Notes from Camp Nano
04/04/2014 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaNotes from Camp Nano
Once again this crazy serpent has embarked on the month of madness that is Camp Nano. These days there’s lots of room for sooks and wimps. In the beginning, the rules were carved in stone like the Ten Commandments.
Thou shalt write a novel of 50,000 words in a period not exceeding 30 days beginning on the first day of the calendar month as prescribed by the God of Words.
Thou shalt curse and blaspheme the Gods if it serves the purpose of increasing thy tally of words.
Thou shalt slave over a steaming keyboard on the Sabbath if necessary.
Thou shalt murder as many innocent characters as thou desirest in the service of the worthy word tally
Thou shalt resort to fornication and other adulterous perversions in pursuit of this worthy goal
Thou shalt covet thy neighbour’s word count if such jealousy serves the purpose of increasing one’s own meagre efforts.
Bearing false witness by cheating on the word count was about the only unforgivable and most mortal of sins in the cult of Nanology. But this strict regime proved too restrictive for prospective converts so the gurus watered down the most central tenet of the faith by allowing the infidels to replace the most holy of numbers the 50,000 with one of their own choosing and deleting the word ‘novel’ to be replaced with abominations such as ‘script’ ‘poem’, ‘short story’ or even ‘exceedingly pompous rambling streams of consciousness’
So this fickle serpent saw that it was in her interest to maintain the crazy Holy Grail of 50,000 words since it is most easily achievable by letting loose a legion of inner beasties. It was the N word that offered the most scope for sneaky and tricksy possibilities. Namely diving into a bunch of Devil’s decks, choosing cards and randomly writing whatever the inner eye may see.
That was the map. The territory turns out to be very different. Last April it was a struggle to reach the official daily word count let alone the personal serpent goal of 2,000 words per day. Plodded on day by day abandoned and ridiculed by the muses. Only in the final days did they deem this serpent worthy of a visit thanks to some suggestions from a certain Cat.
This April it is almost impossible to keep the muses in their Pandora’s box. They are running riot all over the place. But they had to be disregarded and ignored on Tuesday due to a pesky essay due by midnight. This 330 word little thing sucked up time like a black hole. One hour to go trawling for relevant quotes and page numbers and another to cut out 40 words of excess fat. To waste an hour dumping words when the whole point of Camp Nano is to write as many words as possible and to wait until next month to toss out the dross, it was almost criminal. Then the next day required reviewing five essays on the same topic and making appropriate comments and suggestions which took a good forty minutes.
Some folks proudly boast of spending no more than five minutes for all assessment. Izzie is not one of them. But unfortunately what goes around does not necessarily come around. Three of the five just gave the default score of 2 out of 3 and did not even bother to leave comments.
So the grammar nazis and the box tickers have been on the rampage and once again the latest serpent offering scores the default 4 score. It seriously sucks. It is just as well that the numbers are not the main game although it does end the evil ambition to “Beat the Cat”
But looking at the bigger picture, the reading list for this time sucking course is a most amazing training ground for any aspiring writer. From Grimm’s Fairy tales, through Alice in Wonderland, Dracula and Frankenstein to Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, there is a veritable cornucopia of ideas and techniques to snaffle and snatch.
Combined with a few decks of Tarot cards and a glass or two of red, it is a combination that is almost guaranteed to produce dozens of promising story seeds.
This time the problem is keeping up with the muses rather than desperately attempting to summon them. There’s two more time gobbling essays due although today’s pissy little 4 provides a sufficient score to pass the course.
But the art of saying as much as possible with only 320 words at one’s disposal is well worth learning and stands in stark contrast to the Camp Nano goal of just churning out the words. Quantity over quality because you cannot edit a blank page is their philosophy.
One is fun and the other is a whole pile of work but both are useful weapons in the arsenal of any would be squiggler.
Once again this crazy serpent has embarked on the month of madness that is Camp Nano. These days there’s lots of room for sooks and wimps. In the beginning, the rules were carved in stone like the Ten Commandments.
Thou shalt write a novel of 50,000 words in a period not exceeding 30 days beginning on the first day of the calendar month as prescribed by the God of Words.
Thou shalt curse and blaspheme the Gods if it serves the purpose of increasing thy tally of words.
Thou shalt slave over a steaming keyboard on the Sabbath if necessary.
Thou shalt murder as many innocent characters as thou desirest in the service of the worthy word tally
Thou shalt resort to fornication and other adulterous perversions in pursuit of this worthy goal
Thou shalt covet thy neighbour’s word count if such jealousy serves the purpose of increasing one’s own meagre efforts.
Bearing false witness by cheating on the word count was about the only unforgivable and most mortal of sins in the cult of Nanology. But this strict regime proved too restrictive for prospective converts so the gurus watered down the most central tenet of the faith by allowing the infidels to replace the most holy of numbers the 50,000 with one of their own choosing and deleting the word ‘novel’ to be replaced with abominations such as ‘script’ ‘poem’, ‘short story’ or even ‘exceedingly pompous rambling streams of consciousness’
So this fickle serpent saw that it was in her interest to maintain the crazy Holy Grail of 50,000 words since it is most easily achievable by letting loose a legion of inner beasties. It was the N word that offered the most scope for sneaky and tricksy possibilities. Namely diving into a bunch of Devil’s decks, choosing cards and randomly writing whatever the inner eye may see.
That was the map. The territory turns out to be very different. Last April it was a struggle to reach the official daily word count let alone the personal serpent goal of 2,000 words per day. Plodded on day by day abandoned and ridiculed by the muses. Only in the final days did they deem this serpent worthy of a visit thanks to some suggestions from a certain Cat.
This April it is almost impossible to keep the muses in their Pandora’s box. They are running riot all over the place. But they had to be disregarded and ignored on Tuesday due to a pesky essay due by midnight. This 330 word little thing sucked up time like a black hole. One hour to go trawling for relevant quotes and page numbers and another to cut out 40 words of excess fat. To waste an hour dumping words when the whole point of Camp Nano is to write as many words as possible and to wait until next month to toss out the dross, it was almost criminal. Then the next day required reviewing five essays on the same topic and making appropriate comments and suggestions which took a good forty minutes.
Some folks proudly boast of spending no more than five minutes for all assessment. Izzie is not one of them. But unfortunately what goes around does not necessarily come around. Three of the five just gave the default score of 2 out of 3 and did not even bother to leave comments.
So the grammar nazis and the box tickers have been on the rampage and once again the latest serpent offering scores the default 4 score. It seriously sucks. It is just as well that the numbers are not the main game although it does end the evil ambition to “Beat the Cat”
But looking at the bigger picture, the reading list for this time sucking course is a most amazing training ground for any aspiring writer. From Grimm’s Fairy tales, through Alice in Wonderland, Dracula and Frankenstein to Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, there is a veritable cornucopia of ideas and techniques to snaffle and snatch.
Combined with a few decks of Tarot cards and a glass or two of red, it is a combination that is almost guaranteed to produce dozens of promising story seeds.
This time the problem is keeping up with the muses rather than desperately attempting to summon them. There’s two more time gobbling essays due although today’s pissy little 4 provides a sufficient score to pass the course.
But the art of saying as much as possible with only 320 words at one’s disposal is well worth learning and stands in stark contrast to the Camp Nano goal of just churning out the words. Quantity over quality because you cannot edit a blank page is their philosophy.
One is fun and the other is a whole pile of work but both are useful weapons in the arsenal of any would be squiggler.
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no subject
Date: 2014-04-04 04:59 pm (UTC)Good luck to you!
no subject
Date: 2014-04-05 04:46 pm (UTC)Are you signing up for November this time?
Izzie still misses the old gang of evil Slytherins. Here's guessing they are all now playing "Game of Thrones"
no subject
Date: 2014-04-05 05:45 pm (UTC)And yes, I've moved on to other fandoms, GoT included, but also Breaking Bad and How I met Your Mother... Very varied as you can see! ;)