End of Camp NaNoWriMo, July 2020!
12:40 AM
July has come to a close, at last! And with it, another session of Camp NaNo, and another session with The White Rose.
Before I dive into the recap, I want to give a shoutout to all three of the NaNo groups that I am a part of: Pen Dragons, Rebellious Writing and the Siena Society!! You guys were awesome to write with and I sure hope that we can interact more come this November!
And now, let's get into it!
Best parts of Camp:
- My laptop becoming so in tune with my habits that it brings up Word immediately when I start it. Good girl *pats*
- Karsten pulled an extra trick or two. LOL.
- Finally getting to draft some of those scenes that I never was able to pump out for draft 2!
What I Learned:
- Keep deletions and old drafts. A lot of writers learn this, but I want to stress it further. In some of these drafts are hidden old explanations for world-building, or a potential incident that could be re-worked. In my case, one of my betas asked about the origin of the name Vasarvis, which I had cut from the first draft because of the length. But, I found that I could trim it down and it set up a character motivation for the end of the novel.
- Pacing is indeed high on the importance level of novel writing. As much as authors get invested in a certain side character, or get caught up in the action, getting bogged down in words is no fun for the reader. While the first couple of drafts are allowed to have those crazy scenes in which your characters become characters, they simply become unnecessary in the long haul.
That being said, how did writing go?
In short, it was really successful!
I had gotten the majority of the beta feedback the week before I started, which really helped to sort out where the main weaknesses were. Because I knew I was going to have a deadline, I couldn't answer every single critique that my betas gave me. Which, kinda irks me a little? But at the same time, I knew that there was some stuff that I just couldn't fix by myself. *shrugs*
In terms of streaks, I didn't do so hot. I ran into that same problem with the midnight hour, LOL. But, besides taking off two days to deal with putting on a volleyball tournament, I actually worked on this project with much more consistency than I have in other projects.
That being said, editing was a slog this round. Not quite as painful as the first time, but it was pretty bad towards the end. The only reason why I was able to make the ambitious 115k goal was because....I did a lot of copy-pasting from Draft 2. While I did some line-editing in the older chapters, the bulk of the editing was focused on the plot and finally drafting some of those missing scenes that I have been meaning to draft forever.
Word-count wise, I made it to my goal, and I even added a couple of extra thousand words. With all the cutting that I did in the first two-thirds of the novel, I actually wondered if I was going to come out under my original. But, the additions were well worth it - Magda, Janina and the Tournament Court got more screen time.
Also, as a side note, this was the first time that I have ever formatted my manuscript to standard publisher specs, and let me tell ya, she looks a lot more spiffy! I can understand why these specs are necessary, LOL.
And now, it's up to the editor to decide this girl's fate. I only pray that it doesn't require an entire deconstruction....
How did your Camp NaNo go (if you participated)? What was one of your "best moments" or "lessons learned"? Feel free to share!
Scribbingly yours,
Catherine
Scribbingly yours,
Catherine
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2 comments
Good work getting ALL that editing done! I'm really excited to see what comes of your editor!
ReplyDeleteCamp NaNo was great--it was so lovely to be part of the Siena Society community! There were some days where it was really a slog to get through my word count for the day, but overall a good first experience. :)
Congrats on all of your progress! That is amazing. Oh! Karsten has more tricks? Yes! Magda, Janina, and the Tournament Court have more time?? YAY! I'm so, so, so excited to read more!
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