Camp NaNo 2022: April Edition

I decided literally on April 1st what I wanted to write for Camp NaNo. I had toyed with the idea of using the month for revising my novel, or maybe writing a new short story (not that I had any potential plots in mind).

In the end, I chose to go with something I've never done during a NaNoWriMo event: nonfiction.

See, I have this history research project that will require me to write several short summaries of events. I have a good-sized list of potential topics, I just have to sit down and write them. Enter, Camp NaNo.

Surprisingly Good

I know I skipped February. I'm sorry. But I hadn't done any writing, so I had nothing to report. Instead, I was putting off writing in favor of a somewhat time-sensitive sewing project. And I was putting that off in favor of watching Netflix. But I finished the shows I wanted to watch. And then I made a skirt. So now I have nothing left to stop me from writing.

Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in April. I have no idea what I'm going to do for it. Might write a short story. Might revise my vampire novel. So in preparation for the second possibility, I've started rereading the latest draft of Cold Blooded.

2022 Goals

I haven't done much writing thus far in 2022, and so haven't had much to blog about. So I thought that today I would instead look ahead, and talk about what I'm hoping to do this year.

Revisions
As you're surely aware by now, I have a lot of first drafts lying around. They're never going to go anywhere if I don't polish them up. I have a couple in mind to work on.

• Cold Blooded: An urban fantasy novel about vampires, murder, and ice cream. Its recently written second draft changed some major plot points to move it closer to where it needs to be.
• The House at the Top of the Rock: A horror short story (that might expand into a novella) about a ship's small crew, betrayal, and the dark secrets of a seemingly abandoned island.

Post-NaNo 2021

I have meant to write this post since the beginning of December, but kept getting distracted by, you know, things. This is just one of three or four projects I've just not done this month. So don't feel special. I'm neglecting everything equally.

So.

Let's talk about my NaNoWriMo novel, the rewriting of Cold Blooded.

In the end, it was not 50,000 words. It clocked in at 36,153. Which might not seem like a lot, but of the past five years, when I have not reached 50K, this one has the most words. Fun Fact: The last time I did reach 50K was 2016, with the first version of Cold Blooded.

Despite knowing there was very little chance of actually reaching 50K in such a short amount of time, I still went all out on the last day and managed to write 5,450 words on November 30th. If I could just write that many every day, I'd be set. At that point, my goal was less to hit the word count goal, and more to just get to the end of the story. So I wrote the entire Third Act in one day. Which, yes, means Act Three (which should be a quarter of the book) is only 5K words long. But that's fine. It's a rough draft.

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Now, stats. You know how much I love stats.

NaNo Week One: A Progress Report

I am really nailing this flashback shit.

My outline has some less than helpful direction, like "reveal some backstory here." Useless. But here I am, just writing along, and somehow seamlessly sliding into the past based on something that's happening in the present.

I am so good at this.

And these were just the good flashbacks. *rubs hands together* *cackles maniacally* Just wait until we get into the Dark Flashbacks™.

Color-Coded For Your Convenience

I'm not going to forget to post in October. I'm going to sneak in at the very end of the month.

So where are we?

Oh right, I'm going to rewrite my vampire novel next month, and I'm woefully unprepared.

I've been trying to fill in some of the plot gaps with… something. And I've realized… not quite a solution, but perhaps a path to a solution. There are some characters that just disappear for big chunks of the book. This realization led me to go on a quest for my colored pencils at one in the morning, but I think I'm onto something.

Turning Backwards?

So, I forgot to write a blog post for a few months. Big surprise there. Honestly, I thought I had just written one, so it couldn't possibly be time for another. Time is meaningless.

How's the writing going, you might ask. A reasonable question. Surely I must have been doing something all this time.

Well, I have decided that I'm more than likely going to work on the second draft of Cold Blooded during NaNoWriMo in November, because maybe a deadline will help me keep going. So all I need to do is finish my outline between now and then, and I'll be all ready to go.

What's that? I have to actually work on my outline to finish it?

Oh. Oh no.

A Look Into the Past

I've had some realizations about flashbacks. Mainly, that yes, I can have them. All the advice I'd read cautioned against flashbacks,  saying that there was surely a better way to show backstory. That you should sneakily ease in that exposition throughout the story. That flashbacks break up the narrative flow, and readers can't wait for them to be over.

But you know what? Fuck that.

I recently read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. It's mainly about a heist, but it uses flashbacks to reveal the histories of the main characters, and they are so good. You get just enough of the backstory to wonder what happened next, and then it cuts back to the present.

More to Life Than Just Death

Well, I'm back to working on my vampire novel, Cold Blooded, apparently. Sort of. It's mostly like backstory stuff, that will then have an impact on the main plot. Namely, I've written a little Wikipedia-style article about a fictional punk band, as well as working on some songs of said band. 

Am I going to actually need this in the novel? I don't know. Maybe. I have… some thoughts. But if nothing else, it's helping to develop the protagonist's history. And it's easier than figuring out the plot. 

Because, yes, my plot still has holes in it. 

Only Dealing With Draft One Problems

Here we are, post-Camp NaNo.

Did I meet my writing goal? Yes.

Did I lower my writing goal to something I knew I could meet easier? Also yes.

But that's not the point. It's not cheating when you're allowed to change you goal. And the real goal was just to get started on this story. Which I did. I didn't finish it, but that's okay. I figured out some of the hows and whys that are going to make writing the climax easier.

I'm still going to have to do some heavy edits to the beginning, because, like I said last time, there's a lot of important stuff that's missing. So this was by no means going to come out of April a finished product. I think some of that is going to be solved by better figuring out the POV and voice of the story.