July was the second Camp NaNoWriMo for 2016. For those who have no idea what NaNoWriMo is, you can read about it here. Camp NaNo has more flexibility. Simply put, you nominate a set number of words to complete in one month. Minimum 30 words. You can write novel drafts, revision, poetry, scripts or short stories. You choose.
NaNoWriMo is not for everyone. I find it a useful tool; it is a kick in the butt – an incentive to avoid procrastinating. This Camp, I cut my word count to twenty thousand as I was having surgery in week three and would lose at least a week and a half of writing time. As it was, my surgery was rescheduled a week earlier – so it was possible I would only have two full weeks of writing time (depending on my recovery).
Planned work was transcribing (and rewriting) several handwritten scenes, writing three scenes from notes, rewriting, editing and then tackling those last three critical scenes I had been putting off for months. The aim was to try to complete my work-in-progress three short stories and novella for my next book, Eye of the Beholder & Other Tales.
What I achieved:
Week1: A slow start. Final rewrites and edits were done on the shorts.
Week 2: Several scenes were in limbo – some on first drafts, some on final rewrites. I worked my way through scenes 1-10 to final edits before I had surgery.
Week 3: Recovery time. This week was a write-off. Pardon the pun. The three short stories were passed onto beta readers.
Week 4: My brain is finally starting to work again. I finished another seven scenes to final edits. Two scenes were written from notes. This leaves the final scene and two clue-filled scenes left to write (I had left them to last so I wouldn’t leave out any of the crucial clues).
Yesterday I woke, having dreamed the perfect final scene. I spent the day trying to recreate it; I managed the highest daily word count for the month: 3343. If only the words would flow like this, every day!
I even managed to do some formatting (non-NaNo assigned and not on the record) so I could assign my ISBN and register for Cataloguing-in-Progress with the National Library, ready for publication. This can take up to two weeks, so I had to get it completed to allow for time for submission and printing. That September launch date is looming…
For those in Adelaide, I am doing a pre-launch at the Aus SciFi club rooms on 11th September. The official launch is at the Steampunk Festival in September.
A big thank you to my writing group for their helpful critiques, my editor, Sharon Kemmett, and my beta readers, David and Terry.
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