Crystal Kamm

Written by

Crystal Kamm

3 March 2021

NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo Begins in One Month!

I swear we just wrapped NaNoWriMo, but here it is, the countdown for April’s Camp NaNoWriMo begins!

Although fewer people participate in the April and July iterations of this program, I personally love Camp NaNoWriMo for a few reasons. Here are my motivations:

  1. Personalized word count goals
  2. Ongoing accountability
  3. Cabins

Personalized word count goals

When you sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo, you don’t have to adhere to the 50K word writing goal of November. You can make it whatever you want! I love this because although I write every single day (you have to as a writer) I am not out there churning out 50K words every single month.

Plus, I am currently in a third draft stage, not a first draft, so massive word count goals are not even relevant to me at this point. I need to work carefully, making sure that my details are correct, my characters are consistent, my dialogue is witty, etc. When you’re working through later stages of a novel drafting process, your focus is not going to be on word count goals but on word quality goals.

For these reasons, I almost always set my April Novlr goals for about 25,000 words. It’s half the commitment of November, but that doesn’t mean I’m doing half the work, I’m just doing different work!

Ongoing accountability

The number one complaint that NaNoWriMo users have is that at the end of the month, they lose that accountability, as well as the companionable group of writers who are working so hard alongside them. The truth is, most people can’t maintain the intense sprint pace of November all year round, but for those of us who are still writing every day, just at varying paces, we still want to have access to word count goal tracking, analytics, and writer friends!

(By the way, my favorite aspect of the Novlr platform is that these analytics and goal trackers are built right into the software, making it easy for writers to track their progress all year round!)

Cabins

Okay, the cabins of Camp NaNoWriMo are my favorite aspect of this program. You can build your own writing groups, either by adding your friends and active writing group or by adding complete strangers who will keep you accountable and work alongside you throughout the month.


This year, as Camp NaNoWriMo begins, I plan to create a Team Novlr cabin for any Novlr users who would like to work together. Leave us a message on Twitter or Instagram with your Camp NaNoWriMo username (or email it to me at [email protected] with the subject “Novlr Cabin”) and I will add you to my cabin!