you won't be draining yourself

2. Set goals

while whatever number you set up on camp is your overall goal think of your weekly goals, my first week of Julys 2019 camp i set a goal of 10k words which i had already passed on day 6. if you know you have a goal and a deadline to get to that goal you are more likely to pass the goal, while the end goal is to win camp seeing that with the days ticking by you don't think about how close you really are so you are more likely to quit.

3. Outline

while i myself am more of a pantser like the famous author Stephen King, i did do a brief outline of my project, and when i mean this i mean i wrote the chapter numbers down and under each chapter wrote what i hoped would happen, as one of mine for chapter 4 was find out Clyde is a wolf, it left it to my imagination on everything with just knowing hey i need to find a way to write Clyde as a wolf, this was the first time i ever did any kind of outline.

4. Get inspired

there are many ways to do this, you could go for a walk, listen to music, go and be with nature it really depends on you. i personally search up on google "writing prompts" and look at pictures or follow links and find one best fitted for my novel i am writing. i find this really helpful and i immediately find inspiration

5. Leave it unfinished

when you know you are going to be finishing writing, for the time being, if it is for a few hours or for the day that doesn't matter, the best thing to do so you don't come back and go well what to do now start the next sentence and don't finish it. for me, i finished writing for the day and knew i wouldn't know where to start again so i finished off with 'i walked into the kitchen and saw' while you wouldn't want to finish a chapter, paragraph or bookending like that it just means you can come back and it will be super easy to get back into it, meaning fewer writers block moments.

6. Sprint

for this, all you need to do is search up NaNoWordSprints on twitter and wait for the people to come on, or you can set your own timer up on your laptop or phone. a word sprint is when you have a timer for a certain amount of time and you just flat out write, then you take a break when you are done before going straight back into it.

7. Accept That Your Manuscript Will Not Be Perfect
dont try and make it perfect, that will only help you not make your word goal, realize that no matter what there is going to be major editing involved so there is no point in worrying about it all being perfect now when that is the least of your concerns, the faster you realize that the more easier it will for the words to flow.

8. Network

sometimes having friends who are also writers help they know the struggle and can help you keep going even on tough days, there is nothing like not knowing what to do or not having anyone there who understand what you are going through.

9. Environment 

no matter if you like a clean desk or a messy one, work where you know you work best, for me i work best in my best with my curtain open. coffee beside me and my laptop on my black pillow on my lap. that is how i write best so make sure you have the space you will be writing in looking just the way you like it.

10. Write

sometimes the best thing to do is just write, even if it is never going to make it into the final copy of your project, every word counts when you start writing the words should just start to flow meaning while it most likely won't make sense it still counts towards your word goal and you may make something that you can use for your book

My experience Camp NaNoWriMo July 2019

for the first time ever i decided to participate in a Camp NaNoWriMo and my first one being July 2019. i set my goal of 50,000 words and knew i had to complete that goal.
{this is in a dairy sort of format with my thoughts, emotions and word counts}

Day One: today was really easy. i landed up writing a full chapter of 2291 words except when i put that across to Camp NaNoWriMo site to work out the number difference it told me i only wrote 2816 words which isn't a big difference but it made me realize that the app i use to write counts these " ' , as words which is weird but its good to actually know it does that. something i would never have known if i didn't do camp. i was definitely excited to try.

Day Two: today was also easy the words just seemed to flow. i used @NaNoWordSprints today to get some words in. i did three sprints a 10 minute, a 20 minute and a 14 minute. i landed up with 1,647‬ words from all three combined. i wrote half a chapter today and landed up with 1,914 words for the day according to the NaNo site which puts me at 4,730 words in two days! i am meant to get 1,612.90 words a day if i want to win NaNo which means i am already over by 1,504.2 words. almost a full days worth of writing.

Day Three: Today was took a bit longer than the other days i got in 1948 words according to the site my camp finally remembered that camp was on which is good i don't like writing alone. i am now extremely tired but i am doing amazing and i am so proud of myself. i can't wait to see how many words i can get by day 7.

Day Four: I'm bored of not having any real writer friends who do youtube so we can support each other etc. i got 2121 all while sprinting because i really wasn't in the mood to write, for some reason i was quite depressed today so i couldn't find any motivation to write, i have set a goal of 10k by Day Seven.

Day Five: today i got the least amount of words so far with a total of 1134 nano words while i am not proud of myself for getting this number i know it is better than getting nothing at all. i am on a roll with writing and i am so far really enjoying the experience. i am already working on chapter six which means in five days i have written four chapters.

Day Six: i wrote 1245 words today, my words each day seem to go down and up but i have not gotten under 1,000 words so far which i am proud of. i filmed my week one update since it is getting filmed every 6th day and uploaded every 7th.

Day Seven: i was over my word count goal with a total of 12192 for the first week. i wrote 1014 words today according to the site all of which i had validated. i am feeling very proud of myself for reaching this number Week one update

Day Eight: today i filmed a 12-hour write-a-ton which i worked on five different projects but out of the five different projects i was able to write 5157 of the words on my camp project, today was the first day of week two and i am so happy that i started it off with a bang, if i can write any words tomorrow is the major question right now because my mind is mash potatoes. but my goal this week is to write 11k words

Day Nine: today I only wrote 128 words, which is the lowest yet but i think it's okay because of doing so much writing yesterday

Day Ten: today i was able to get 1199 words out and onto the paper, a lot better then the day before but i am definitely behind in the words i should be writing, while i am reaching my goal thank god, if i don't get a move on i will have to add more chapters, maybe instead of hammering a chapter out a day i spread it out three days to get the word in? i have no idea.

Day Eleven: today was way better than the last two days at 1865 words. finally getting somewhere haha

Day Twelve: going downwards again, only was able to write 602 words, i am losing motivation to write, which is never a good thing.

Day Thirteen: managed to get out 1342, at the moment i am just on my way yo hitting my daily goals each day but it is not easy.

Day Fourteen: i hit my word goal of 11k. i wrote 1233 words today putting me at 11528 words for the week. week two update is out.

Day Fifteen: setting myself a goal of 12k words for this week. which will put me at 35,718 words which means in the last 10 days i will only have to write 14,282 words which is really easy. i also wrote 2623 words today which means i am 47 words away from the half waypoint. i know i can do this and it makes me so happy

Day Sixteen: only was able to get in 689 words because i had to go to the doctors

Day Seventeen: 917 words gotten in today, i couldn't concentrate very well and i started to lose motivation to write

Day Eighteen: i got 3018 words in which is awesome, getting close to the end of my story which i am excited about, only one more chapter after this one to go but i still have a lot of words to go which is stressful

Day Nineteen: i easily got 1760 words today, landed up writing 500 of that in ten minutes which was impressive

Day Twenty: landed up with 1342 words today, i wrote the engagement sense which made me cry since i got into a fight with my crush so wasn't in the mood to write any kind of an engagement bit

Day Twenty-one: let's just say i am proud that i got 14641 words this week and 4292 of those words today, i have just over 11k words left to add though rewrites because i wrote the last chapter today, camp NaNoWriMo week three update | July 2019

Day Twenty-two: this weeks goal is 7k words, i wrote 1100 words which is impressive since i am now having to add words via re-reading the script,

Day Twenty-three: today i wrote putting me up for a total of 827 words for the day which puts me at a grand total of 40,289 i think the 9,711 i am missing will be easy to get since we still have 7 days to get it

Day Twenty-four: today i wrote 5515 words, i don't know if i will win this week but i know i will win

Day Twenty-five: today i wrote 4235 words making me at a grand total of 50,036 words. I WON I won Camp NaNoWriMo week for update | July 2019

writing process tag | NaNoWriMo edition

NaNoWriMo is always a fun time, 50k words in a month makes it a fun challenge and one that actually gets me writing to my full potential. because in July i wrote project hybrid mate i decided to write the next book in the series during this NaNoWriMo and that is project choice so here is a special NaNoWriMo edition of my writing process tag.

1.) what am i working on

i am working on project choice. project choice is the prequel story to my NaNoWriMo project in July. project choice follows Dee from the moment he met Ruby, it shows every aspect of him making the decision to be with Evelin instead of ruby and then realizing Ruby isn't who he thought she was at the beginning of their relationship, jam-packed with fights, real emotion and more.

2.) how does my work differ from others of its genre

i think my work differs more from other books in its genre because it mixes paranormal elements and romance together while including mixes of creatures that wouldn't normally go together in the same person/ story, it is also in first person present tense which you don't see normally outside of wattpad and written in such a way that it makes sense and teleports you into the main characters life and mindset.

3.) why do i write what i do

i write what i do because i enjoy it, i have played around with a few genres and nothing has stood out to me/I haven't thought my work was very good until i found myself writing paranormal romance. when i write in this category i feel everything in the real world disappear and i just fall in love with my story. i also have been fascinated with paranormal stuff since i was young and this is a way i can express my knowledge and change it to the way i feel like it would be if it was real.

4.) how does my writing process work

because this is apart of a three-story series i have had to plan so my first action was to plan out what needs to happen. next, i go through the first book project hybrid mate and find all the bits that i wrote in rubies POV that needs to be rewritten in Dees POV and put it in a separate document for when i need it. i then start writing. once i have finished my first draft which will be over NaNoWriMo 50k it should actually be around 56k like project hybrid mate i will let it sit for a few months, around three to five before i will start editing, adding deleting and making it 1000% times better, i will do around five edits myself and then i will send it away to my editor, i then re-read their edits and change what i need to.