April is almost here. Besides spring showers, it brings Camp NaNoWriMo.
Are you participating?
I am excited to start on a new project with a goal of 90K words. I need to let the Unicorn sit for a while. I am having trouble dealing with the critiques on in from a writing group. I am going to refine my writing process some and try to get away from letting brain dumping drive my work. I have 11K words so far after about 5 days. The difference is that I have stopped to look at my plot and moved some elements around. I use Scrivener () to write now.
The process looks something like this:
Wake up: Figure our where my characters need to be or what the need to discover.
Fill in the Scrivener card for a scene
All day: Work on a scene. I normally use Whats app to share with a friend,but I just bought Scrivo for my iPad and might start using that and emailing each scene from there.
Late evening: Fill in character and setting cards.
Look over plot. Tell husband plot. Make changes. Work on editing.
Email out to Alpha reader.
Before bed: Brainstorm ideas for tomorrow. What can they do? Where can they go?
I just cannot outline a whole story. I could, but I can guarantee the characters will find their own paths. The planning process has always been too restrictive for me. I know it works for most people, but I cannot build a world without my characters moving through it and interacting with it. I cannot develop characters without them doing and saying things.
For Camp Nanowrimo, you can do any kind of work. It can be revision and editing, poetry, blog posts, whatever. You can set your own goal. The main objective is to get into the habit of writing. For example, if you aim to write 4 poems this month, and keep that momentum all year, you will have a lot of them ready to revise and submit at the end of 2016. (I don’t write poetry and don’t know how long it takes to write a poem and polish it. I am imagining it takes a long time.)
Each week, on Wednesdays, I will post an update on my progress and ask for your updates. If you are participating let me know what you are working on.
