Thursday, March 26, 2015

Camp NanoWriMo

April 1 will host many events for me. Most obviously it's April Fools day. In my house this can be serious business as we try to outdo each other in pranks.

It will also be the day our new health insurance kicks in. A collective sigh of relief may be heard coming from my house as we've been a month without due to a job change. My daughter still thinks it's a joke and we'll have to wait longer for it. I hope not!





The best event that will occur on April 1 is the start of CampNanoWriMo.  I am really looking forward to this camp experience. CampNanoWriMo is a spin-off of NanoWriMo which happens in November. It is an online event meant to encourage us as writers.  We group up into "cabins" and set ourselves a word goal for the month and then write away, encouraging each other as we do.

My goal for camp is to edit my novel Catch a Falling Star and prepare it for final editing and publication. I've set a 75,000 word goal for the month but the book itself is 90,000 words as it stands and while I see some of it falling off the chopping block I don't truly believe I'll lose 15,000 words so I may hit higher.



I won't be working on anything else, other than the blog during Camp so many of my projects will be put on hold. I hope the voices in my head realize they need to wait as I have a character currently telling me his story and asking me to write it down. He needs to be patient. (And he needs to tell me his name!)

I will update here, weekly, on Wednesdays with my word count and progress. The novel is currently up at FictionPress and can be read there in it's entirety. The chapters will be updated as I finish them. When it's ready for publication I will most likely take it down from FP.

My first goal with CaFS will be to rewrite the first chapter. On FP I've had good reviews and views for this story. The one weakness I've noticed is that, as of this writing, 662 people have clicked on chapter 1 and only 118 have moved on to chapter 2. After that the numbers are fairly steady so once they commit they love it but obviously that first chapter sends many running. I want to fix that. A spreadsheet with my goals set for each day can be seen here. I will highlight each goal as it is met and relink to my progress reports weekly.

After that it will be wording that I work on. Apparently, according to my reviews, I use the term "tears pricked at her eyes" excessively. I will also work on content, tightening up the story and being sure it makes sense.

I'd love it if you, my reader, would read along with me and tell me how I'm doing. Subscribe to me and get the updates when I fix a chapter! Post a comment here, or a review on FP and let me know how I'm doing!

And, if you're a writer, come join CampNanoWriMo! Either way I'd love your support as I work through editing and publishing my first book. This has been a dream of mine since I was young and only recently have I found the road to making it happen. Send me words of encouragement, like my page, or me, on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you want, you can make a donation to CampNanoWriMo in my name and support me that way. And read my work, tell me, truly, if you loved it or where you think I missed the boat. The only way I'll improve is by being challenged.

Toodles!

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