Time seems to be flying for me for the past few years, and this past month has been no exception. CampNaNoWriMo is a more relaxed version of Nation Novel Writing Month, which for alliteration purposes takes place in November. CampNaNoWriMo happens in both April and July. In November, writers must write 50,000 words within the month. During Camp, campers get to make their own goal, and if they hit that goal, they win!

I have my best friend to thank for turning me on to this trend. I've only done it for three years, while I think she has participated in it since college. Well done, madam. Well done.

At any rate, this past month I set a goal of 27,000 words, which seems oddly specific, but a genre adult novel from a debut author typically needs to be within 80,000 to 90,000 words. Anything over is too long, and anything under is too short. The exceptions are SciFi and Fantasy as well as a few others, but this seems to be the gold standard. There are many blog posts out there about finding the proper length, and all of them point out that while many authors have large books they either A: got very lucky or B: didn't start that way. One of my all-time favorite books is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It's by far the most emotionally intense book I've read. I'll do another blog post on this book in the future, but suffice it to say that she clocks in at a cool 509,000 words, which if you're keeping score is the same length as Shogun. Things are different now and by no means do I compare myself to the legend that is this book.

The point is I chose 27,000 words for this month's goal so that I could hit 85,000 words overall. Well, I'm happy to report that I met my goal! 

Wait, what? Doesn't this mean I'm done? 

Oh, if only it were that easy. For one, hitting that number means I have enough content, but it doesn't mean the content is complete. As I'm writing this, I have two more chapters to write, which will finish up the story. After that, the fun begins. Editing. 

Now admittedly I have rushed this step in the past. However, I am going in with a plan and as such will be making at least three passes over every phrase, word, and comma in the story to make sure it is as perfect as possible. After that, I'll be entering Firemark into a barrage of contests I've mentioned in a previous post. Once the results of those contests pour in, I'll also be editing following the feedback from the judges. After that, we'll tackle the long, arduous road to publication, which I've been down before. Twice. 

Again, another blog post for another day. 

I'm very grateful to CampNaNoWriMo. I have won every Camp I've participated in, but have never met the mandatory 50,000 limit during the official NaNoWriMo in November. During prior Camp years, I've set a 50,000 goal for myself and exceeded it, but that was during July. November is a challenging month for me to write during due to work schedules and Thanksgiving, and besides July has thirty-one days, and November only has thirty. Mathmatically speaking, that is just a difference of fifty-five words per day, but it feels like more. Typically, I consider it a personal win if I hit 25,000 in November. 

I highly recommend joining this online community if you are interested in writing or even just checking it out if you're curious about all these acronyms and numbers I'm throwing around. Through technology, the community has a way of bringing together people with the same goal from the comfort of our own homes, which is great because I don't always look that cute when I'm typing away in the middle of the night. 

Thank you CampNaNoWriMo! You helped me reach my goals again. These (almost) three manuscripts wouldn't be done without you. I'll see you again in November. 

Kathryn