Writing Tip for the Week! (Give NaNoWriMo a chance)

Hey guys, it’s Day 2! Which means today’s topic is your writing tip for the week. This week’s tip is to give NaNoWriMo a chance if you’ve never tried it before.

NaNo is done once a year during November, but you can also participate in Camp NaNo, which has two months (June and August) for you to choose. Or, if you could always choose any month you like and do this on your own. However, it’s much more fun to participate in NaNo when there’s a whole community of writers involved.

Source: my.hsj.org

NaNoWriMo is an event where you attempt to write a 50K (50,000 words) novel in thirty days.  This will be my second year of participating in NaNo. I think it’s a great tool for writers who have trouble keeping focused or finding time to write. NaNo helps you to find time in your daily life to write, even if it’s just a few lines.

Last year, I wrote Shades of Genesis for NaNo and really enjoyed the experience. This summer, I attempted two sessions of Camp NaNo (a version of NaNo that is held in the summer), but was only successful at completing one (Faith, Love, & Peace) and I did not enjoy the experience as much. This year I am taking a book I’ve already written in the past, Strawberry Sunrises, and re-writing is as a young-adult novel. I’m really excited for it, even though it means I will have to put my current books I’m working on (Whispers of the Heart and Karen’s Not Home) off to the side for a month.

A lot of writers don’t care for NaNoWriMo, but a lot do. It depends on the writer and what works best for them. But my tip for you is that if you are a writer and have never participated, try it. Even if you’re afraid you won’t have time with all the things going on in your life. At first I thought the same, but was surprised to discover how much time I actually did have to write if I only took the effort to make time.

I believe NaNoWriMo is a great writing exercise. It helps us writers to strive toward a goal. It helps us to learn to make time to write daily (or at least strive to). It allows us to meet other writers and encourage others. I also think that NaNo would help greatly with writers who are having trouble writing, whether it be writer’s block or getting their idea onto paper.

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? If so, did you find it helpful? Why or why not? And if you have never participated, are you going to in the future?

Also, if you haven’t done so yet, please do enter my book giveaway. It’s really easy to enter!

June Camp NaNo 2012–Success!

If you’ve been following along with me, you should know that I participated in Camp NaNo this year for the first time. Last year, I did NaNoWrimo for the first time and LOVED it. So I’ve decided to go ahead and blog about my experiences with Camp NaNo, along with some I had during NaNoWrimo last year, and my plans to participate in the August Camp NaNo for this year.

 

CAMP NANO JUNE 2012 STATS:

My Average Daily Word Count: 1,673 words.

Largest Daily Word Count: 6,000 words.

Target Word Count: 50,000 words.

Total Words Written: 50,196

Novel Status: Completed, Unedited.

I have to admit that Camp NaNo June was actually harder than I remember my first NaNo experience last November in it. June was a busy month for me so it was harder to make time to write. I also lost interest while writing Faith, Love, and Peace, my sequel to Peace Represent, despite my earlier excitement for it. When I wrote Shades of Genesis for November NaNo last year, I didn’t.

I also felt as if my sequel wasn’t really my best work at first, but I seemed to like it better as I wrote more. I currently feel mixed about the sequel but am assured that everything will be worked out in the next drafts. It’s good to have at least gotten the story down and there’s several scenes I really love. Peace’s new love interest was especially exciting.

I think it was harder to write this book because the plot is so different. In the first book, Peace has turned her back on God and is struggling with her life of poverty, alcoholic/abusive parents, gang-member boyfriend, and what’s in store for the future.

The sequel is more about her relationship with her parents, dealing with the fallouts from her gang-member ex-boyfriend, and interacting with her new love interest, who she really likes but doesn’t want to date because she’s afraid of getting hurt. I ended up liking where the story went but it definitely needs some fine-tuning. Part of it is available on Wattpad if you would like to check it out. Comments are most appreciated!

The real thing that kept me motivated for Camp NaNo June was how I posted my progress on both my personal and writer Facebook pages. I had some really great friends and fans who encouraged me and nagged me to write. I appreciate their support so very much. So if you do a NaNo activity, please track your progress with someone. It really does make a difference.

There were some who turned their nose up at NaNo because they felt it was about quantity and not quality. Yes, I suppose they are write but the point of NaNo, I believe, is to get you writing. Of course it’s not quality. But that’s what I feel all the many re-writes that come after are for.

You can’t expect to write a first draft book that is perfect. No matter if it takes you thirty days to write or several years. It takes time and dedication to make your book its best. So I find NaNo to be a good thing. To each their own, but NaNo helps me and others to stay focused. I’ll deal with the quality when I edit.
So while I did not enjoy June Camp NaNo as much as November NaNo from last year, I am hopeful for August Camp NaNo. So what’s in store for August?

There’s this idea I’ve had in my head since last year. It’s based on a rough period I was going through, though very loosely based.

My idea for August revolves around a depressed teenage girl named Caylee who decides to make a list of reasons why she should end her life. She misplaces this list and a guy named Garrett finds it. When he finds out the list belongs to her, he wants to help her and find out why she wants to kill herself. He becomes her friend and decides to make his own list. A list of reasons for her to stay. It’s called Our Reasons.

It’s YA romance mixed in with realistic, dark stuff. My own past has been filled with dark and hopeless things, and I hope that I can use these experiences to make Caylee’s desire to no longer life be realistic. I want this to be a serious novel but also one that brings hope. I will be posting this as I write it during August onto Wattpad. Again, all comments are appreciated.

Have you ever participated in NaNo? Do you plan to do August Camp NaNo? What are your experiences? I’d love to hear from you!