Camp NaNoWriMo (July 2020)

Recently I ordered some fairly pricy much talked about Soji Shimada and Seishi Yokomizo books that I want to go over in this blog, and I also went and bought couple of cheap novels from my local shop to compare those more hailed books with. It's been a while since I read Finnish crime fiction now that I think about it... Buuut I decided just stop reading anything right now for the start of - and maybe all of - July and write something of my own instead. This is my 100th post on this blog, by the way, so I thought that it's better to start writing about NaNoWriMo's writing event from now on every time it comes up.

I've been a member of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month site and event for writers) since February of 2016 so it's somehow already been over four years. That was also around the same time I started writing this blog of mine. Before that though I spent three years planning a certain story. It was about a generic inner circle case starring two families in an old hotel in the middle of nowhere that consisted of a wine cellar. I kept writing with hand in my notebooks about what the story would be about, and ended up writing those ideas down and expanding them on computer during NaNoWriMo in November of 2016, which was when I managed to finish the novel. The story had two parts to it both roughly 30 000 words or so in length.

For people who don't know, NaNoWriMo is this personal writing challenge for yourself. The NaNoWriMo site is a free platform to join with its own community and it's purpose is to basically pep you to write and finish a novel of 50 000 words or more every year during November in one month's time (about 30 days). There are a lot of writing tips and motivational speeches from professional writers on the site that are usually sent to your e-mail if you register to the site. However there's more than just the official November writing months; every year in April and July the site also offers you to write during this online event called Camp NaNoWriMo which is basically a lite version of NaNoWrimo.

As you all know, writing a single novel-length story may take years upon years (Looking at you, George R. R. Martin), so it does sound absurd for majority of people to be able to create a best-seller in 30 day's time every November (though don't get me wrong - that certainly has happened). That's where Camp NaNoWriMo comes into play for many people as they gather together in online camps (and sometimes in real life as well) to every April and July write and plan the base for the novel they'll actually be writing in November.

While I was writing that first novel of mine I kind of understood how all these other writers manage to pull through book after book. You see, I felt something emotionally when I was creating it. It was like pouring cold water on my face. Looking back, the ideas were very basic and I just couldn't create a story with an interesting plot or entertaining characters. However I understood something more about how we humans work as I finished the novel... And that is, that we evolve and progress towards a certain goal. We can pull anything off as long as we work hard at it and don't be afraid of doing things or getting disappointed or wasting our time. I bought a digital piano in 2017 that I haven't been playing in a long time (even though I want to, it's not my priority at the moment), but playing that piano reminded me something about being an artist - if we try something such as playing through notes, and manage to pull it off however badly, the next day we will be able to actually do it much better! Our brains get adjusted to challenges. It's the same with driving a car or riding a bike. Or swimming. Writing is no different. As long as we keep doing it to the end, we will get to our goals. After you finish writing a story, you can definitely write something better, more entertaining, complex, coherent, grander... you name it.

But there's always a problem or two, of course. And that is the fact that you get rusty if you stop writing stories (and writing give or take 50 000 words every now and then ain't easy let me tell you), but also another problem is collecting data to actually evolve as a writer. I used to go to a writing class for about a year in 2016. That class had many aspiring writers in it, but I noticed something quite off there - many of them had been writing a single story for many, many years, about a decade even, and they never were quite happy with how their story always turned out. And they didn't know why. I of course also read their stories, and while they didn't have notable writing errors or anything, my gosh... the plots were generic and mediocre at best. They were very mechanic and felt hella manufactured. Like that one Spookie book I never got around to write about. I understood that while I wasn't as proficient in orthography / spelling as them, I was far more familiar with reading other people's stories than they were. I even went and explained some concepts to them, such as what a protagonist or deuteragonist were.

That is where the idea to write on this blog came to me. I love mystery and detective fiction the most and personally want to write those types of stories, but only a naive writer would think that they're able to write anything truly interesting or entertaining without reading other people's works first. And I don't mean just the most hailed, most interesting works, but also the more boring and crappier ones. What kinds of characters and tropes stand out? How to pace different kinds of stories? What doesn't work and what works to effectively present a scene or a moment? How to write about bunch of information or to present a completely new fictional setting so that the reader both understands and gets interested in it? What inspires you to create something new? Collecting data takes time and it takes effort but it also proves that you're serious about creating something new.


So, now is the time to truly get serious and get down to business. This is my 100th post on this blog, so I believe I've collected enough data to actually try this now for real. This is all about getting oneself to understand the level we're at right now after reading quite a few different series. It's 1st of July, 2020 and we're starting up on Camp NaNoWriMo. I tried this back in April's Camp, but it didn't work out as well back then due to personal issues. This time I'll be writing and finishing that story I was going to write back in April. First challenge is for me to get back in track on what the story was about (a murder mystery of course), and remind myself on the side characters, and then start expanding it from there.

I hope many others will also take up on this challenge. To see what level of experience you're at right now is the key - the beginning of it all. Here's a relaxing 'Zen'-type track I've been playing for the past six hours for you to listen so you can get started with your next writing project.