Last Days of Camp!

AS we approach the last day of CampNaNoWriMo you may be wondering what next. First make sure you VALIDATE your wordie count at Camp. You can validate by clicking the 'Validate your word count to win' just below the tent on CampNaNo's home page. Then pat yourself on the back for you achieved a major goal.  

After all that, it's time for a reward. It could be as small as a candy bar or as large as a trip somewhere like Paris. AS for me I am just going to take a week and work on my TBR (to be read) list. Others have made day trips with the family to catch up on what they have been doing while you were writing your bum off. 

When you have relaxed a bit, its time for those time consuming edits. LifeHacker  has wonderful ideas for this step. University of North Carolina has a great site with editing tips. This is the one I tend to refer back to. They say the 1st step is to take a break from your just finished work. See I told you! LOL These are only 2 of many sights that can help with the editing process. Utilize them, that's what they are there for. Just a little thing I learned in college; use a GREEN pen or text color for edits. Your brain tends to remember things in green better. 

Don't stress with editing. If you are the type to trust a person to help with your work then ask them to read through it and make suggests or correction that'll help you. I know, many of us hate others reading our works until it's finished. Trusting another with your work is difficult at times. The fear that it sucks or they totally hate it is present the whole time they have it. Though at some point you should have another go through it for errors such as spelling, punctuation, verb tense and flow of the work. When you edit it, you are more likely to skip over the little things like colon vs. semi-colon. That's my issue! Or I even type 'o' for the word 'to'. Yeah don't ask me how or why that happens. At least I know the problem before I go in and edit.

WoW! That's more info than I intended. SO, know you know my editing faults, tell me yours below in the comment section. Yes, I mean share with the class. It will help us all become better editors and writers along the way.

Have a great time off and stop in to see what's NEW after August 10th.

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Reminder @GetWordies will be offline (closed) August 1st through August 9th

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*Disclaimer - I am not the owner of these pictures. I found them on the web for causal fun use on my blog for which I receive no compensation. If this picture belongs to you (you are the copyright owner) please let me know and I will remove it.

Preparing for Our 10kWritathon Saturday

As you are getting ready to spend 12 hours with us writing, you need to prepare for hungry peoples. Including yourself. Being interrupted by loved ones while you're on a wordie roll is stressful and can make you snap at them.  Here are a few more recipes to help solve this issue. Otherwise I love the ones we have under 'Writer's Food' tab. Everything can be made ahead of time so you can use the 10 minute breaks to toss it in the microwave or slow cooker or just grab it out of the frig and eat. Among all of these; you can make your favorite cake, cupcakes, brownies etc. Have you favorite chips, dip, trail mix handy as well.

Ranch Dill Oyster Cracker

Jet Swirl Pizza

Apple Dip

Lil' Smokies

Party Pinwheels

Artichoke & Spinach Dip

With all these mouth-watering ideas there are other things you need to have ready. Your work-space should be cleaned and organized so you don't get distracted and clean it.  If using your laptop, make sure it's fully charged and you have the cord handy if you need it quick. Have a sitter lined up or your significant other to keep the kids busy. If you must have the lil' ones around prepare for their time. Have a movie day, where all they do is watch their favorite movies. For tiny ones, highchairs are great. Put it next to you and have things handy for them to play with and eat. Below are ideas for highchair fun.

You'll need the following also....

• Your notes
• Note cards
• Scratch paper
• Pens/pencils
• Twitter!!!
• This note on your door, Facebook and Twitter pages
  

Highchair Fun!

1. Ziplock bag with pudding in it. Enough for them to finger paint without the mess. 
2. Homemade playdough 
3. Finger snacks, crackers, chips, fruit etc. 

Nap time will be your friend but remember to have things ready for when they wake up.

As you progress through the day, remember to eat, stretch, use the bathroom, drink water besides you caffeine, and have fun with your wordies.

Tweet comments with #10kWritathon so I can track the number of wordies we do.  

I will be starting at 8amUTC and run until they all time zones have made it to their 8pm. You may jump in any time and write as many hours as your schedule sees fit. Being with us the entire time is NOT required. This is a push to get the word counts you want. Though you must at least make 1000 mew wordies. 

*Disclaimer - I am not the owner of these pictures. I found them on the web for causal fun use on my blog for which I receive no compensation. If this picture belongs to you (you are the copyright owner) please let me know and I will remove it.
*Recipes found on allrecipes.com 

Word Sprints? What Do They Do For You?

Word sprints? You may ask yourself what there are and why we do them. Well, They are timed times where you try and get as many words as you can. Allotted times vary depending on who is running them. Check out our ‘Sprint Schedule’ tab for groups that do them. They are on Twitter, so if you don’t have an account, get one!

Why we run word sprints is more difficult to answer. There are many reasons. 

1. Motivation. This is a biggie. Many of us need a push to get our fingers moving. 
2. They remind us to write. Many groups do sprints at specific times. It keeps us from straying to Facebook or e-mails. 
3. You get to meet peoples that write too.
4. You have the ability to ask for help form others that know what you might need rather than staring at the post wondering what the heck you are talking about. 
5. It helps with 'Time Management'
6. Most of all it’s FUN!

Themes? What are they?

Themes are basically just that, themes. Some sprints will have them. Once in awhile I will. I usually do rodeo or fill the bucket with wordies. Others will do ones significant to them.

Why themes?

It’s simple it gets you more motivated if you have a reason to write. If you’re asked to fill a bucket of words, you are more likely to push yourself a bit harder.

Prompts?

Prompts are suggestions for added text to your WIP(work in progress). Like add someone eating, storms, etc. You are not required to use them. They are there to help only. Like I said suggestions.

Who Sprints?

Writers! Many unpublished and published authors do sprints. Some do them with groups or among their friends. You can find them with hashtags. Click our ‘Hashtags’ tab for all of them.

How long are the word sprints?

The length of word sprints depends on who is running them. Hashtags and the GO! post will tell you. Most are 30 minutes though. I run some 1k1hr (1000 words in an hour). Then of course there is our 10k Writathon. For more about that click our ‘10k Writathon’ tab.

In short, if you need motivation or just want to have fun; join in with any of the sprinting groups. Join us @GetWordies on Twitter. Follow here for helpful information and fun things!

Writing for Camp

It's time to get writing and catch up on your goal for CampNaNoWriMo!

I found this wonderful site that has been helping me out when I'm stuck on grammar issues. Grammar Help! It has everything from help with 'A' and 'An' to 'Writer's Block' Holy cow is it great. A perfect site to have up when you are editing, which you shouldn't be doing during Camp.

First week of Camp is almost over. Have you been keeping up with your daily goal? That's okay, you can catch up on July 26th with out 10kWritathon. A full day of writing to push you over your goal. I know what you are thinking, 'How can I make 10k?' Well it's simple, most get 400-500 wordies in a 30 minute sprint. That's 1000 wordies in an hour. 10 hours of writing and there you have it. Of course I won't forget to take two 1 hour breaks so you can eat. A starving writer is no good. Remember, you do not need to set you 10kWritathon goal at 10k. 1000 wordies is a fine goal as well. Though I'm hoping you get tons more than that.

Fruity Fruit Salad and cut fruit.

There are recipes for slow cookers under Writer's Food. If you have kids or even a husband that will need fed while you're writing all day, these are helpful. I use them several times a week with my kids. Plus you should have snackies ready to grab during break times. Look what I will have ready...

NOW get yourself back to writing and stop hopping around on the web. LOL! Just pace yourself.

Need encouragement during the week check out Sprint Schedule tab to see who is running word sprints on Twitter.