Camp NaNoWriMo – Writing a Novel in April

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The main one is in November each year, the one coming up in April is Camp Nano.

What’s the difference? The big difference is that you can choose your word count goal (in November, it’s 50,000) and you can write other things besides novels. People are writing short story collections, poetry, and other non-novel stuff.

I always have to do things against the grain. In November, I wrote the middle of a 100,000 word novel instead of a 50k novel, Ascension. This time around, I’m writing a complete novel in the month. Although this time, I have a little more free time, so my goal is 70k words – and I’m still taking Saturdays as my no-writing days.

Tips

If you’re planning on Camp Nano, be sure to:

Sign up! That’s the first thing you have to do. Jump on over to Camp Nanowrimo.

Prepare your book. Get your synopsis ready, get that baby outlined, and schedule your writing time. I chose a story that I’ve been wanting to tell for a while, so the synopsis was easy. I actually already had purchased the cover last year, but you don’t have to have a cover.

You just need an idea.

Really, you don’t need an outline. You could “pants” your way through it (write by the seat of your pants) but I can tell you from experience that outlining, even loosely, will speed up your writing.

Get ready to write fast. If you want some tips on how to write faster, check out the post I wrote after November’s Nano: 5 Lessons Learned from Completing Nanowrimo.

What I’m Going to Write

I’m going to write Hidden Intentions. Clara is a favorite character in my Transformed series, and the other books in the series have left readers hanging as to whether or not she ever told William her secret….

About Hidden Intentions

Fun-loving Clara is keeping a dark and deadly secret from William, the love of her life.

Not because she wants to hide things from him, but because her story is so unbelievable he will probably think she’s crazy.

If she tells him, she could lose him. If she doesn’t tell him, she will.

Are you in? What are you going to write?

What are your goals? I’d love to hear about it – share in the comments!