Hello all!

July 2017 Camp NaNoWriMo has officially come to a close. This has been my first Camp NaNo experience - I had been hearing a lot about this event, especially over April. So I was very eager to participate this July :).

I must say, that this experience has been one of the greatest in my writing life so far.

I must give a HUGE shoutout to Jane Maree for allowing me to join her cabin The Fellowship of the Keyboards. After trying two different public cabins and being weirded out both times, I got brave and asked if it was ok to join hers. Very graciously, she offered a spot, which I will be eternally grateful for. And I would love to recognize Anna C.S., Ralraymee, MiddleEarthMusician, Quinley, Girl With a Dagger, Jess Penrose, Slisby, Clare of the Relinquished and all the other lovely cabin members! You guys and gals are the most awesome people ever! *hugs all around*

Best Moments of July 2017 Camp NaNoWriMo:

- Meeting my amazing cabinmates.

- This interchange (read from the bottom up):

What I learned:

- I now really like Welsh music. So much so, that in addition to my Apple in the Snow playlist, I now   have a playlist specifically devoted to Welsh music.

- My rebellious muse, working full time, volunteering, and writing on a deadline don't mix very well.         Camp has officially confirmed that I write best when I'm totally relaxed and that I need to                   prioritize my life better if I'm going to get any extensive writing done without shutting myself             off from my obligations.

- I'm a slower writer than I thought I was.

- I'm most assuredly a person that needs everything planned out to the nth degree.

- Word count goals are not the way to go. I got fixated on it at the last, seeing as how I hate having a     goal unfinished.

With that said, how did my writing go?

In a word, TERRIBLE.

I started with a goal of 10,000 words, knowing that that was the length of my previous novella and a good length for Rooglewood. I had mentioned previously that I wasn't going to write for the first day. That hiatus turned into 3 days of not writing at all, and sporadic writing for the rest of the week. Since I was also away from my computer, it was also very difficult to word count...

Once I got back into a regular routine, things went a little easier. In theory.

In the middle of the month, my draft trainwrecked.

I normally write in a mix of limited and omnipotent third person point of view - which is a disaster waiting to happen anyway. In order to make it easier to word count, I gathered up all the snippets I had written previously and stuck them all in one document. Some were limited, some were omnipotent, others I had no idea where I was going with.

The result was a horrible, terrible messy draft.

I had to take a step back and relook at my preparatory files. I outlined like crazy, but arcs still weren't lining up.

I turned to my playlists on Spotify and my Pinterest board. Neither helped at first. Both were expanded, which helped a little. I still wrote every three days or so, but it was definitely slow-going and I was getting frustrated with my story. It didn't help that I would only get to write during the evening hours after work or on my days off - when I wanted to (or needed to, in some cases) get other stuff done.

To cope with it, I made the promo video for Rebellious Writing, and also redid my blog header.

In the end, I decided to muddle through as best I could with what I had. I didn't want to scrap everything that I had worked on the previous weeks, knowing I wouldn't get that progress back again. In the last week, I decided to knock my goal down to 6000 words. In a way I feel that I've cheated, but circumstances were not looking favorable for a 10000 word document.

The final results

My story still isn't written in it's entirety. Now that Camp is over, I can safely start scrapping the bits that I don't want or don't work and start my second draft afresh. I do plan on taking a break from The Apple in the Snow until after August 11.

Why?

Because Rebellious Writing's website will be released on the National Book Lover's Day (August 9)!!!! There are a lot of little details that still need to be settled before then and I'll also be writing a post about the book scout program for #RW that will be published on August 11.

How did your Camp NaNo go (if you participated)? What was one of your "best moments" or "lessons learned"? Feel free to share! 

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine