October & November Grabbing Schedule

I have nailed down a schedule for at least October and November. Remember there may be extras tossed in so you need to watch.

Mondays- 10:50am - 2:00pm CDT

Fridays- (2nd-4th  of the month)
               9:00am - 11:30am CDT
               2:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
               6:00pm - 8:30pm CDT

Saturdays-  1:00pm - 3:00pm CDT
                    6:00pm - 9:00pm CDT

Remember daylight savings ends November 1st for the US.

Check out our snackie ideas and meal ideas. They make NaNoWroMo easier.

Rollercoaster

It's been quite a rollercoaster here. Moving, unable to get internet any time soon and kids back to school stuff.

I'm hoping to start running a few word grabs a week. Probably Monday and Friday Early afternoon (CDT). Won't be more than 3 or 4 grabs but I miss you guys so much.

NO WORD GRABS!

Due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be running any sprints the month of July. I am so sorry my Wordlings. I feel so bad about it. I cried last night when I found out about this.

Please keep writing and feel free to use #wordgrab hashtag to run your own sprints.

I'm going to miss all of you.

CampNaNoWriMo July 2015 Schedule

Here is our special sprint schedule just for July 1st - 30th. We want you to hit that 50k goal. Our sprint schedule will change August 8th as Camp ends. There will a be a week of NO wordie grabbings after Camp to recuperate.

Mondays - Thursdays

12:00pm-4:00pm CDT

6:00pm-10:00pm CDT

2nd-4th Fridays

2:00pm-10:00pm CDT

Saturdays & Sundays

2:00pm-9:00pm CDT

Though I toss them in whenever the urge is here.

OUR Writathon

July 18th

9am-9pm CDT

For most of the sprints we will I using TweetDeck. I find it hard to man the computer all the time with family obligations. Please do NOT be offended if I don't favorite a wordie count right away. I will when I check in. No one will be forgotten. There is only 1 of me... though at times I wish there were at least 3.

Others that will be running word sprints:
@NaNoWordSprints
@FriNightWrites (1st Friday of the month)
@TheSprintShack
You can always run your own using #wordgrab when we aren't.

New Grabbing Schedule

I have changed the wordie grab schedule a bit. I am trying to leave open times that The Sprint Shack runs theirs. It is not complete as of this moment. I will be adding a few more to it. I am having a personal issue that most Mondays I am busy. I'm hoping this will be resolved as soon as possible.

 New Grabbing Schedule is for Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays for now. We will never have grabbings on Fridays. That is the day I encourage you to join @FriNightWrites for their #writeclub. I do my Friday grabbings with them. To find their times check out their site here.

On another note:
Have you checked out your CampNaNoWriMo April 2015 WINNERS'S GOODIES?
You need to. There are several great offers. I loved that Scrivener is half off with the winner's code.

April 2015 CampNaNoWriMo is Over. Now What?

Camp has ended. What now? You have several options. You can keep working on your Camp WIP, edit it, set it aside or even lock it in a vault.

 Many of you who won will continue to work on it in one way or another. Finishing a WIP is rewarding. Continuing it, if not finished, will give you a complete work to publish.  Editing is the second step, if you begin you can see the advantages to having a time restriction on you wordie count goal. Yes there are going to be several errors, add ins, and out-takes. This is natural with speed writing. Don't be afraid to hack it, change it drastically or even start completely over.

Your Winner Goodies can help with all of these choices. Make sure you check them out (go to you Camp dashboard, click on CAMPER PROFILE, then Winner Goodies.) and take advantage of them. If you already have Scrivener you can give your code to a fellow writer who wants it but doesn't want to spend the money. (50% off is a great deal.)

As we wait for July's CampNaNo, our wordie grabbings will change. Please vote on the poll to your right so I can set them up when they are needed most.  This first full week of May is a hit and miss for grabbings. I will be out of the house the majority of the time. Watch for announcements. I will give 30 minute warnings. May 9th I will update our grabbing times on this site; also letting others who post our times that they have changed.

You can always use #wordgrab and hold your own wordie grabbings with others even if we aren't available.

Halfway Through Camp!

Today marks the halfway point for April 2015's CampNaNoWriMo.

Is you wordie counts on target? You should be halfway to your goal. If not, never fear, you can always catch up.
Our grabbing times are increased for this month to see the schedule click here.

Also Fridays are #WriteClub days. Check out @FriNightWrites for info.https://frinightwriteswriteclub.wordpress.com/

Need encouragement?

Look at what the CampNaNoWriMo sponsors have for you. There are a great many deals that can help you out.
Camp 2015 Sponsors

Always remember to check in with your cabin-mates too. They can be a great help if you get stuck or just need to bounce something off of someone (Not a ball or anything physical. LOL) You may have checked in and found many aren't chatting, that's ok, just keep updating you wordie counts and maybe post asking how everyone is doing.
My cabin has 11 and only 3 of us are active. We are having fun and motivating each other.

Now off to the WRITING CAVE we go!

Happy writing my Wordlings.

A Tentative CampNaNoWriMo Sprint Schedule!

Since CampNaNoWriMo has started, I've decided to fix a word grabbing schedule. It's a tentative one and may change. I'll tweet if there are changes. So, watch for them!

Here we go:

Saturday April 4th & 18th

We will be switching it up. #1k1hr and 30 minute grabbings.
So from 1:00pm - 9:00pm CDT (GMT/UTC -5:00) we will have a #1k1hr, 10 minute break, 30 minute grabbing and continue with that schedule.

Saturdays April 11th & 25th

We will be having our #10kWritathons
GMT: 2:00pm - 2:00am
EDT: 10:00am - 10:00pm
CDT: 9:00am - 9:00pm
PDT: 7:00am - 7:00pm

Sunday April 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th

30 minute grabbings
2:00pm  -8:00pm CDT (GMT/UTC -5:00)

Mondays-Wednesdays

30 minute grabbings
10:00am - 1:00pm CDT (GMT/UTC -5:00)
4:00pm - 9:00pm CDT (GMT/UTC -5:00)

Thursdays

NO scheduled grabbings- that doesn't mean we won't have them. They just won't be scheduled.

Fridays

NEVER Fridays are left for #WriteClub with @FriNightWrites Click to see the times. They are a great bunch that run it.


Still looking for meals and snackie ideas for our #10kWritathon?
 Check out our Writer's Food
Our Pinterest has ideas and character ideas.

REMEMBER use hashtag #wordgrab when reporting daily wordie counts and #10kDay for our writathons.

Wordie Counts for Your Work!

Ever wondered how many wordies make a novella or novel?

I've been searching every web page that has a list. let me tell you, it got confusing. Finally I took all the amounts and found a median for each type of book. I found that Writer' Digest and How-To-Write-a-Book had the most average of all the ones I read.

Here's the jest of it (averages):

Pic Books : 350-600 wordies
Tweens: 20,000-55,000 wordies
Chapter Books: 5000-10,000
Young Adult:55,000-90,000
Short Stories: under 75000
Novelette: 7500-17,500
Novella: 17,500-40,000
Novel: 50,000-109,000
Epic Novel/World Building: 90,000-110,000
Western Average: 50,000-80,000
Memoir: 80,000-89,900

Writer's Digest broke it down a bit further. 

Adult Novel:
70,000-79,000 might be too short
80,000-89,000 Good
90,000-99,000 Usually safe
100,000-109,000 Might be too long
110,000 & over Too long
100,000-115,000 World building

I hope this gives you some idea as to the wordie counts you set.

7 Day Countdown!

In seven days CampNaNoWriMo starts. Many of you are participating in it. Here are a few tips to get you ready.

Research like crazy
Outline if you are a planner
Character sketches should be about complete (at least for MC)
For pantsers: get your ideas in your head. Maybe character sketches
Plan meals ahead of time. (More writing time)
Meet you cabin mates (good for support)
Get to know who hosts word sprints on twitter


For meals and sprints look over our blog. We have tons of ideas for food & snacks. There are tons of sprints that run at different times, you should try them. Schedules are under our Sprint Schedule.

Yes this is a short post! I'm busy getting ready for camp!

Hope to see you sprinting with us.
10k Writathons are April 11th & 25th!

Saturday FunDay of Writing

In preparation of CampNaNoWriMo....

This Saturday, March 7th, we will be doing 1k1hr wordie grabs from 1:00pm CST to 5:30pm CST.

What is a 1k1hr?

It is and hour of writing for a goal of 1000 wordies with 10 minutes breaks in between.

Use hashtag #1k1hr & #wordgrab for reporting wordie counts

You do NOT have to participate the whole hour or the whole time.  Just tell us how long you wrote for with wordie counts.

Schedule:

All times are CST (GMT/UTC-6 hours)
1:00pm-2:00pm
2:10pm-3:10pm
3:20pm-4:20pm
4:30pm-5:30pm


If you want to use these wordie grabs for editing that's great! Wordie counts can be wordies deleted, pages edited, wordies added or scenes changed.

If you will be researching, wordie counts can be anything; descriptions, character traits, plots, plot twists or even photos.

New Word Grab Schedule

After being ill for almost 2 months, I have reset our word grabbing times. These will NOT interfere with any other sprints that I know of. Check out other sprint times, Sprint Schedule.

I appreciate your understanding with the lack of sprints while I was ill. Thanks my Wordlings.

Many of the sprinting times run longer if there is a need or want for more encouragement. If times do NOT work for you Direct Message them on Twitter. Possibility they can add or move/add sprints to accommodate your schedule.

Monday

GMT: 7:00pm-11:00pm
EST: 2:00pm-6:00pm
CST: 1:00pm-5:00pm
PST: 11:00am-3:00pm

Tuesday 

GMT: 11:00pm-2:00am
EST: 6:00pm-9:00pm
CST: 5:00pm-8:00pm
PST: 3:00pm-6:00pm

Our Saturday sprints run

GMT: 7:00pm-11:00am
EST: 2:00pm-6:00pm
CST: 1:00pm-5:00pm
PST: 11:00pm-3:00pm

Our Sunday sprints run

GMT: 7:00pm-10:00pm & Monday 12:00am-4:00am
EST: 2:00pm-5:00pm & 7:00pm-11:00pm
CST: 1:00pm-4:00pm & 6:00pm-10:00pm
PST: 11:00am-2:00pm & 4:00pm-8:00pm
Times: (Find the closest time zone to you and adjust.)*

Camp NaNoWriMo Approaches

With just over 6 weeks before April's Camp NaNoWriMo is here it's time to prepare my Wordlings.

Never heard of it, well here's what CampNaNoWriMo website has to say about it...
"Camp NaNoWriMo is a more open-ended version of our original November event. We have Camp sessions in both April and July, and we welcome word-count goals between 10,000 and 1,000,000. In addition, writers may attempt non-novel projects. Camp is a creative retreat for whatever  you're working on!" 

It's a lot like NaNoWriMo but you have cabins where others are there to help if you get stuck.

What is a cabin you ask?

"A cabin is comprised of up to 11 fellow Campers to communicate and share encouragement with during a Camp NaNoWriMo session. You are assigned to a cabin based on the preferences you select in “Cabin Settings.”"

Cabins help you through the whole process. You can ask for help, give you input to someone else's project or just chat about whatever. I have found that having this resource is very helpful. A bonus is you get to meet great people with your interests. Many will become lifelong writing friends.  

I use Camp to write novellas so my goal is less than 50k wordies. Usually 35k is my main goal, though I have written more during camp.

For @GetWordies during camp, we will have a writathon once again. 12 hours of 50 minute sprints. This time I'll yell out halfway marks.  Check out the date 'Writathons' 

Do you have to be participating? NO, our writathons are open to all.

How to prepare for Camp!

There are many way to prepare.

• Register with CampNaNoWriMo
• Get your idea of what you want to write
• Set wordie goal (remember 10k-100k)
• Outline or jot down plot ideas
• Research- characters, places etc.
• Find inspirational photos (I pin them on Pinterest)
• Set times that you WILL write
• Organize everything
• Find sitters if you need them
• For long writing sessions plan/prepare snackies/meals 
• Use our meal ideas from our Pinterest 
• Anything else you can think of

Those of you who have participated comment below on your experience and what kind of projects you have did for them.

7 Day Writing Challenge

The first month of 2015 is flying by. If you're anything like me as the end of the month approaches you are stuck on what to write. Not really a 'writer's block' but it's getting there. Here is what I propose:
Take our 7 day writing challenge. Write 150 wordies about each days topic. Use it in your WIP, post it on your blog or just writing it and set it aside.

If you post it on your blog share the link in our comments section so we all can see how great your writing is. 

The Start of a New Year!

As a writing or an aspiring writer you probably set goals for 2015. Whether it be wordie count goals, chapter goals or even scene goals Now Is the time to start a new tradition...... writing every day. Getting into the habit of writing every day is a tremendous help in achieving goals.

• Having your writing time the same time every day (if possible) helps to get that habit going.
• Use word sprints for writing and editing.
• Join The Write Chain Challenge to motivate you to hit your goal.
• Set aside as much time for Writathons and Fridays. (Fridays are #writeclub day/night)
• Carry notebooks & pens at all times. Or even use your smartphone for notes. 
• Take part in CampNaNo in April and July.
• Do NaNoWriMo in November.
• Plan meals ahead of time. Check out our Pinterest for meal ideas.

Those are just a few I have put into practice. There are many other groups that have contest type goals for the year. Just look around and ask others on Twitter or your current writing group.

If you are looking for help organizing and having everything in one place for 2015, Scrivener might be right for you. I have everything from pictures to research with everything in between. I am working on a series... Scrivener has an easy drag and drop from one project to another. This helps with transferring character bios, places, and timeline to the new project.

As you can see here, it's easy a making scrambled eggs. Looking at the yellow box on the right, you can see that I have a picture in the inspector area. The corkboard where the red box is shows the notecards and you have the ability to move them around. I have them in order of pack rank. You can use this mode with the manuscript as well. This pink box shows the title of your scene, this will show at the top of your note card as well. I don't name mine until I'm ready to edit the 2nd time. The orange to your left is the binder. This is where all your folders are. I have my 3 sections and then I put in the scenes into those folder. You can see all the characters, definitions, research and all that are also there. and last the green box is you word counter. You can set it for total count and a count for each session. My session target is my daily goal.

Okay that's enough about my lovely writings. If you use Scrivener or another word processor yell and tell us why?

Tell us what your 2015 writing resolutions are.

All pictures in this post are my original work. Do NOT copy or publish. (copyright 2015)