(Be sure to check out my Writing & Revision Tracker if you want to set and track your goals on your desktop during Camp or any month of the year!)ģ. So if you've ever wanted to participate in the November event but have been too intimidated by the idea of 50,000 words, Camp might be the perfect challenge for you. Track your progress by words, hours, minutes, lines, or pages, with a goal of anywhere between 20 and a million (I wish!). Or if you've already completed your first draft, you can set a revision goal instead. You can write non-fiction, short stories, or poetry. Unlike the November event, which has a pre-determined word count and pre-determined writing form, Camp NaNoWriMo frees you up to work on any project and set any goal.

If you're a mom, though, summer might not be much better for you, with the kids home from school, which brings me to my next point. Plus July gives you the added benefit of an extra day in the month. July, in particular, is perfect for teachers and students who have more free time outside of the school year. If you are one of those people who have very busy Novembers, you have two new opportunities to make the most of this energizing online challenge.

Seemingly in response to these complaints, in 2011, the NaNo team introduced a new event called Camp NaNoWriMo, a similar challenge that takes place in two different months each summer.Īs popular as NaNoWriMo proper is, I find that many writers still haven't heard of Camp so today, I'd like to tell you more about it, the differences between the November event and the summer events, and why it might be the perfect way to make substantial progress on your work-in-progress this summer. I, myself, have participated in the event eight times and have become addicted to the rush of immersing myself so deeply into my story, the sense of community, and accomplishing so much in such a short amount of time.īut what if November isn't a good month for you to throw all real-life commitments to the wind?Ī common complaint I hear amongst writer friends is that November is an impossible (or near impossible) month for them to focus on their works-in-progress, with Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping and travel. The event takes place in November and each participant pledges to write 50,000 words of new fiction in 30 days. Chances are, if you've spent any amount of time around other writers, you've heard of National Novel Writing Month, an online writing event that attracts hundreds of thousands of writers from all over the world each year.

Perfectly Undone by Jamie Raintree