Photo credit: Ken Whitley.
National Novel Writing Month is becoming a bigger and bigger deal every year, with over 300,000 writers writing 3 billion words last November. But for people in academia, like me, November is one of the worst months of the year for a big project, especially for a hobby (probably only April is busier).
That’s why there’s Camp NaNoWriMo. If you’re not likely to get much spare time in November, or if you just want some extra months to get in on the action, you can still take the challenge in one of NaNo’s summer programs. This year, Camp NaNoWriMo is held in April (see above) and July. The goal is the same: write 50,000 words in one month (although in July you have one extra day to do it).
I decided to go for the 50,000 word goal for the first time this year in order to seriously start a new project that I’ve been wanting to write for a while. I might not be using the formal website, partly because I’m already about 8,000 words in, but I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on this blog.
Can I do it? It won’t be easy. Only about 1 in 7 people who try NaNoWriMo actually succeed, and I do have a day job to worry about. But last July, without any specific goals, I managed to write 28,000 words, so I think it’s definitely within reach.
Wish me luck, and good luck with your own writing.
