Camp NaNoWriMo - Who's With Me?

NaNoWriMo has opened a summer camp and I am an enthusiastic registered participant.

If you are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is held every year during the month of November. But I'll be honest, even though I participate, November is not the best time for a teacher to focus on being a writer. I find time to write during the school year (I really can't stop myself from writing down the voices in my head), but trying to get to the goal of 50,000 words in a month... that's a lot to ask for.

But August, now this is my writing month. When I learned the NaNoWriMo has opened a summer camp I signed up right away. I just hope they get more camp t-shirts in soon.

50,000 words here I come!

Will you join me at camp? Go to Camp NaNoWriMo for more details. If you do sign up, please come back and leave a comment with your username so I can find you there.

(A shout out and thank you to Hazel Mitchell for posting details about this camp on Facebook.)

When Two Stories Call

In two days I enter the writing portion of my summer: three and a half uninterrupted weeks when both of my kids are at camp.

I can't wait!

My only problem? TWO works in progress can't wait either. Every time I sit down to start planning one, the other's voice gets stronger. If I switch, the same thing happens in reverse.

So what am I to do? Work on both? One in the morning and one in the afternoon? Lock one up until the other one is finished? But how do I decide?

What do you do when more than one story calls to you?

Silencing the WIP What Ifs...

When I first started writing I wrote because I had to, because I loved it, because the voices in my head could not be quiet until I wrote them down. Now I find that I am filled with what ifs...

What if it is not as good as the last book I wrote?

What if the character has the same voice as my last character?

What if I can't figure out where it is going?

What if no one likes it?

What if my critique group likes it, but my agent hates it?

What if my agent likes it, but editors don't?

What if another idea was a better one to follow?

What if...

STOP

So now that I got that all down I am going to print it, rip it up into a million pieces, and go back to listening to the voices in my head, writing them down, and realizing that most of my writing happens in revision anyway.

Do you have what ifs? What do you do to silence them?