Camp Nanowrimo – CicilieNilsen.Com

Defeat. Not failure.

8. May 2017
by Cicilie

Camp Nanowrimo is over for now, and once again I must admit defeat. I set a modest goal for 10,000 words, and I didn’t even make it to 5000. I was pretty damn close though, ending the month with around 4700 words written. Considering I didn’t make it, perhaps you may think that means I failed? I didn’t.

What went wrong?

It’s easy to find something to blame when you don’t succeed at something. I work too much. My family needed me. Kids got sick. Dog got sick. Friends felt overlooked. Found this new TV show on Netflix that I had to finish because everyone was talking about it and spoiling me. The internet was there. The computer broke down. The world ended. Those last two might be the same thing. My point is, there are an infinite number of reasons why you didn’t make it. Personally, I have a lot of reasons why I didn’t make it.

Though, none of them deal with the apocolypse (though there’s always tomorrow). I did have a few weeks of pretty intense pain in my jaw and ear though. Turns out, I have a tooth that is dying and needs a root canal (yaaaay), and possibly some viral infection causing pressure in my ear as well. So as reasons go, that is a faily decent one for why I couldnt write much. Mostly cause anything not laying in a fetal position was out of the questions some days. Ok, slight exaggeration. But the pain was bad!

Personally, I have a lot of reasons why I didn’t make it.

I also started rewatching Stargate SG-1, though that only happened a week ago, and therefore cannot take all the blame. In the end, what happened is what always happenes when the month isn’t November; there wasn’t enough at stake. I haven’t lost Nanowrimo in November since before 2010, so each year when I start, the thought of not winning is unbearable. In fact, not winning isn’t an option. For Camp Nanowrimo, the stakes aren’t as high. I just do it to get stuff written, how much I write isn’t really the point.

And that’s the thing, isn’t it. Because I may not have made my goal word count, but I wrote something. And I’ll never consider writing 4700 words failure (unless it’s November, of course).

I didn’t fail

A bold statement perhaps, but I didn’t. I wrote words, and managed to finish a scene I’ve been working on for months. I may not be much closer to the end of the story, but I’ve gotten a bit further along the way. Next step is to figure out how I’m going to get where I need to be for the story to end that way it should. Which at this point is where it’ll set up a sequel, because I am apparantly incapable of writing just one standalone book.

I’d call it a curse, but I’m in love with these characters now, and I never want to leave them, so perhaps a sequel wasn’t to be completely unexpected. That of course can become somewhat of a problem. Getting too attached toyour characters. What if one of them has to die? Could I kill it? Normally the answer would be yes, I don’t mind killing off characters I love, if it’s what the story need. Of course, I’ve been working on TAO these past few years, where killing someone doesn’t mean they stay dead. So there’s that.

Take the win

Sometimes the hardest thing to rememer is to take the wins, and not let the losses get you down. Sure, I didn’t make my goal til April, but I got words written. I did something. It may not have been what I set out to do, but it still counts for something. The thing to remember is this:

If you’re feeling stuck, every word you write is a win. So take the win, and keep writing, even if it’s just one more word.

Writing

Time to challenge yourself

2. April 20172. April 2017
by Cicilie

It’s what I’m gonna do in April. How about you?

I am of course talking about Camp Nanowrimo. Where I shall be participating this year, with a 10,000 word goal for the month of April.

I was going to post this yesterday, but I didn’t want anything thinking it was some april fool’s joke. Because if you’ve been following me for a while, you already know I have failed at Camp Nanowrimo time and time again. I may rule in November, but whenever I attempt Camp Nanowrimo, I fail. Doesn’t matter that my writing goal is usually one fifth of my November goal, I still can’t see to make it.

So why am I putting myself through this again?

Good question. Wish I had an answer. Really, I do. I just know I need to write, and deadlines usually do the trick (sort of). PLus, I really want to be able to say that I kicked Camp Nanowrimo’s ass. Just once!

I am going to 10,000 words written in April, all of which will be on Remnants. Was gonna plot a bit so I knew what was happening next, but stuff happened, and that didn’t. I did name some solar systems (including the one that isn’t there anymore, for reasons only the voices in my head knows) and work out some back story. I want to say it’ll be easy, and really, 10k is doable in a day really. Except it’s not November, and past experience tells me this will be a lot harder than 50k.

I’m not about to give up though. I’m gonna push through, write my ass off, and make this the month I finally finished a Camp Nano as well!

Writing

Camp Nanowrimo, I’m coming for you

4. April 20164. April 2016
by Cicilie

I’ve done Camp Nanowrimo several times. Or, to be more precise, I’ve tried to do Camp Nanowrimo. You see, I’ve never actually managed to make the goals I’ve set for myself. I usually get some writing done, which is a win for me since I always seem to struggle writing regularly eleven out of twelve months of the year. Wanna bet which month I actually manage to write almost every day? Yeah, like it’d be any month but November.

This April though, I will make Camp Nanowrimo my bitch. Seriously! I’m using it to write the short story I’ll be posting to Wattpad at the end of the month. Sure, it won’t be perfect, but it’ll be a complete story that is less than 10k (shooting for 5k). I have a terrible track record when it comes to writing shorts. I mean, Remnants was supposed to be a short, and right now I’m struggling not to make that into a series. It’ll end up anywhere between 75k and 100k I recon, if I can rein in the plot before it hits a growth spurt.

The working title for the short is Legacy, but I’m fairly sure I’ll go with something else in the end. I’ll have to see how I feel about the title once I finish the story. It’s all plotted out, and I’m a little over halfway through at 3000 words. At least I think I’m halfway through. I guess we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.

I know some people are probably wondering why I, as someone who wants to be a published author the old-fashioned way, seem so focused on posting my story online where people can read it for free. Honestly, to get my stories out there. It won’t be perfect, but that’s not the point. I want to see how people react to my writing. Do they like it? Hate it? Want more? I’m hoping for feedback, good and bad, because I know that will help me become a better writer. Isn’t that what it’s all about in the end? To evolve as a writer?!

“We tried too hard to save the world”

That’s the opening line of Legacy. Want to know what that’s all about? Stick around, you’ll find out in a month.

I hope.

Tag: Camp Nanowrimo