Camp NaNoWriMo Update

Camp NaNoWriMo wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, but I’m still proud of my accomplishments so far. There are still a few days remaining in the challenge I set for myself to rewrite part of my epic fantasy novel and I probably won’t reach my goal.

That’s okay.

April Camp NaNo has never gone well for me. I usually don’t find time to write until the July version. This April Camp NaNo is my most successful so far, even though I’ll likely come out short.

My plan is to get through rewriting another chapter or two by the end of this month and I’ll be satisfied with that. There are some huge changes in my life right now that will require my focus, and I’m glad that I was able to make some progress this early in the year.

 

 

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Day One

Progress: 1721 words

I managed to get some rewriting done in my epic fantasy novel late last night. Right now I’m focusing on rewriting the story and not worrying so much about grammar. I’ll save that for when I finish the novel.

So far the beginning of the prologue has been greatly expanded and I tried to slow the pace and make one particular scene a little creepier. I haven’t succeeded with the latter, so I’ll spend some more time with that today (after I start my math homework for college).

One thing I should note is how I do my rewrites. I count the number of words in the new draft rather than hours spent rewriting the story. I have two Word documents open and I write a line at a time, usually reworking it completely. It takes a while, but I’ve seen great results between my drafts in the past.

That’s all for this update. I’ll have a new video on YouTube today about my first week of Spring Quarter classes at the university, which you can find on my channel at 11am PDT.

Edit: the video is now live here: 

How did your first day go?

Camp NaNoWriMo is here

Happy Easter and happy April Fool’s Day! It’s also the start of Camp NaNoWriMo’s April edition.

After making considerable progress in my contemporary fantasy novel this week, I will be shifting my focus toward my epic fantasy novel. I want to use Camp NaNoWriMo to rewrite the first half of Clash of Crimson. As much as I was having fun experimenting with vigilantes, magic in a modern setting, and writing about a character who had suffered much loss in his life, I need to take a break.

Firgrove has been an idea of mine dating back to 2014 I believe, but I realized while writing it that I didn’t know the story I was trying to tell. That’s the point of a first draft, but I couldn’t connect all of these crazy ideas that I had for the novel.

I think it’s best that I keep thinking about Firgrove and jotting down more ideas for it throughout April. Rewriting Clash is my priority because I think it’s about damn time to actually finish a draft of a novel. If I remain on track, I might actually be able to finish a complete draft of the novel this year of early next year. That’s a big deal, because I’ve been trying to finish it for 5 years. Considering that this is supposed to be the first book in a larger series (I have enough ideas for like 8 books), you can begin to see why I’m shifting my focus back to it.

Unlike Firgrove, I know the story I want to tell with Clash. I’ve had 11 years to think about where I want the series to go. My biggest problem has been forcing myself to sit down and write it. Working on a novel every November and July isn’t enough. I need to start working on it as often as I can.

That’s why I’m trying to rewrite as much as I can this month. I have new characters to add to the story, a new interpretation of the plot, and some much needed clarification on the setting.

I’m in a cabin for editing and revising this month, and so far some great resources have been shared that I’ll be using in my rewrite. I’m exciting see how much I get done with everything else that’s going on in my life.

More on that later. For now, I have writing to do.

What are you writing for Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you had any day 1 successes?

 

Camp NaNoWriMo season and 85k90

This year I participated in my first ever 85k90, a free writing challenge from January to the end of March where you write 85,000 words of a novel in 90 days.

After failing at NaNoWriMo this past year and changing my novel halfway through, I decided that 85k90 would be a great time to work on my new experimental urban fantasy/thriller novel. It was at first. About halfway through I just realized that I wasn’t ready to write that particular story and I switched back to working on my epic fantasy series.

I got busy with university and I decided to put more effort into my YouTube channel, which resulted in me not writing much of anything.

But I’m not disappointed. Camp NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, which means I have a chance to redeem myself and actually work on my epic fantasy novel.

If you’ve read any of the posts on this blog, you’ll know that I have never had success during the April version of Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s such a busy time of year for me. This time, I’m just going to write when I feel like and do some worldbuilding and the like. Even if it’s twice a week, I’ll be happy.

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what are you going to be writing?

-Chase Charaba

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Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 6

Welcome to day 6 of Camp NaNoWriMo!

After writing yesterday’s blog post I sort of kicked it into high gear with my novel. I realized that I really want to finish rewriting this to the point that I start writing new chapters all the way until the end.

Of course, that means that some of my edits aren’t going to be perfect and some scenes will be left mostly how they are. But, that’s okay for now because the novel isn’t even done yet. I’ll worry about trying to be perfect AFTER I write “The End.”

I’ll just walk away knowing that my novel is better after this Camp NaNoWriMo than it was before I started rewriting. That’s all that matters: It’s better.

Yesterday I passed the 13,000 word mark in my rewrite and reached the end of Chapter Two. That’s a big achievement this early in the game, because I only have 11 chapters written, and many of them are much shorter than Chapter Two was.

How I finished rewriting the dreadful second chapter:

Yesterday I complained that Chapter Two was awful. Well, I’m feeling a little bit better about it now. I ended up keeping the plot of the chapter exactly the same.

I expanded a scene in the middle of the chapter where the main character, Arrellia, originally was just corner by merchants who wanted to mug her and was rescued by an old man named Tancard and her knight in shining armor, Bedric. Now, she actually does kind of get mugged, which adds a bit of a thrill to the chapter. Plus, I was able to hint at the dangers of a certain coin Arrellia was given, whereas originally she was just given it and it later came back to bite her. Kind of a plot hole right there. But that’s all cleared up now.

I also made Tancard a little bit creeper by adding only an additional line of dialogue. Originally he gives Arrellia a letter for her grandfather and she thinks nothing of it. This time around she realizes that this stranger had the letter prewritten, and Tancard admits that it wasn’t a chance meeting.

Ooo, mysterious.

Hopefully today will be another great day of writing!

 

Until next time,

Chase

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Word Count as of 1:28 pm: 13, 555

 

 

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 5 & Fireworks Video

Happy day 5 of Camp NaNoWriMo!

I haven’t done any writing yet today, but I’ve finished some very important world building to assist in my rewrite. It partly had to do with reorganizing the main country’s government and actually drawing the capital city so that I could keep everything straight.

Now I’m hoping to get 2,000 words written today.

Chapter Two is really just a big mess. It’s my least favorite chapter in the original draft of my novel, and I’m starting to see why.

1. Even though there’s a really good hook to start off the chapter, it quickly loses steam. There’s plenty of big events in the chapter to keep it interesting and to build the plot, but it just doesn’t seem to work.
2. There’s a lot being introduced to the readers here
3. It’s 17 pages long, which would be fine if it was better

So, I’ll be trying to work through that chapter or at least figure out how to make it better.

In the meantime, I also uploaded a new video to the YouTube channel. It’s just some of the neighborhood fireworks from last night’s Fourth of July festivities. Now you can see why I’ve been annoyed by people letting them off all week. There’s just so many people in the neighborhood lighting them off.

Until next time,

Chase

Camp NaNoWriMo Word Count: 8004

A Happy Fourth of July & Another Day of Camp NaNoWriMo

It’s that one holiday today, the one where we celebrate the birthday of the United States and when we declared our independence from Great Britain. It’s also a day where people think that they have to launch dozens of fireworks into the air and watch them explode into pretty colors: pink, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, the list goes on.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 2

It’s day 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo. I haven’t done much today because I spent a few hours at a party for the college newspaper. Our long-time production manager is retiring and we threw him a party.

So, I’ll be working on my novel for the rest of the night as I delve into rewriting/revising Chapter 2.

I hope everyone is doing well. Let me know how your writing projects are going in the comments.

Until next time,

Chase

Current Count as of 10:05 pm: 4838

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Day 1 of Camp NaNoWriMo is almost over.

So far today I have gone through most of the first chapter of my novel and done some revising. I’ve even changed the names of some minor characters and changed the name of a god and an entire island nation, so that’s also some good progress.

This marks the first day I have worked on writing my novel since November and the first that I’ve done planning for it since January.It feels really good to be back. I really missed writing and creating my worlds, and it makes me not want to stop this year, not until a complete draft of this novel is finally done.

A Clash of Crimson is probably going to take a long time to finish, but I’ll just keep saying that I want it done this year.

Now, back to Camp.

I set my goal for this year at 30,000 words for my revision/rewrite of the first part of my novel. However, I’m noticing that I’m going a bit faster than expected. I probably should have just stuck with my normal 50,000.

My goal for this month is to finish revising my novel’s first half and to start writing the second half. That way I can write the sequel for NaNoWriMo 2016 in November.

I’ll try and keep you guys updated daily this month.

Until next time,

Chase

Progress as of 9:50 pm PDT:  3924

Camp is on the Horizon…Camp NaNoWriMo, That is

It’s Camp NaNoWriMo season again, and I completely lost track of time. July starts tomorrow…at midnight really. How…what…where did my planning time go?

Thankfully, I’m only revising what I’ve done with my epic/high fantasy novel and then hopefully trying to come closer to finishing the story.

Anyone else participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year?