Countdown to Camp Nano'14

Nine hours until July for me. And that means nine hours of planning/waiting/enjoying freedom until nano starts. In the meantime, I found some cool resources through the NaNoWriMo websites that I've enjoyed reading.

Rainbow Rowell's advice (if I'm allowed to call it that?) was really helpful for me. The pep talk was totally relatable while managing to sound both encouraging and sincere. I know her nano 'story' even though I haven't actually read Fangirl (the novel she wrote during the month she participated) or any of her other books yet, and I think it what she had to say is definitely worth a read.

I also thought this character checklist was a really cute idea. I've never used anything like it, and I'm not sure I will for July either, for three simple reasons:

1. It's very extensive. Like, really really long. And I'm not sure I have time for that right now, and I don't want to waste important hours when I have inspiration filling out lists when I could be moving the plot forward and getting that wordcount up unless I have to...
2. ...and the thing is, I don't think I do have to. I haven't had a problem with characterisation before (although granted, I haven't worked on a properly long piece before and succeeded).
3. Carnegium is a piece of fandom writing (i.e. fanfiction) and I think the character list is better applied to original characters for original writing. Not that my own interpretation of the characters from the cannon couldn't be used for the list, but I think it might even be a bit counter-productive in this situation.

I also found this adorkable 'workbooks' on the Young Writer's Program nano website. I browsed through the high school one, and although it is clearly aimed at classes or writing groups (with little assignments and stuff), some of the advice was interesting to read, and very relevant to me as well. Again, worth a look if you have nothing better to do. (...I didn't make that sound too appealing. Whoops.)

I'm also using the Cabin feature on the Camp Nano website this time. I was in a cabin last year as well, but it it was very inactive and I think I ended up leaving it anyway. This year, I have one of my close friends, Kami, doing nano with me. I'm really excited about having a friend to rant with and cry with and go crazy with this year! Last year, another good friend of mine, Evie, was doing nano with me, and although we didn't correspond as much as I thought we would have, it made the whole experience even better. I look forward to seeing how writing with Kami will turn out!

My biggest worry (other than, you know... trying to write a 50,000 word novel in the span of thirty days) is how that's going to work out with my fasting. Ramadan falls smackbang on top of July, and the fasts are so long this year (20 hours in Scotland -- why do I have to live so far north? *sob sob*). I don't know if that will affect my writing, but I'm sure it will, and I have no idea how. Here's to hoping I'll end up turning to writing as a distraction or something...

Knowing me and my habits, I'll end up doing most (if not all) of my writing in the middle of the night. I don't have access to a laptop (woe is me, woe is me) but the household disonaur desktop is a bit out of the way, so I'm sure the 'workspace' will be fine.

Also, the more I think about it, the more I'm attracted to my idea of tweaking nano to fit my habits. I'm a very sporadic writer, and although I won't have the luxury of going on week-long lazybreaks, I think I could still factor in some flexibility. Yes, you've probably guessed it... I'm talking about drabbles. Man, I love drabbles. I could go on a long-winded spiel about why drabbles are the best (both for readers and writers) but I'll spare you (for now). Anyway, I don't want to stop myself from writing drabbles during July, especially when the creative juices are flowing, so maybe I'll factor any drabbles I write into the wordcount as long as they're for Fairy Tail. I'm not sure yet though. Just an idea.

Ramadan in summer means you're going to be spending most of your time in the house. And while that does cross out any plans for beaches and shopping sprees and slushees at the skatepark (I never go the skatepark, I don't know why I wrote that...), it does give you a lot of time at home to do stuff. And yes, while I'd love to (and do plan to) dedicate good time to memorising new d'uas and prayers, and reading the Holy Qur'an, I won't spend the whole day (or even nearly the whole day) doing that. Finding time won't be an issue this July. Finding convenient times is a whole other story, but that's the same for everyone, probably.

I won't be posting up any of carnegium on this blog during July because I have plans to go back and edit it through, draft it properly (or.. you know, as much as I can be bothered) and then uploading it. But I might spend some cool-down time fixing drabbles to upload, if I do write any, so... We'll see!

CampNano — July 2014

Camp NaNoWriMo starts again this July, and I plan on participating again.

I took part last year, and I wrote most of Fairies, Misfits and Little Brats during that time. I stayed traditional, keeping a wordcount of 50,000 words. And I was a winner, having written about 54,000 words by the end of it. However, despite that success, I do think of it with a bit of trepadition and resentment, because at that time the memory on the computer I was using wiped. It just blanked, and I lost about 20,000 words. I haven't really recovered since that, but I have changed the plans around and I do want to write more for the fic when I manage to find the motivation, inspiration and time to do so.

This year, it's not really very surprising to hear that I will be, once again, writing a fairy tail fanfic. It just seems I've lost the ability — or rather, the will — to write anything considerably long that isn't related to fairy tail in some way, or isn't at least fanfiction. At this moment in time, I just get more enjoyment out of it. And there's no reason for me to stop doing that, after all. I'm not super-duper scarily serious about writing (like some peope...) and I don't mind not improving every time I write, as long as I actually enjoy the time I spend doing so. It's a hobby for me, and yeah, while it would be nice to be a paid author in the future, right now...? There is no reason for me to take writing so seriously. So yeah, I'm going to stick with writing fanfiction.

Initially, I was planning to just continue writing more of Fairies, Misfits and Little Brats, but as July comes closer, I'm realising that I actually would really rather not. It's passed the stage of first draft splurdge that NaNoWriMo demands, and I don't think I'd be able to stick with it, either. It takes more planning, more time, more care, and definitely more delicacy as far as I'm concerned in writing a fic I care so much about. So while FMLB is my baby and I love it with all my heart, I shall be happily neglecting it come July to take on a new project.

And I have so many ideas for different multichap fics that I could pick up and write during CampNano, but there's one there's only one that I couldn't not do. And that is my new side project, Carnegium. It's a story with a lot of dark themes, definitely much darker and more morbid than anything I've tried before. It's a total experiment for me, but unlike all my other ideas, which I do love but am happy to leave on the side-bench for now, carnegium really demands to be written. And it's very much in the early stages; I don't really know the plot, or all the characters, or what's really even going to happen — I just have little ideas of scenes, and a big overview of the world, and a general road for where and how the story is going to travel. I'm so excited about it, and I really love it, and unlike so many of my other stories, I'm not scared of screwing up with this one. Which I think it absolutely crucial for succeeding in meeting a wordcount for Nano.

So we'll see how that goes during the month of July. I'm equal parts excited and worried, I think, but I'm sure it's going to be good.

I'm not entirely sure how it's actually going to happen though, if I'm honest. I'll be fasting during most of July, so I'll be writing on an empty stomach, which you would think woudl be a bad idea... except I'll probably want something to distract myself, and that sort of bad mood is theoretically perfect for the type of story that carnegium* is shaping itself out to be. It's a dark, angry, gritty sort of story, and well... I don't know, we'll see how it works out. As for timing and inspiration... Well, inspiration is a non-subject. Whether I've got it or not, I'm going to have to write. And timing wise; I'll be on my summer vacation, so finding the time really won't be hard. It's all about motivation for Nano, and I'm definitely ready for the challenge. Or... Okay, I wouldn't say ready, but who cares, I'm going for it anyway. That sort of ready.

Bring it on.

*I can't decide whether I want to capitalise the first letter of carnegium/Carnegium or not. /sigh