Camp NaNoWriMo Success and Writing-During-Quarantine Update

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Well, I did it! I made my goal of writing 15,000 words on a new WIP during the month of April. I have made many NaNoWriMo attempts over the years both in November and for “camp” in April/July, but this is the first time since 2008 that I’ve actually “won,” aka completed my goal. This is a huge accomplishment for me, as I’m not very good at following through with any kind of challenge. ;)

I won’t say much about that WIP yet, other than it’s a middle grade historical fantasy novel that takes place in 1805. The main character is a fictionalized version of a real woman who I studied in grad school and have been enthralled with ever since. What can I say, I just thought I’d consider giving her a magical childhood. I’m having a lot of fun with it. I read the first chapter to my kids and got some decent feedback. ;)

I still always have YA on the mind. I’m still querying my rom com that I finished last year, though slowly, and I have another project that I started and want to restart and take in a different direction. So we’ll see. Maybe I will dive into outlining that to give me something else to work on when I’m not feeling the MG project.

March 13th was our family’s last day “out in the world,” so to speak. We kept our kids home that day but it was my husband’s last day in the office and our last day doing a “normal” shopping trip (although it I remember it feeling distinctly strange and borderline apocalyptic even that day). Since then, my husband has been working at home and our kids have been full-time homeschooling/distance learning instead of their normal schedule of having two full days at school.

The first couple of weeks were anxiety-inducing and a real roller coaster of emotions for all of us. I struggled to read and write at first, but was able to slip into the relief of fictional worlds after a bit of time. Camp NaNoWriMo came at the perfect time for me to set a goal, and get into somewhat of a rhythm of writing 4-5 days a week. Now, here we are, 9 weeks later and I feel like we’ve settled into a routine with everyone at home, enjoying the slow days, going on walks, with lots of cooking, movies, and reading. (I wrote a little more about family life during this time over on the Art of Simple as my farewell post after many years of writing for Tsh.)

Many people in the writing community have been generously giving of their time and wisdom with online workshops and seminars during this time, so that has been something I’ve taken advantage of and will share more about in a future post. (what, am I blogging again?)

And finally, I’ve been getting more freeflowing and creative with my bullet journal during this time… why not? I have nothing to write into my scheduled planner spreads like I used to do. There are so many brilliant BuJo-ers out there (especially on IG and Pinterest) that I’ve been getting ideas from.

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writingNicole Bennettwriting, nanowrimo, quarantineComment