Have a Story Busting to Get Out?

Posted on by

“I’ve always wanted to write a book,” people tell me when they find out I write. “I have a great story in mind.” Clearing desk and mind-space to do it is the problem. They need help getting started.

In November, I wrote about National Novel Writing Month, when several hundred thousand participants worldwide commit to writing a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty days. Last year they penned almost 3.3 billion words! And some of them actually go on to get published. But for academic schedules and other reasons, November isn’t always a convenient month to participate.

So NaNoWriMo has branched out. In April and July, The Office of Letters and Light, the nonprofit organizer of these events, is holding Camp NaNoWriMo, “an idyllic writer’s retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life.” The goals are up to participants, but it’s meant to be “a challenge to dash off the first draft of your ambitious writing project in just one month.” The days are longer, after all!

This year’s Camp has several new features:

  • The Word-Count Archery Range: A flexible word-count target that suits your project—anything from 10,000 to 999,999 words.
  • Your Camp Cabin: A small group of fellow-writers to cheer you on, bounce ideas off of, or be a quiet resource. You can choose cabin mates based on their age, shared genre (mystery, historical fiction, fantasy, memoir, or whatever), similar word-count goal, activity level, or even by name.
  • Scripts included: a new category has been established for scriptwriters.

Camp NaNoWriMo provides the support, encouragement, and resources you need to write a novel in a month, start to finish. Its resources will help you

  • plan your novel
  • track your progress
  • create a cabin full of like-minded writers
  • receive online encouragement from staff, fellow campers, friends, and family.

Sign-up for the April session is available now. What with other deadlines coming up, I’m planning to participate in July. I have a new novel one-fifth completed, and I want to buckle down and get the first draft done so I can really get to work! See you at camp?