Camp NaNo April 2021 Support Thread

Hi there!
While April is typically dominated by NaPo and its surrounding activities, I've seen a couple of people around the site who are planning to participate in Camp NaNo (myself included)! Whether you're taking on the full challenge, taking on a reduced goal, planning to do both challenges at once, or just want to dip your toes into noveling, this thread is your place to get support to reach your goal!

What is Camp NaNo?
In case you're stumbling across this thread with no context whatsoever, Camp NaNo is a watered down version of bigger challenge of National Novel Writing Month, which is held in November. In NaNo, your goal is to finish a novel in one month and write at least 50k words. Camp NaNo is much more relaxed because you're able to choose your own goal and write at a pace that you may be more comfortable with. For instance, I'm choosing to write just 500 words per day for a total of 15k words this month. It's a great way to make good progress on your novel.

And we're here to support you!

The purpose of this thread is to give you novelists a place to congregate, commune, and complain. You can talk about your novel, vent an issue you're having, ask for support, give support, and more! If you're interested, there could even be some word sprint write-ins for mutual motivation or some weekly check-ins to see how everyone is doing. This is just meant to be a helpful resource to encourage you to reach your goals :) But most importantly, have fun while doing it.

So come on in and tell us your story!

Hello all -- I have a brief introduction to my new project:



Best friends Paisley and Louisa discover their telepathic bond on their 15th birthday. However, they need to break a curse that links their families within the next year before they're separated forever.

I'm hoping to write in a more Middle Grade -- lighter Teen tone as I'd like to still have serious topics, but without violence/death/graphic scenes in that same realm, if that makes sense.

Paisley and Louisa are really good friends who at first are delighted to realize they're connected in such a special way, but then they are faced with both external and internal struggles -- their families are determined to separate them to mnimize the curse's effects, while ther connection threatens both their friendship and their own health.

All they have going for them are two really close cousins who've dealt with their own past relationships and woes, and are determined to find their mysterious grandparents who apparently had started this curse over four decades previously.

I hope everyone's projects are going well on this fine first day of Camp NaNo!

I am working on revisions for Dark Corners, Bright Spaces!
My plan is to revise at least one scene per day. I have a pretty extensive list of things I'm trying to hit in my revisions, so one scene per day is probably enough! Also, after I finish revising a scene I'm researching one literary agency on my list because I hope to start querying this book later this year

My current Dark Corners pitch:

There’s an intimidating email going around Southeastern High School, and Peter York is one of the first to get it. Senior year should have been simple for Peter – date a girl, apply to some great schools, pretend he doesn’t care that he and the rest of his family are just passing ships. But when “X” tries to blackmail Peter with naked photos of his girlfriend, he’s forced to do the unimaginable and ask for help.

Tech savvy senior, Luna Lynch, started her computer repair business last year to fund her college dreams. Most of the time she’s fixing wifi or updating antivirus, but a real challenge comes when Peter brings her this blackmailing threat. The more she digs, she discovers more students on campus are receiving the same threatening email. If Luna can figure out how all of these computers are getting infected and how to stop it, not only will she help her school, but she could gain the recognition she needs to secure a college scholarship. Only problem is, she has to work with Peter.

She thinks he’s arrogant and rude; he thinks she’s overconfident and inept. But if they can work together to solve the email problem, Peter will get his angry ex-girlfriend off his back and college will be in the bag for Luna. That is, if the feelings brewing for each other don’t get in the way first.

Complete at 60,000 words, DARK CORNERS, BRIGHT SPACES is a dual-POV, YA contemporary romance perfect for fans of hate-to-love romances, confident girls in STEM, and teens figuring out post high school options outside of a four-year college.

Hello I am working on a novel inspired by BlackWidow aka Natasha Romanoff (plus the Blackwidow movie will be FINALLY coming out in July)
I am doing the 50000-word goal like nano, but since camp nano is stretched across two months I believe, I simply split the number of words I have to write in two!

Here is the little summary I shared on my wall

LadyMysterio wrote:I thought I would write up a little summary for my novel for #campnano
@euphoria8 I think I told you I would tag you in it?? I cannot remember XD

Redeamed
Verena has been trained since she was a young girl to be an agent, specifically an assassin. Now she's become the academy's top one, though she credits her friend and son of the headmistress, Flynn, in part for her success. One cant navigate buildings and twisted alleyways without a tech expert.

But one night the nightmares begin. Again and again and again, until she's the worst agent there is. The headmistress confines her to the academy until she is rid of the dreams, something every agent is trained to do.

" Villains don't deserve to be remembered, loved, or given a chance." one of the first lessons taught in the academy.

When she finally rid herself of these dreams she fails worst than ever and is forced to chose: Risk death and run or live a life filled with grief and pain

Link to original comment

@EditorAndPerks I'm really interested in your idea! I love the idea of two already friends finding out they have some kind of connection, which leads them on an adventure to figure out the meaning of it all ^^ I hope you have a lot of fun writing it. What's your goal? How have the first couple of days gone?

@Carlito, I'd heard mentions of your novel Dark Corners, Bright Spaces, but hadn't heard an actual synopsis for it. That sounds so cool!! I absolutely love to see stories with girls in STEM in the main cast (especially hacker types because I'm a coder myself haha). I hope your revisions are going well so far! What's revising typically look like for you? Do you do a lot of rewriting or does it mostly stay the same?

@LadyMysterio oooh I like your idea too! I've got a lot of questions, like do all the agents have these nightmares or is it just Verena? What do the nightmares mean? It's really interesting, and I wish you a lot of strength going for the full 50k goal! How have the first couple of days been treating you?

Also, here I am giving a synopsis of my own novel! My novel is called The Memories Tattooed on His Skin (MTOHS or MOTHS for short ).

The main plot focuses around a group of terrorists who call themselves Splinter and possess a magic called influence. There's a lot of unknowns around influence, like how it works, where it comes from, but what people do know is that is can change reality and it's illegal. Splinter wants to change that and make the magic accessible to all people, even with the horrendous consequences that would cause. Their means of accomplishing this goal is fear mongering and overthrowing the government if all else fails. Hunter is one of those people in Splinter.

That's where the government agency the Defense Against Influence (DAI) comes in. Their goals are to protect the citizens from Splinter's attacks while also figuring out what influence is, where it came from, and how to stop it. But the battle right now is strongly in Splinter's favor. Rachel works for the DAI, trying to uncover the truth about influence, while her boyfriend Eric works on the frontlines to protect the country he loves.

But once Eric has an unfortunate encounter with Hunter and gets wrapped up in Splinter, Rachel soon starts to realize the lines between good and bad are very blurred.

(Kind of cliche synopsis but it's the point I'm at right now! xD)

So far I've only written about 521/1000 words for the first two days, and I might be missing today. I'm also currently adding onto what I wrote in NaNo, which means going back and adding some extra scenes earlier to flesh out the characters and make finishing the darn thing easier.

I literally havent dont much writing XD im catching uo tho, i acually should do somewriting now.
Oh and thses nightmares are basically PSTD. All the agents sort of get it to a degree but since they have been heavily trained to block it, they dont get it as badly.
Your novel sounds really cool!

@SpiritedWolfe thank you!! Boy has worked in IT for a long time, so he got to answer lots of computer questions while I drafted because I know next to nothing!
The overall plot arc is in decent shape, so I'm not doing a total rewrite. But there will be some larger elements that will need some improvements (like the all the computer logistics).
Where I'm now, I have a three part checklist for each scene
First I'm doing a bigger picture check and making sure the scene itself is moving the plot forward and accomplishing something. Then the bulk of my edits are the second stage where I'm balancing my showing/telling, writing more evocative descriptions, and generally deepening the POV. Finally, I go through with my fine-tooth comb and cut out weak verbs/filter words/crutch words!
(but honestly every book is a little different for me. and i have total rewrites coming for other projects after I get this one where I want it)

I'm not super far in yet, but I've been happy with what I've done so far once I get into a good flow!

Your book sounds exciting!! Are you a plotter or a pantser?

@SpiritedWolfe - I have a very small goal because I'm in school right now aha, so 5k is what I'm hoping for. <.< I always set myself larger goals and then never make them, so this time I'm trying the opposite -- maybe I can get more words done if I'm starting with an easier idea first, lol.

The first couple of days have gone well! I don't have too much of the inbetween plot planned, so with the small amounts of writing I'm able to try to establish how I want my characters to seem like aha.

Your story sounds super cool -- I'm really curious about the world-building and what dynamics Rachel could have with Eric! Looking forward to how that story is going c: