Camp NaNoWriMo July 2020 Final Update

It’s done! I finished on July 30, 2020 with 30,158/30,000 words written!

What’s the biggest thing I learned? I think I’m now a PLOTTER??? During my first Camp experience, I delved into Authortube to learn new techniques and join in on some writing livestreams to stay motivated. An author I found, Abbie Emmons, uses templates called scene cards to outline all of her scenes (see image). I tried it out, and I actually really like it. I want to utilize them from the get-go for my next novel. Rather than writing about 30k words and then creating a more detailed outline, the scene cards could be that 30k “draft”. I would also have them all laid out, subject to change, and know exactly what else I need to write.

Forcing myself to write daily was good for my word count, but I didn’t enjoy the pressure. I spent a lot of time researching and outlining, but because I wasn’t drafting and I was counting words, I couldn’t track any of that energy for Camp. This month showed me how much work I put into writing that isn’t drafting.

I think I will still do NaNoWriMo or another camp. I am not sure if I will finish either (especially now that I can say I completed Camp NaNoWriMo), but I found them to be good ways to kickstart my writing and get my butt into gear. The two days I took of this month were needed, but they definitely added stress to my writing later on. I scrambled to draft my remaining scenes. Once I had those written and I could begin redrafting, the pressure was lifted.

If I do another NaNoWriMo, I am going to prepare much better for it. I want to have a solid outline and my scene cards ready so I know exactly what I will be working on each day. This month, I had decided to participate only 2 days before. I picked back up with a novel I had dropped months earlier and thought it would be easy to just draft. It wasn’t. I got stuck many times. At least for a high-pressure situation like this, I think plotting is the way to go.