July has arrived,
So I’m writing a book at
Camp NaNoWriMo!
Yes, I’m off to camp today. I’ve packed my backpack and remembered my swimming things; I’m looking forward to canoeing on the lake, singing songs round the campfire, and eating scorched marshmallows.
If anyone reading this has been to the Union League Boys Club Camp in Wisconsin, do let me know – I was a camp counsellor there once upon a time! So all my imagination of summer camp stems from that experience. The kids were all inner city boys from Chicago, and most first-timers had never been in the dark of the countryside at night. There was much fright at ‘normal’ night-time sounds. But I hope the young man who shared the evening canoe with me when we witnessed a night heron catch and eat a frog has grown up strong and kind. I wonder what happened to all those kids I knew in my youth?
By the way, Camp Nano is a virtual camp – I’ll be sitting here at my computer as usual, although I hope to take the laptop out in the garden for some of my writing stints. Don’t expect any Friday Flash Fiction in July – I’ll aim to send you a postcard from camp each week instead.
Camp NaNoWriMo
Oh if it could only be so easy. So here’s how I feel about Camp NaNoWriMo
Camp NaNoWriMo
Learn to write a book.
Book in a month, twelve a year
Prolific I’d be.
Well, you can write them in a month: the rest of the year is the redraft, the editing, the tightening up, the re-editing, the proofing…. Of course you don’t have to do all that – you can just write!
I have wonderful memories of spending several weeks at a Girl Scout camp in New Hampshire when I was twelve or thirteen. The smell of the pines needles when the sun hit them early in the morning, the clank of metal pitchers full of milk and the noise of chatter in the open dining room, hikes and swimming, singing songs around a campfire. Pretty idyllic. Hope you can keep the camp feeling while you are sitting at the computer. Safe journey!
Morning sun on pine needles – mmmm!