Camp NaNo and an Excerpt
I do NaNoWriMo every November. I have for years. A couple of years ago, I discovered they also do NaNoEdMo as well as Camp NaNo. So that's November = 50000 word target; NaNoEdMo = one book edited; Camp NaNo = two months (April and July) to write to your own target (I choose 20000 words because it's more easily achieved than 50000 and it doesn't kill me to do it).
I've just started Camp NaNo and I love it. There are people out there who check on my daily word count. I have to post my word count before midnight for it to be included. I love deadlines.
I didn't do so well on day one: less than 1000 words, but I took off on day 2: nearly 5000 words for the day. That's one week's target reached in two days. It's a good thing it happened that way because the next couple of days provided no writing time at all. That's why 20000 is achievable for me--because some days are like that.
The only thing that isn't working right is that I'm not writing the story I intended to. I've mentioned my current wip. It's the one about domestic violence that I'm finding so hard to do. I was going to use NaNo to help me push through the really hard bit - the bit where I'm getting to know the characters at the same time I'm working out what happens to them and why and how they react to it, etc, etc.
Then I was reminded about a short story I'd committed to write for an anthology being published in October. It's for charity, a cause I'm very supportive of, so I could do nothing other than say 'pick me!'. Two days ago, I didn't have a single idea for it, then I read a paragraph I wrote a while ago about 'ordinary' people. I started editing and adding to it. I thought it was going to be a very serious murder mystery *serious face including frown*, but it's turning into a farce. I'm loving it. *bounces*
This is the beginning of the tale (bear in mind it's first draft). There are snippets in omniscient point of view like this but most of it's close third person from the main character.
Most people are ordinary people, living ordinary lives. Their trials and challenges are ordinary too, yet they absorb them totally. Take Vinnie Canterbury as an example. You’d think by his name with the half-Italian, half-English heritage that he’d have a life different to others but he doesn’t. He gets up every morning, showers, eats breakfast and goes to his job as an assessor for an insurance company. At the end of the day he goes home, eats, watches TV and goes to bed. On the weekend he jogs, cleans his house and goes out with friends. Once a month he has dinner with his mother. Very ordinary.
So how do you explain what happened to him last Thursday and the fact he spent the night in jail and is now facing criminal charges? Well, perhaps not the criminal charges bit. And not really IN jail.
The body was found at the Comfort Inn on the highway out of town. Vinnie didn’t know anything about it until the manager let the police into his room. The light and the yelling woke him up. The swish-click of sidearms being drawn and cocked brought him to sitting. The stench of blood and the realization that he’d been sleeping on a man who’d had his throat sliced open made him vomit all over one of the cop’s shoes.
I've just started Camp NaNo and I love it. There are people out there who check on my daily word count. I have to post my word count before midnight for it to be included. I love deadlines.
I didn't do so well on day one: less than 1000 words, but I took off on day 2: nearly 5000 words for the day. That's one week's target reached in two days. It's a good thing it happened that way because the next couple of days provided no writing time at all. That's why 20000 is achievable for me--because some days are like that.
The only thing that isn't working right is that I'm not writing the story I intended to. I've mentioned my current wip. It's the one about domestic violence that I'm finding so hard to do. I was going to use NaNo to help me push through the really hard bit - the bit where I'm getting to know the characters at the same time I'm working out what happens to them and why and how they react to it, etc, etc.
Then I was reminded about a short story I'd committed to write for an anthology being published in October. It's for charity, a cause I'm very supportive of, so I could do nothing other than say 'pick me!'. Two days ago, I didn't have a single idea for it, then I read a paragraph I wrote a while ago about 'ordinary' people. I started editing and adding to it. I thought it was going to be a very serious murder mystery *serious face including frown*, but it's turning into a farce. I'm loving it. *bounces*
This is the beginning of the tale (bear in mind it's first draft). There are snippets in omniscient point of view like this but most of it's close third person from the main character.
Most people are ordinary people, living ordinary lives. Their trials and challenges are ordinary too, yet they absorb them totally. Take Vinnie Canterbury as an example. You’d think by his name with the half-Italian, half-English heritage that he’d have a life different to others but he doesn’t. He gets up every morning, showers, eats breakfast and goes to his job as an assessor for an insurance company. At the end of the day he goes home, eats, watches TV and goes to bed. On the weekend he jogs, cleans his house and goes out with friends. Once a month he has dinner with his mother. Very ordinary.
So how do you explain what happened to him last Thursday and the fact he spent the night in jail and is now facing criminal charges? Well, perhaps not the criminal charges bit. And not really IN jail.
The body was found at the Comfort Inn on the highway out of town. Vinnie didn’t know anything about it until the manager let the police into his room. The light and the yelling woke him up. The swish-click of sidearms being drawn and cocked brought him to sitting. The stench of blood and the realization that he’d been sleeping on a man who’d had his throat sliced open made him vomit all over one of the cop’s shoes.
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