A little under 10,000 words to go on my Camp NaNoWriMo project … I can totally do this.
(Except not if I keep having days where I barely manage to squeak out 400 words, and all of them likely to get cut in the next draft because they’re only filler and/or meaningless dialogue.)
(Taking days off for traveling and sewing is probably not the best plan either.)
I’ve enjoyed my two stints of Camp NaNo this year – in April and now during July – but I’m not sure I’ll do them again. The discipline to write every day has been wonderful, as has the companionship with other writers. On the other hand, the pressure of it meant, back in April, that I wasn’t able to write anything at all for a few weeks after finishing up, and I suspect I’ll have to take a lengthy break in August as well. Which undoes a lot of the good from the month of writing, productivity-wise.
But, like I said, the discipline for writing every day (or almost every day, when I’m not traveling or sewing – sometimes even when I am sewing) has been wonderful, and that is something I am hoping to keep up even after this is done (and after whatever break I need in August). To sit down and write, even if it is a measly 400 words that will get cut in the next draft.
Which is kind of funny, because I’ve talked on my blog here about how the mantra “write every day” isn’t one that works for me. And it wasn’t – at that point in my life, and in my writing journey. And once school starts back up with the kids, it might not be feasible once again. But right now, for where I am at this moment as a writer and as a person, writing every day (within reasonable limits) is right for me.
Isn’t that one of the beauties of being human? We grow and change, and shift, and things that once worked for us do not at a later point, or we might return to them again years down the road. We grow, and our needs and goals grow right along with us. It’s kind of exciting, actually.
So, that’s my main take-away from Camp NaNo this month. That, and writing would be a whole lot easier if life didn’t keep interfering. But then, what would be the point in writing?
I love that we can change and grow. What worked for us last year, last month, even last week doesn’t always work for us now, but in the future it might again.
Being and introvert like me, I can see where after expending so much of yourself after a month of writing every day you would need to just regroup and recharge. You know like after being social.
Yep. Too much intensity of anything, even something I love, gets overwhelming. Good and exhilarating while it happens, but definitely causes a need for peace and recharging when it’s finished.
You’ve done a great job by taking part in both April and July! It takes it out of you, but hopefully the daily writing habit stays. It is cool that we can shift into different ways of working.
Thanks, Nick! It is cool, watching ourselves grow simply by observing how we write.