APRIL 2017 CAMP NANOWRIMO
AMBER LOVE 02-May-2017 My work is supported by the generous backers at Patreon.com/amberunmasked who also get first access to what’s happening.
Goals:
My goal for this April’s camp is pretty simple: get the final edits done of “Misty Murder“, the story I drafted for last November’s official NaNoWriMo. I don’t feel that the story needs to be any longer. It’s fine at 50k. Shorter novels are selling like hot cakes these days. Best selling authors have embraced the idea (Karen Slaughter, James Patterson, and Nnedi Okorafor).
Total number of hours for editing:
Officially, CampNaNoWriMo now allows for metrics other than word count (which is still often accepted as the 50k word goal). You can choose pages or hours. I’ve chosen 40 hours of editing time for Misty Murder. That isn’t a lot, but it should get me most of the way to final draft. I probably need 50 hours to be honest.
Total pages to revise:
–186–
After about a week, I realized my goal for hours of work didn’t matter. What mattered was progress in revising the novella. I changed my official goal from hours to pages.
Additional writing projects:
Since writers can’t submit two projects (I don’t think), I’ve also continued to work on my non-fiction book about modern witchcraft and paganism. That will take up some writing hours additional to the Misty Murder work.
Promoting latest novel:
Miscarriage of Justice launched officially May 1, 2017 so I need to keep any Farrah Wethers mystery fans interested in book three.
Day 1 of edits, April 3, 2017:
Put in two hours of edits and looking up possible quotes to include; not sure if I’ll actually do that in final copy. Publicized new Vodka O’Clock episode; Miscarriage of Justice on social media; checking in with Cabin mates.
Day 2 of edits, April 4, 2017:
I thought this day would be wasted. I was up at 4am, not intentionally. I eventually got rolling at 7am with coffee and everything needed to write up a book review. I almost had a heart attack when I realized it took me 4 hours to write that review! And I was exhausted. I put my head down on the desk to rest for a minute or two. That wasn’t comfortable so I said, fuck it, and went back to bed where I eventually napped. I got up right after 2pm feeling like my day was gone. I had my 2:30-3:30 chat and look at Twitter time. Then 3:30-4:30 actually got to doing edits on three chapters.
Day 3, April 5:
Covered 24 pages in 4 hours.
Day 4, April 6:
Did another 4 chapters in 3 hours.
April 7-9 (weekend):
Friday I had a modeling job all morning and I was in major pain when I got back home. Took the entire rest of the day off to sit in bed. Took the weekend days off as planned.
Day 5, April 10:
Four more chapters done. Up to page 128 of 186. Making good strides.
Day 6 (of revisions), April 11
On this day which was actually Day 11 of the Camp but only the sixth day I worked on revisions for “Misty Murder”, I completed my goal. YAY! Of course by then, I hated my story. It’s not really my genre or comfort zone, but I’m glad I tried something new.
OTHER PROJECTS:
The rest of the month, I was diligently working on other book projects. I’ve been trying to get the witchcraft book into some kind of logical format and order while also adding more to it. I had to create some images because I didn’t like how sections were separating in Word, which has been such a challenge to work with during this project.
I also had the huge tasks of finishing up all the checking, rechecking, testing files for Miscarriage of Justice; then wait for the cover art; then work on that and get it proofed and published. It was a lot of work.
Then there was regular daily work for this site: posting press releases for comics and still trying to get an episode or two of the podcast out.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
In a way, I feel like I “cheated” because I wasn’t doing what most others were in trying to draft another 50k words on something new. I was relieved and ultimately enjoyed the Camp options for having goals by the hour, page count, or word count. This made working on a revision project possible and still participate with this wonderful cabin of writer friends. I think most of my cabin mates are going to return for July and I definitely will have it on my schedule too even if I’m not dedicated to a book project (I have a pretty major life decision to make that would effect July and August).
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.