April is the month of Camp NaNoWriMo, which I have participated in three times now. Every day, after doing some writing (or not, on some days), I wrote a little diary entry to keep track of my progress and feelings throughout the Camp.
It’s not the end of April just yet, but I reached my goal so thought I’d pop this on the blog early.
Day One – Monday
I’m hoping that reaching 15,000 words (or 20,000) will be enough to finish this story and then I can begin editing. That’s the goal for this month.
And as a reminder: I started the month with 10,000 words already written, which is why my ‘total word count’ is already so high. I just thought it’d be easier to track the entire story because I’ve written some of it out of order and will be filling in some gaps this month.
Total word count: 10,389/15,000
Day Two – Tuesday
I’m just enjoying writing out this story without a plan. I haven’t outlined it, I haven’t written down notes on how it’ll finish. But it doesn’t feel directionless, or pointless. It feels like it’s going somewhere good, and then the end will arrive at the right time.
Total word count: 10,925/15,000
Day Three – Wednesday
I didn’t have work today, so I woke up and began to work on my novel right away. I woke up to the sunshine and began writing to the sunshine and even though I’m relaxed, I’ve written a fair amount. To the sunshine.
Total word count: 11,536/15,000
Day Four – Thursday
Okay, not as much writing happened today, but I’m still feeling pretty good. My weekend has started early (I love not working on Fridays) so I’m keen to write in bed for the next three days. I think I’m doing too much daydreaming about this story being finished rather than actually writing it. But that’s what days off are for, right? Right.
Total word count: 11,612/15,000
Day Five – Friday
Still just cruising. The parts that I still need to write are a bit hard to, but I’m getting there.
Total word count: 12,030/15,000
Day Six – Saturday
It’s Saturday, and I’ve spent the morning writing. I don’t have any major plans this weekend (does doing laundry count as a plan?) and it feels good to just get in the rhythm of writing.
I think this diary is pretty boring because Camp hasn’t been that difficult so far. My goal isn’t requiring too much time from me, so I’ve just been happily writing little bits and pieces every now and then; so far, so good.
Total word count: 13,102/15,000
Day Seven – Sunday
Last night I kind of finished my story. I have a few scenes that I want to expand, but I wrote the last page, which is actually so exciting. Today I didn’t write anything, but I did scroll the word document with fondness.
Total word count: 13,102/15,000
Day Eight – Monday
If ever I feel stuck when writing, or if there’s a scene I find boring and want to change parts of, I make the font colour to red. This means I can easily go back through the document and find the areas I still need to work on. I also add in red sentences of editing notes as I read through the drafts.
As I wrote the last page yesterday, the rest of this challenge will involve me going back through the document and reworking the red font.
Total word count: 13,561/15,000
Day Nine – Tuesday
Total word count: 13,657/15,000
Day Ten – Wednesday
WOO I hit the 14,000 word mark. I’ve still got two scenes to expand, so I’m feeling hopeful the story will be properly finished at around 15,000.
Ooh, and I’ve also thought of a title for the story, which always feels like a big milestone. (Always, as though I’ve had to name thousands of stories.) I’ll let you know what it is later on in this post, but for now I’m going to let the suspense build. How ~mysterious~
Total word count: 14,103/15,000
Day Eleven – Thursday
I didn’t write anything today! And that is okay.
Total word count: 14,103/15,000
Day Twelve – Friday
Because there’s not much to update you with regarding Camp (I didn’t write anything today), I thought I’d let you know the title of my story.
*drum roll*
‘The Purpose of a Butterfly’
Ooh, how mysterious – what does that title mean – what’s it about?
The story follows Maya’s life from early teens to early twenties. She falls in love (ooOOooOOoohh), likes to run (unlike the author of this blog *cough*), and navigates family drama; all the while trying to figure out her life’s PuRpOsE.
How ~relateable~
(I don’t know why I’m going CrAzY with these ~effects~ but it’s making me laugh so much so they’re sTaYiNg.)
Total word count: 14,103/15,000
Day Thirteen – Saturday
After lazing around all day (think Sims, cups of tea and blankets), two hours before dinner I thought I’d do a purposeful writing session. Instead of kind-of-writing-but-also-scrolling-through-Instagram-and-making-playlists, I decided to spend concentrated time adding in scenes where the story jumped too quickly. I focused on making the story flow and filling in some gaps, and ended up smashing out 900 words.
~oh yeah~
I’ve reached my goal, which makes me so, so happy. For the rest of the month I’ll continue to edit and tidy things up, hopefully finishing the month with a relatively-polished product. HoW ExCiTiNg.
Total word count: 15,003/15,000
The adventures of another Camp are completereno. Once again, I’ve finished the month feeling motivated, inspired, encouraged, and excited about my writing. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? To overcome barriers (like feeling stuck, bored, obligated) and enjoy what you do.
Happy writing!
Sarah xx
the softest words 
So awesome! Look at you go
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It’s great to read each daily account as you drift deeper and deeper into madness. In later years the police will be able to look back on your blog and pinpoint exactly when it all went wrong… 😉
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