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M.J. Fifield

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Upta Camp

Posted on April 5, 2023April 4, 2023 by M.J. Fifield

Welp, it’s April 5th, which means that I’ve been back at Camp NaNoWriMo on the shores of lovely Lake Creativity (Note: not a real lake. At least I don’t think so.) for five whole days now.


My goal this month is to finish the first draft of Terrible Romance Sequel, which—interesting fun fact—I’ve been trying and failing to finish since I started it during the November 2020 session of—you guessed it—NaNoWriMo.

Will this month finally be the month I finish the first draft of this story?

I mean, it won’t be, but a girl can still dream, right?

My word count goal for the month is set at 20,000 words. I decided on that based on the fact that the manuscript word count entering this month was around 75,000, and the first draft of the Terrible Romance Novel (aka Love & Other Lies) ended up being around 95,000 words (It got shorter in the second draft).

But that’s all an estimation. I may need more than 20,000 words to finish this thing. I may need less. I really don’t know. I do know that with a 20,000 word goal, my daily goal comes out to approximately 666 words per day. Which I’m sure is just a fun coincidence and not a harbinger of doom or anything like that.

This next picture is the storyboard for this particular project. Teal squares are scenes that have been started but are not yet finished. Pink squares are completed (at least for now…) scenes. You can see at the bottom that there are also purple squares. That color is reserved for scenes that are planned but haven’t yet been started. Currently, there are no such scenes in this book.

So tune in this month for regular (or semi-regular, or maybe even non-existent, because I do occasionally (translation: always) forget to update this blog) updates on how the Camp experience is going. In theory, the next picture of the storyboard will feature a lot more pink.

Here are the numbers so far:

CAMP STATS

Word Count Goal: 20,000

Where the word count should be: 3,335

Where the word count actually is: 3,167

Number of words to go: 16,833

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month? If so, how’s it going?

16 thoughts on “Upta Camp”

  1. Madeline Mora-Summonte says:
    April 5, 2023 at 9:19 am

    Love your whole post-it note system!

    Good luck at Camp! Have a s’more for me…. 🙂

  2. Jemi Fraser says:
    April 5, 2023 at 9:23 am

    Woohoo! I’m cheering for you – hope this is the NaNo to beat all NaNos!
    Love the blog look!

  3. Loni Townsend says:
    April 5, 2023 at 11:35 am

    Woot woot! You can do it! And no, the daily count is definitely not an omen.

    I was going to comment last month about the new blog look, but there ended up not being a post. :O So I’ll say this month, I like the new look. It looks a little familiar… (I think we might have the same base, though not the same theme.)

    I admire your post-it notes. I’ve tried something similar before and often give up halfway. What I’d really love is a Jarvis-type system with interactive holograms that allow me to group and move ideas in augmented reality. Why can’t someone make something like that for writers? Alas.

  4. C. Lee McKenzie says:
    April 5, 2023 at 11:56 am

    Wishing you success on your challenge this month!

  5. Kate says:
    April 5, 2023 at 1:49 pm

    I know you can do it! You’re so much more organised than I am with all those post it notes.

  6. Tyrean Martinson says:
    April 5, 2023 at 2:08 pm

    Wow! Way to go with Camp NaNo! I hope that Terrible Romance Sequel finds its way to the finish. You’ve got this.
    I’m participating and I made myself a terrible goal I will most likely not achieve unless… well, some kind of miracle happens. But my main non-Nano goal is to write a poem a day this month and so far, that’s going well. 🙂

  7. Liz A. says:
    April 5, 2023 at 3:45 pm

    Good luck. All you can do is to keep plugging away. You’ll get to the end. Eventually. You always do.

  8. Patricia says:
    April 5, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    Good luck, MJ!

  9. Sarah Foster says:
    April 5, 2023 at 6:15 pm

    Good luck with Camp NaNo! You can do it! I’m always impressed by your planning and organization. My husband has a bunch of colored post-its for his comedy writing. Maybe I should steal them…

  10. Alex+J.+Cavanaugh says:
    April 5, 2023 at 7:13 pm

    You are such a planner. My sticky notes would just fall to the floor and I’d never be able to put them back into place.

  11. Chrys Fey says:
    April 5, 2023 at 9:04 pm

    I’ve got my fingers crossed that you can win Camp NaNo and that you’ll either finish the first draft or come very close to it. As you know, I am participating in Camp, and…it’s not going so well. lol Maybe later in the month I’ll be more productive.

  12. Samantha J Bryant says:
    April 5, 2023 at 9:41 pm

    Best of luck to you. May the words flow and the characters cooperate.

  13. L. Diane Wolfe says:
    April 6, 2023 at 7:56 am

    20,000 – you can do it.

  14. Zoe Davies says:
    April 6, 2023 at 12:55 pm

    Wow, congrats on finishing your first draft of the sequel to your Terrible Romance Novel! You’ve worked so hard on this and I’m sure it will be a great read. Keep up the good work!

  15. JE Oneil says:
    April 6, 2023 at 2:17 pm

    No purple squares seems like a win. Better get to work on your daily 666.

  16. Christine Rains says:
    April 7, 2023 at 8:26 am

    You’ve got this! And no, that daily number isn’t at all a harbinger… Nope… nooooo.

    And a little sidenote, I really like Camp NaNo’s badge there. I might have to do it myself just so I can officially use the badge!

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