I have been desperately trying to get back into a writing routine. In March, my friend Ari and I decided to try something new (I’ll talk about this in a later post or maybe even in a podcast episode) together, and… it worked for a little while. I’m going to try to continue that through April and beyond and see what happens.
Luckily, it’s also Camp NaNoWriMo this month. For some reason, I’ve always excelled at writing during the NaNo months. If Camp NaNo can get back into a writing routine, all the while keeping Ari accountable for her writing and her keeping me accountable for mine, I think I’ll be able to get back into a routine through April, May, and beyond.
For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is an annual writing challenge in November. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a brand new novel.
Annually during April and July, there’s a camp session where the goal is the same, but way more flexible. You can choose what word count you want or track your progress by page count or hour. You don’t have to write either, you can also edit for the month.
The point of NaNoWriMo is to get yourself in a writing routine and get words down on the page. No one is going to have a polished draft at the end of the month, but you’ll have something written down.
I feel like it’s been forever since there’s been a session even though it was only five months ago. Time has gone by so quickly and yet, November feels like light-years away.
Needless to say, I’m glad to hop back into the challenge and get writing again.
My goals for the month
Since my current novel is a bit all over the place, I’m going to focus more on short stories and flash fiction.
One reason for this is because I want a smaller project to help keep me focused throughout the month so it’s easier for me to get back into that writing routine.
Since I fell off the wagon when it came to blogging last year, I actually have plenty of Short Story Sunday stories that were written and never shared. The stories you’ve been reading for the past couple of weeks have been revised from what I originally wrote for 2020 and are being shared now.
With that said, I don’t know if I have enough stories for the rest of 2021. This is why I usually take a Camp NaNo session (although, it’s normally the July session) to write the next year’s stories. Then I edit them here and there before scheduling them on the blog.
That’s what I’ll be focusing on this month. I want to build up my stories for Short Story Sunday again.
What about George and Lilah?
I’ll still be working on my cozy mystery book in the background. I have a long process of editing ahead of me. I’ll try to edit during the month of April as well. However, I’ll mainly focus on editing the book in May.
There are other things I want to work on as well. Those are currently in the planning stages and I’m trying to wrap my head around all these ideas. I need to find the time to fit them in as well as prioritize certain ones.
You know the deal with being a writer… there are always too many ideas and not enough time.
Are you participating in Camp NaNo? What are you currently working on? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Please feel free to share this post.
