Today, as a mother of two young girls, a freelance journalist, and the founder of this fledgling community, I struggle with writing - specifically with writing for myself. There rarely seems the time to do it, and when the time is there, my energy (creative or otherwise) is low. The writing muscle is, however, a muscle, and if not used it atrophies, which for a person like me, who relies so heavily on my writing for my spirituality and growth, is tragic. This is where NaNoWriMo comes in.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo as it is affectionately known) happens every November. Its purpose is to encourage writers to write. Over the course of a month participants push themselves to write 50,000 words, getting into the groove of a regular writing practice. I have participated many years, and even won once… one of the most fulfilling accomplishments of my writing career. Camp NaNoWriMo isn’t much different. It happens in April and July, and participants choose their own word count (I've chosen 40,000 words). Participants are sorted into online “cabins” — their support group throughout the month. Our cabin consists of six writers, four of whom are Mind Key Community members. Altogether the six of us have committed to write 155,000 words. That’s a lot!
As part of Camp NaNoWriMo, cabin mate Tamara R. suggested posting excerpts of our work for inspiration and motivation. It was such a wonderful idea that I suggested making it a daily contest where our friends can vote for their favorite excerpt. Have you done this yet? If not, please do HERE! This is so motivating for each of us as we try to maintain a daily practice, strengthening our writing muscle and sharpening our inner editor as we choose and refine our daily excerpt.
What we hadn’t expected was to have our excerpts paint an intriguing picture of the greater story we’re working on. Reading through past excerpts gives a glimpse into the whole project - which is great, because at the end of the month the winner of the Camp NaNoWriMo Mind Key Challenge will win a blog series devoted to them and their story… So the more interested you are, the more you should vote. Maybe your favorite story will be the one told come May.
.jpg "The Fairy and the Protector") | |||||
| One of Noelle's sketches as rendered by the amazing Stuart Parks |
And please, please, please come vote for these fabulous writers every day. We want to know you’ve been reading - and each vote gets one person one step closer to that coveted blog.
If you’re writing during Camp NaNoWriMo, we are opening up a section where you can comment with your own excerpt — so please leave one - we want to hear what you’re writing too.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
“Git out of there Squr’l,” shouted a voice in my head. Except it wasn’t in my head… it was in the forest somewhere.
The squirrel had run away, the acorn lying on the moss where he’d been standing.
“Arden?” I called, my voice echoing strangely amongst the feathery branches of hemlock. “Are you there?”
To hear Mind Key Member Charla Dury's Camp NaNoWriMo story, click HERE
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Posted by Mind Key on Friday, April 17, 2015
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