Do you need writing project inspiration for CampNaNoWriMo?

ALLi Communications Manager, Jay Artale, reminds us about NaNoWriMo's baby sister CampNaNoWriMo, and shares some inspiration to help you choose your writing project. If you haven't participated before, this virtual cabin event takes place every April and July, and is an opportunity for writers to get motivated and inspired to crank out the first draft of any writing project.

Whereas the November NaNoWriMo event focuses on writing a novel, these virtual summer camps offer more content flexibility. You can still use this month-long event to write the first draft of your next fiction or non-fiction project, but you can opt to write a book of poetry, a novella, a script, or collection of short stories.

It's also an good opportunity to revise (or finish) the 1st draft of your novel you wrote in November. CampNaNoWriMo welcomes any word-count goal.

5 Reasons to attend CampNaNoWriMo

1. You can complete your writing project in a month
2. You can track your progress
3. You can get invaluable online support
4. It's free to attend
5. It's fun to collaborate with other writers

Join a Virtual Cabin

The CampNaNoWriMo cabins now they hold up to twenty writers, and you have the opportunity to chat with your cabin mates online. Cabins are a great to have a select team of writers on hand for encouragement, inspiration, and accountability.

This year I announced my project and then put my name down to be automatically allocated to a cabin of non-fiction writers. I've requested that I'm allocated to a cabin with writers who have a similar word-count goal and write in my genre.

You can only be in one cabin at a time, but if you don't like the cabin you're in, you can opt out and jump into another cabin that has a virtual writing desk available.

Last year I attended July's CampNaNoWriMo to write a Poetic memoir in Verse to use as a giveaway to build my mailing list. I had lots of half-started poems about my relocation from Los Angeles to Turkey, and the cultural challenges of settling into this new destination, so I used the Camp to focus on finishing this poetry collection. The following month it was beta read and proofed, then published on Amazon.

I really like the idea of these “imposed” monthly deadlines, so if you need a little push in the right direction to get a small writing project finished. I highly recommend attending CampNaNoWriMo in April.

Not sure what to write at CampNaNoWriMo?

CampNaNoWriMo starts on April 1st, so there's no time to waste. If you're not sure what project to work on, here are some articles from our blog to help motivate and inspire your camp experience.

Write a Giveaway

Here's my article from year about using the Camp to write a giveaway to build your mailing list.

Write a Short Story

Tim Lewis interviewed James Scott Bell during our last Indie Author Fringe event, and they discussed the strategic use of short stories to help market your novel.

Write a Prequel

If you've already written your first novel or series, how about using Camp to write a prequel to help market your other books?

Set yourself a 50 page writing goal

Set yourself a goal of writing 50 pages in 30 days by following the writing advice from one of our Indie Author Fringe speakers Leila Dewji.

Write a Best Seller!

If you're still in need of inspiration to pack your bag and head off to camp, maybe these inspiring words from our Indie Author Fringe poet in residence, Dan Holloway, will get you in the right frame of mind.

Are you going to camp?

Let us know about your CampNaNoWriMo writing project in the comments section below. We want to hear about your creative intent.