I'm going to camp!

Yep!  For the first time EVER!  I'm really excited!

I'm going to Camp NaNoWriMo for the month of July!

I'm not really going anywhere; it's a writing exercise.

Thirty-one days of writing, writing, and more writing.  What I like about it is that the camp is flexible as far as to what you write.  Unlike the full National Novel Writing Month event in November (where you write a 50,000 word novel in one month), you can revise something you've already written, write a short story...you name it, you do it!  I was going to write a short story/journal but instead I'm basically rewriting my project from NaNoWriMo 2013.  It's a sad situation, really.  I got to right over 10,000 words (I was very proud of myself considering it was my first attempt at a long work).  I probably would've gotten a lot farther with my novel than that, but it was a very hectic semester.  I was so consumed with papers, practicals, exams, and more than I could have ever imagined.

Every time I'd start writing, I'd end up like this:

So, yeah... to say I struggled with juggling everything I was trying to do is putting it lightly.  But that's not even the worst part!  I'll get to that in a moment.  Some days I was on a roll and more than met my daily goal and other days I was lucky to write two sentences.  I thought I was smart for having my novel on my flash drive... well... earlier in the spring semester, I lost my flash drive at school.  It's like it disappeared out of nowhere.  I'm still upset about it.  I had a bunch of creative writing on the drive along with a bunch of my papers I'd written on there and --POOF-- there they went!  Luckily, I was able to recover everything EXCEPT FOR MY NOVEL.  And I was so proud of my first novel attempt.

It sucks, but it was a HARD lesson learned.

One of my goals for camp is to actually finish my novel/NaNoWriMo 2013 project, Of Joy That Kills.  The title is taken from an excerpt from Kate Chopin's short story The Story of an Hour.  I'd rather wait until camp is over before I tell you what it's about so I don't spoil any surprises about anything.  My original word count goal for camp was going to be 20,000 words but I think I'm going to aim for 50,000 words.  I'm hoping it will be easier this go around since I don't have school taking up most of my time.

Another update on my readings... I am finally on Canto XIV in The Inferno.  It's hard.  I've been reading online notes to help me understand what's going on because I'm so lost.  I've actually thought about throwing the book down and giving up because all the references are over my head.  I'm not a quitter, and I wouldn't abuse a book like that!  It's taken me a lot longer to get through it than I anticipated.  But honestly, IT IS GOOD.  It really, REALLY makes you think.  I love stories that make you think about life.  I would definitely recommend it.  One of these days, I'll get to the other two parts of Dante's Divine Comedy...Purgatorio and Paradiso.  Another book I'll finish one of these days is Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.  I read Book I for one of my classes last fall and while I struggled with it at the time, I did enjoy it.

AND as promised, I finally made my YouTube video debut!  It only took what, two months?  Better late than never!  Please subscribe to my channel and take a look at my video.  As nerve racking as it was, I had so much fun doing it.  I can't wait to do another one soon!

That's about it.  I'm going to be honest and let you know ahead of time--I'm going to be spending a lot of time focusing on my novel, so I more than likely won't update as frequently as I have been.  I will make a conscious effort to do so, but don't hold me to it.  I want to devote all my time and energy into my novel.   I want it to be GOOD.

Have a good rest of the week!  Wish me luck on writing--I'm going to need it!

Alane