Welcome travelers!
Camp Nanowrimo approaches! For those who don't know, Camp Nanowrimo occurs twice a year, once in April and once in July. It's similar to the typical NaNoWriMo in November except you as the writer get to set your own word goals for the month. If you don't think you can do 50K in a month, you can do 10K or 20K or, if your overly ambitious, even 100K. The challenge is all up to you.
So. This year I plan on doing April. I'm going to be working on a vampire urban fantasy.
For the most of my life, I've been a pantser, but in resent years, I've tried to get more organized and started doing some more planning. I wouldn't say I'm a full planer at this point, but it's far from what I used to do.
Anyway, here's a quick view of how I prep my story for Camp.
1) I settle on one or two story ideas that I've been kicking around. I spend a lot of time just thinking about my ideas before I actually commit anything to paper, even as just notes. I also like to give myself options when choosing what to work on for a big challenge just in case I get bored or reach a block.
2) Write up basic character sheets. I do this to help me figure out if characters can be combined so there's a smaller cast, I can get a feel for the types of characters I'll be working with, and come up with some smaller plot points. Despite doing all this, I know most of what I write in these will change by the time I actually get writing. Sometimes something in a scene sparks a new idea for a character, sometimes I forget something and make a change to make the writing process a little easier.
3) Beat sheet/general idea outline. I treat the beat sheet (usually just a combination of various sheets from Pinterest, Authortube, and my various writing books) like a general outline, sketching out the major scenes rearly on and then filling in the rest. Again, this is never set in stone. Most of the time, I will end up writing one scene that goes off course and I end up having to toss out the majority of the outline in order to make it all work.
4) Write general scenes. Usually, I try to write out the first scene or I'll write out a scene that I suspect will give me trouble. This is also not a detailed or polished scene. Most of the time it looks more like "Character A says . . . . Character B responds with . . . . Someone does something and this is the reaction." etc. I just like knowing where I'm going in the scenes. This also lets me figure out the tone and style of the story.
5) Set up my project for camp. This is obvious but I don't really have a time limit on this since I can make a project on April 1st.
I'm sure others have more detailed prep posts and videos and I'm sure there are things I could go into more detail with. For example, I'm starting to realize I might need to do my first draft by hand in order to actually get anything done.
Are any of you going to be doing Camp Nano? What projects are you working on and how do you prep for a project? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
Until next time, traveler.
Camp Nanowrimo approaches! For those who don't know, Camp Nanowrimo occurs twice a year, once in April and once in July. It's similar to the typical NaNoWriMo in November except you as the writer get to set your own word goals for the month. If you don't think you can do 50K in a month, you can do 10K or 20K or, if your overly ambitious, even 100K. The challenge is all up to you.
So. This year I plan on doing April. I'm going to be working on a vampire urban fantasy.
For the most of my life, I've been a pantser, but in resent years, I've tried to get more organized and started doing some more planning. I wouldn't say I'm a full planer at this point, but it's far from what I used to do.
Anyway, here's a quick view of how I prep my story for Camp.
1) I settle on one or two story ideas that I've been kicking around. I spend a lot of time just thinking about my ideas before I actually commit anything to paper, even as just notes. I also like to give myself options when choosing what to work on for a big challenge just in case I get bored or reach a block.
2) Write up basic character sheets. I do this to help me figure out if characters can be combined so there's a smaller cast, I can get a feel for the types of characters I'll be working with, and come up with some smaller plot points. Despite doing all this, I know most of what I write in these will change by the time I actually get writing. Sometimes something in a scene sparks a new idea for a character, sometimes I forget something and make a change to make the writing process a little easier.
3) Beat sheet/general idea outline. I treat the beat sheet (usually just a combination of various sheets from Pinterest, Authortube, and my various writing books) like a general outline, sketching out the major scenes rearly on and then filling in the rest. Again, this is never set in stone. Most of the time, I will end up writing one scene that goes off course and I end up having to toss out the majority of the outline in order to make it all work.
4) Write general scenes. Usually, I try to write out the first scene or I'll write out a scene that I suspect will give me trouble. This is also not a detailed or polished scene. Most of the time it looks more like "Character A says . . . . Character B responds with . . . . Someone does something and this is the reaction." etc. I just like knowing where I'm going in the scenes. This also lets me figure out the tone and style of the story.
5) Set up my project for camp. This is obvious but I don't really have a time limit on this since I can make a project on April 1st.
I'm sure others have more detailed prep posts and videos and I'm sure there are things I could go into more detail with. For example, I'm starting to realize I might need to do my first draft by hand in order to actually get anything done.
Are any of you going to be doing Camp Nano? What projects are you working on and how do you prep for a project? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
Until next time, traveler.
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