Wow you guys week 1 was slow but has picked up since my last post. Here are a few things that I learned during my first week doing #campnanowrimo .
You are the vessel from which words will come.
Don’t rush to write something just because you want to check it off your to-do list. It’s been a few months now that I established a writing routine that isn’t always perfect, but I do think about it and figure out what I will do to have some writing time. If I find that there is not enough time and won’t be able to have ample time to write I concentrate on other parts of the story like going through the notes, character profiles, playlists…etc.
What you plan isn’t always what your characters want or what the story needs.
Every couple of chapters I rework my outline. By outline I mean a sheet of paper where I wrote a few sentences about each upcoming chapter. I like that wiggle room to expand with more ideas and detail. But I’ve realized that what I may have anticipated for a specific chapter isn’t what the story needs or what a character wants to do. A character’s actions can change on the spot and their reaction to something may not be what we had expected. These decisions can take the story into a detour or a completely different direction. Which is okay if you see a purpose and can make it work.
Community.
Also being part of something where there are other people that have similar writing goals is awesome. Writing can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. I feel much better knowing that I am not the only one out there struggling to keep up with my writing when I have a day job. No one ever said that this career path would be easy. But it is possible. So take a deep breath, go take a walk, drink some nice tea and take out your writing things because you are not alone.
Join me every night 10:30 pm Central Time on Twitter (@lemmonavenue08) use #CampNaNoWriMo #dontcampsolo
Lemmon Avenue 