Some of you may be wondering, what on earth is NaNoWriMo, let alone Camp NaNoWriMo?
Well, it is the brainchild of this man: his name is Chris Baty in July of 1999. And he has never looked back. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in the month of November. It is described on the website as "Thirty days and nights of literary abandon" which couldn't be more true.
The website's description: "What: Writing one
50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.
Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other
people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose
together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate
in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To give yourself permission to
write without obsessing over quality. To be able to make obscure references to
passages from our novels at parties. To stop being one of those people who say,
“I’ve always wanted to write a novel,” and become one of those people who can
say, “Oh, a novel? It’s such a funny story–I’ve written three.”
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the
roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added
to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by
November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based
team of robotic word counters, the partying begins."
To anyone who has never heard of this before, go and check
it out!
We're coming
up to Camp NaNoWriMo, a new concept of having two extra months of writing
during July and August for those too busy in November, or perhaps write more
prolifically in those months. I was at first sceptical: how would I ever write
fifty thousand words in four weeks? The fastest I'd ever managed before was
fifty-two thousand in around eight to nine weeks. I'd have to more than halve
that! The year I discovered it, I decided to give it a miss but the next year,
I signed up and I haven't looked back since, now having done two NaNos and two
Camp NaNos.
It makes you crazy but I feel free to guess that if you're
here, you lost your sanity a while ago, right? Don't worry - there are
thousands of others having a crack at it and the website is stuffed full of
various forums to rant and vent on.
The joy of Camp NaNoWriMo is that they try to emanate a real
American camp as much as possible, which is great fun for us Brits! You can be
put in a "cabin" with five others - you can either choose people you
know or opt for a random selection, or those of a similar age/interests/genre.
Of course, you can choose not to be a part of a cabin but it's more fun to be
surrounded by nutty writers to share problems, plot hiccups and ideas.
Anyone else planning to take part this summer or in
November? Good luck!
Lydia
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