Writing Challenges

With a novella due for inclusion in a seasonal anthology, I have to stop dithering and impel myself to write. At the start date I could have written 1000 words a week. Now I need to push out 1000 words a day--not too difficult for a regular writer, much more difficult for a beginner or inveterate procrastinator like me.

But serendipity as always came to the rescue and emails this week brought news of two challenging incentives ideal for the purpose.

Camp NanoWrimo is allocating virtual cabins with up to 11 fellow writers as from tomorrow. The joy of this Nanowrimo adventure  is that you choose your own project and word count, use their writing resources, and hopefully meet friends or new writing friends along the way.

You have from now till April 1 to plan your project and get ready for the off.  I have in the past been a Nanowrimo winner but the November effort totally exhausted me. This is far more doable.

To prepare for the off, I recommend joining Lazette Gifford's Forward Motion for WritersSadly we are too late to sign up for her free two year course for novelists--have to wait now till 2015--but there is still one remaining five day March Challenge from March 26-30. You can sign on at several levels and aim for higher wordcounts but I've started at Level One and 1000 words a day. Just post your wordcount per day or at the end of the challenge.

The site is full of writing help, resources and support and well worth a visit.

Camp Nanowrimo
http://campnanowrimo.org/news 

Camp Manual and fun introductory questionnaire
http://campnanowrimo.org/news/the-camp-manual-choosing-your-own-adventure

Forward Motion for Writers
http://www.fmwriters.com/zoomfm/

And if you're a committed procrastinator like me, start by reading (or rereading) Terri Forehand's WOTM article on beating procrastination.

www.writersonthemove.com/2014/03/beating-procrastination-and-increasing.html




 Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she passes on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips from time to time at Slow and Steady Writers 


7 comments:

Magdalena Ball said...

Are you doing Camp NanoWrimo Anne? I'd love to hear about it (in a future blogpost perhaps) once you're done. I'm very tempted, though my family might not forgive me if I made a serious commitment to a daily wordcount (I might not forgive myself though if I don't finish novel 3 this year!).

Karen Cioffi said...

Wow. A virtual writing camp. That's a great idea. No plane fare, No time wasted on traveling. I'm with Maggie - I'd love to hear about the experience if you do it. It's not in the cards for me, way too much going on in the next few months.

Anne Duguid Knol said...

I am, Maggie, particularly because we can set our own word count--so far less pressure. I have been randomly allotted to a cabin where we're all aiming for around the same 15000-30000 result from the month but I shall probably change to a cabin with former Nano writing friends made in the first year I attempted the November challenge.. Shall report back next month...

Anne Duguid Knol said...

It certainly looks productive and fun, Karen. I'm such a procrastinator I'm probably only aiming for a fraction of what you write per day lol

Linda Wilson said...

Annie, thank you for sharing this information. I'm saving it for future reference. What great opportunities at our finger tips to help us in our writing journeys!

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Hi Linda, I keep finding out about websites, bookmarking them then losing them in my muddle. We're truly spoiled for choice nowadays. Perhaps one day we'll find ourselves on a writing challenge together :-)

Linda Wilson said...

That would be awesome! I would love to, Annie!

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