April Camp NaNo, Write-Ins, and Sisters
12:06
April is always an exciting month for my family. Why?
Because April is the month for Camp NaNoWriMo, a whole month dedicated to
writing novels. This year my three younger sisters and I are taking the
challenge together. Living in a village in the Australian bush as we do, we’re
not able to meet up with other Wrimos for write-ins, meetings for writers to work
on their novels together. But, ever resourceful writers that we are, we work
around that.
Being part of a family of writers is great because it means
that there are always people to talk to when I get stuck in my plotting, or to
complain to when my characters won’t behave. And it means that there are always
people to write with. This year, because write-ins sound like so much fun, my
sisters and I decided to organise one of our own.
We choose our living room as the space for our write-in. It has
large windows that let in big pools of sunlight and plenty of seats for
everyone. My 12 year old sister Sophie curls up on the floor in a patch of
sunshine, her laptop balanced on her knees and with a cat sprawled at her feet.
Charlotte, 16, settles on a corner of the large sofa. Gemma-Rose, 10, has an
armchair with another cat peering over her shoulder. I choose a seat by the
window with the autumn sun shining around me
“How long should we sprint for?” I ask. I love writing
sprints, which are just blocks of times where we write as much as possible
before the timer goes off. We agree on ten minutes. I switch on some writing
music. The Piano Guys is our music of choice today. Then I set the timer. “Go!”
For the next ten minutes there is no sound but the busy
clicking of keys and the occasional giggle as a character does something
hilarious. All too soon the timer dings.. We relax and compare progress.
“I wrote 400 words,” Charlotte says proudly.
“One of my cats is a big scaredy tail,” Gemma-Rose laughs. “He’s
afraid of a tunnel.”
“My characters are hiding in a field, but I don’t know where
to hide them,” Sophie says with a sigh.
We discuss problems, congratulate each other on our progress,
and then set the timer again. Another ten minutes, hundreds more words, and plenty
more fun. I can’t help smiling to myself. It’s way more fun to write with my
sisters than to work on my own. If I’m
ever feeling unmotivated this month, I’ll just have to organise another
write-in.
Are you doing April
Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you ever been to a write-in? Do you like to write with
other people or do you like to be alone?
2 comments
Bwahahaha.. you thought you could hide your posts from mee... but yoiu caaaaaant.. (or I'm just being silly cause I'm tired.)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you guys are having a blast with your write-ins. XD I'm a little jealous you have all your sisters writing with you. It makes it great fun. XD
Oh bother. Looks like I'm going to have to try harder to hide them from the watchful Dragon. We're having a great time writing together. I think they'll all be out writing me soon. At least we have our fun cabin though, and all our word wars.
ReplyDelete