Week 1 Update | Camp NaNoWriMo July 2020

Week 1 of Camp NaNoWriMo is done and I think I am getting into a good writing routine. I am less concerned about my side project, Project NB, and focusing mostly on Project HQ. The pressure is also off because my word count goal for Project NB is only 5,000 words for the entire month so I can devote a bit more time to Project HQ.

The biggest change I made was incorporating Aeon Timeline into my workflow. I had heard about this from an authortuber (yes, that’s a thing) and decided to try out the free trial. I always have trouble keeping a timeline of my plot points in my head. Aeon is a visual timeline that lets me outline my story and make sure the timing makes sense. This has helped tremendously. I found all the gaps in my timeline as well as inconsistencies and have been fixing them as part of my daily writing routine.

Fixing my timeline can be tedious, but it also helps me plan out scenes and determine what areas need more work. I have my plot points labeled in different colors so I know the status of each scene. I can definitely see this software, in combination with my writing notebook, replacing the “storyboard” I have in Scrivener.

Overall, week 1 has been good. There were days when I got home from work and I felt way too tired to write. The nice thing about having two projects and getting to work on any part of the writing process is that I can switch tasks to keep myself motivated. I would open up my computer and at least start working on my timeline and hopefully find some inspiration. Instead of drafting a new scene, I could edit previous scenes while working to my word count goal.

Seeing how much brainstorming and plotting I do does tempt me to track minutes instead of words, though. The first day I started using Aeon, I spent about 90 minutes plotting everything and arranging my timelines. Because I am tracking word count for NaNoWriMo, those 90 minutes don’t technically exist for my challenge 🙁 It’s been a fun and challenging week, but I did get a lot done!

I have written a total of 9,214 words this first week which I think is success! I haven’t written yet today (hence that sad plateau on my graph), but I plan to do that next because I really want to earn the 14 Days badge. Writing (or brainstorming) every day has been really eye-opening. While I may not be drafting new chapters every day, I am adding scenes and re-working my earlier pages so everything flows better. I am hoping this makes my first round of revisions easier. Until next time…

Onto Week 2!