Excitedly Planning for Camp NaNoWriMo

Knowing your writing goals and planning for Camp NaNoWriMo in advance can make the whole process go a lot more smoothly!

Laptop charged? Check. Big cup of coffee in hand? Check. Plan for April figured out? Uhh…

If you’re planning to write for Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2021, it’s time to get excited! The upcoming month is a great time to work on a new project or continue working on an existing one. My personal favourite aspect of the Camps is that writers can choose their own word count goals instead of using the ever lofty (and ever exhausting!) goal of 50,000 words.

The push you need

Many of us who started projects during November are right at the sweet spot now. April rolls out at the perfect time for those of shifting our focus onto a new draft. Others might only be at the revision stage. Still others, probably the largest group of us, lost momentum after November and are looking for the creative push to get them working again!

For me, I’m revising. I don’t need those big blocks of writing time anymore for this project. I’m well past that point. But still, I want to head into April with a goal and a plan so I don’t get lost out in the woods.

Knowing what I plan to work on makes coming into the month a lot easier. My main goal is to determine just what I need to do to reach the end of my third draft. Since I’m currently at 60,000 words right now and I want my novel to wrap up at 80-90,000, I need to make sure my goal is not more than 30,000. As you can see, in this situation, I may do a lot of deleting and tightening up of sections. That means final product quality is a LOT more important than word count goals at this time.

As you plan your goals, think carefully about what you hope to achieve. This will help you immensely during those long, slogging droughts where you can’t think of what to do. Having something to aim for helps to minimize those doubts!