Time for Camp

This year, I decided that I would do Camp NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who don’t know, Camp NaNoWriMo is an extension from the main NaNoWriMo which takes place in November, the goal to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. The Camp exists to give a chance to the people who are too busy to participate in November.

Now, I did my first NaNoWriMo last November. If you’ve stuck around long enough, you’ll know that last November I was a stressed wreck. Final deadlines for my final university year all over the place, not to mention exams, yet I still decided to jump into the crazy world of novel writing.

So I don’t exactly have a novel writing talent, before then I’d only made little attempts to write up a story idea. But somehow, I made it through the month and wrote my first ever manuscript. The grammar was atrocious, and the story certainly wasn’t award winning, but I did it.

For some reason, I assumed that after completing my first NaNoWriMo, especially amongst all that stress, that doing Camp NaNoWriMo would be easier.

Ha.

Haha.

Hahahahaha.

How wrong I was.

The novel I wrote in November was fantasy. Every idea I’ve thought up for a potential story has always been fantasy, or supernatural. So in June, I decided that I’d give myself a challenge and try to write a young adult contemporary novel.

I spent June planning (which I didn’t even do in November), creating character profiles and researching. Did any of it help? No. Because for these two weeks of July, I’ve wanted nothing more than to just delete the whole thing.

What have I learned so far during Camp NaNoWriMo?

I suck at writing romance.

Like, really. Maybe it’s because Romance and I are mortal enemies, perhaps? Maybe I’d be better off writing children’s stories, that way they can just have cute and fluffy FRIENDSHIPS.

Me, getting 'inspiration'

I’m spending way too much time going to the beach and calling it ‘inspiration’.

My story is set in a town close to docks and a beach, and both feature quite prominently in the story. For that reason, I’ve spent the past week going to various beaches to take pictures, hoping that they would inspire me. When actually, all I did was lie on the beach for hours and get some attractive sun burn.

Over the past three weeks, I have visited four different beaches, photographed two abandoned boats, and watched one sunset. At least I got some pretty pictures out of it. 

I’ve also learned of my apparent inability to distinguish between the words ‘through’ and ‘thought’. 

Although both very different words, there is only a slight difference between the spelling of them. I have discovered that when my fingers are going crazy fast across that keyboard, mid chapter, the word ‘thought’ often becomes ‘through’. This isn’t just an occasional blimp I make now and again, I do it every single time.

What I keep reminding myself though, is that it is still a learning curve. Okay, so I’m not very good at writing romance novels. At least I’ve tried and found out the hard way. But I’ll keep going with the story, no matter what repetitive drivel it turns out to be, because I never back out of a challenge.