Camp NaNo July '24: Shadow of the Orange Tree

Background

Last time I "worked" on this project was Camp NaNo April 2024, but I didn't get much of anything done because of NaPo and school. So I'm back at it again, with hopefully more time and energy! (Before that it was my official NaNoWriMo project)

Goals

• Read what I have so far
  ...(and go through notes)
• Figure out where I want the story to go
• Start rewriting/editing/revising/whatever's necessary
• Work on characters
• Have fun and pace myself!
• Read what everyone else is up to...

Premise
Soo... there are so many plot holes in my work so far, which is about 59k words as of July 1st, although I think I'm going to rewrite at least half of it. The story may change dramatically, so I'll save this section for when I know more.

Ooooh I love your formatting and goals!! The wordart is so pretty, and I think you have a solid plan. I'll be cheering for you, Ora!! =D

Thanks so much @Spearmint! Cheering for you as well!! :DDD

July 2nd

Started reading through my 117 page draft and got through just over 5 pages of reading through it... (I was writing notes, okay?)

These notes were mostly things like "Oh. . . I totally forgot about this. XD" or "OOOH IDEA wait... no that's a stupid idea BUT WAIT" or just general notes like, hey, I should do this _____ when writing my second draft. There was so much I remembered while going through this and so much I didn't... and I'm only on the first 5 pages so GOOD LUCK TO FUTURE ORA YOU HAVE SO MANY NOTES IN YOUR FUTURE 5 pages should not have taken 45 minutes to get through.

Omggggg! Fivee pages on 45 minutes??? But at least it sounds like you enjoyed it, so.

Here's to filling in plot holes!

Woww, you have a 117 pages draft?? Is it related to the short story that you've posted with the same name?

@Isbah oh you noticed that! Yes, it is related. At first, I wrote the short story, but I wanted to expand it, so I wrote a novel version. It's changed significantly, though, and I doubt little of the novel is similar to the story anymore. XD Thanks for visiting! ^^

Reading through your draft is an excellent way of figuring out what you want to fix or how to move the story forward!! I wish you the best of luck this month <3

Thanks so much @Carlito! I agree; that's why I'm doing it! XD Good luck to you, too! Two projects can't be easy, but I'm sure you can do it!!!

Quick note about July 2nd:

I was really curious what the word count for my notes was, and altogether it was 898 words... which is... a lot for notes... um...

July 6th
Time worked: 3 minutes (idk for sure)
Pages read: 2
Word Count of Notes: 0
Yeah I thought I’d have time then I didn’t


July 7th
Time worked: 49 minutes
Pages read: 5 (again)
Word Count of Notes: 843
I did like the exact same thing basically on July 2nd. About 45 min, 5 pages, and 800 something words for notes. I'm beginning to notice a pattern... Not a great pattern... Won't get me very far very fast...

Wait... June???

Are your notes like... partial rewritings of scenes? Or just notes? In any case, try not to fret! It'll be okay.

@Snoink

Wait... June???

Oops XD
I guess I still think it's June lol
Okay now it's July

Yeah my notes are just... notes? I guess? It's a ton of stuff like, "Ooh, maybe I could do this..." or "to edit: blah blah blah" or just stuff I thought while reading, because I thought it'd be important. Stuff like that. I have no idea why it's taking up so many words; notes in this fashion shouldn't be half the word count for NaNo... but anyways. Thank you for commenting so much here! It really helps.

Any more updates??

Ahh thank you @EllieMae I forgot about this for a bit XD

July 11th
Time worked: 36 minutes

July 12th
Time worked: 44 minutes

July 19, 20, and 22
Worked on the cover! It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted, but it doesn't suck as much as other stuff I've drawn in the past so I'd count it as a win.


...and I haven't done anything since then oops... I uh... blame other projects... and my own laziness but a surprising amount of stuff actually does keep coming up and also I keep getting separated from my sister so now our bond is even closer when she's around which is great but also we waste so much time together.

Yeah I'm not making much progress but uh... having fun and I hope y'all are having fun, too! (If you're not having fun... maybe you gotta change something? Camp NaNo should be fun. )

Your cover for this book is sooo good. I love the colour combination and your art style