I signed up for Camp Nanowrimo to motivate me to finish the first round of revision on my first novel. (Camp Nanowrimo is a virtual place where writers get together for the month of April to finish writing projects.) I have been working on this revision for the past year, and when I say working, I mean writing in spurts with lengthy, months-long hiatuses between each spurt. It’s time to get it done because there’s no better time to do the hardest work of revision than at the same time you are planning a family move. I’m making good life choices as usual. Maybe I’ll train for my first marathon while I’m at it, and learn to make homemade risotto from scratch, or build a car from the half-filled water bottles that roll around my van. Goals, people.
So, it’s a week in and apparently, I missed the bus to camp or I’ve been in the infirmary for an allergic reaction to wasp stings, because as of yesterday, I had three-hundred words done. 300 of my 32,000 word goal. It’s tempting to just quit and admit that I am dealing with too many large things right now (finishing out a duty station, planning an overseas move back to the states, closing a fiscal year for the non-profit I lead, and feeding four children daily—this last one is the heavy, for sure).
My goal is to have this rewrite done and send it out to beta-readers for the next round of edits before our move. There would be no shame in quitting now. I honestly have no time for such nonsense. But Camp Nano is just a self-imposed deadline. I don’t have to wait for camp to start and I don’t have to be done before camp is over. I just need to write. Let’s face it: if I wait until my life is less crazy to write, I might as well request to be buried with a typewriter and hope for rigor mortis to set in effectively. Or I can join a cabin of other writers online for the next twenty days to cheer and commiserate over characters, verbs, and the overuse of the word “that,” and I might end the month closer to the goal of a beta-ready revision. That would be a win, whether I hit 32,000 words or not.
You might not be trying to write 30,000-50,000 words this month, but I bet you have a goal you have been sitting on. Why not dust it off today and do one small thing toward meeting it? It’s not too late if you’re breathing. If you are writing, tell yourself to just sit down and write a sentence. Or two if you are feeling saucy. A few minutes here and a few minutes there add up. Those minutes might just inspire you to carve out more time to work toward your goal. Let’s give it a try, shall we? Otherwise, I promise I’ll come by and visit you at the Camp Nano infirmary to check on your case of hives.
Check back to see how close I get to my goal!
Camp Nano count 4/6/15: 2,581/32,000
**Yes, I’m stretching the camp metaphor a bit far. Please know that I am not actually suffering from an allergic reaction nor am I stranded in a tent in the woods. Those who know me well would be seriously concerned for my mental health if they heard I was voluntarily camping. I’m holed up in my concrete bunker as usual.**