CampNano: First Impressions

I’ve officially survived the first two days of my first ever CampNaNoWriMo! Actually, this is my first time participating in NaNoWriMo, ever. What are my first thoughts?

Well, first it’s really not as scary as I thought it would be. Maybe I would be thinking differently if my goal were the full 50,000 instead of 20,000, but nevertheless, 646 words a day isn’t as much as it seems. 

The first day was pretty awesome. It was exciting to count down the minutes, and start the words just as midnight struck. I enjoyed interacting with other campers, meeting my cabin mates, and participating in some NaNo word sprints. Add that to not only meeting my word goal for the first day, but the second day as well, and I was feeling pretty good. 

But later that night, I was not feeling so chipper. With the initial rush gone, I was left with my own competitive drive, perfectionism, and self-doubt. Every single word was like pulling a tooth, and was just as painful because I knew every word was wrong, but I forced myself not to edit, and just kept stubbornly plugging along. 

Enter: day two (really? It seems like it’s been a week, already). I. Am. Exhausted. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I have been busy all day, non-stop, on only two hours of sleep. I don’t know how I’m functioning at this point, honestly. Thinking about coming home and having to get some words on the page felt overwhelming. I wondered why the heck I signed up for this in the first place, during what could be the busiest month for me in a long time. 

I am sleep-deprived, worn down, and still just as stubborn. Somehow, when I sat down to force myself to hammer out a few more words so I could sleep easy tonight, the words flowed. Not a lot, but this time they came of their own accord, and they felt right.

I guess it just goes to show you have to trust in the process. When I was fired up and ready, the words felt wrong. But I wrote them anyways, and now, when I am on the brink of collapse, somehow the right ones came.

My current word count is 1656, though I plan on getting a few more down tonight before collapsing in a heap of exhaustion. I’m trying to get as far ahead as possible, to build myself a nice cushion so I don’t have to stress out later, and have some flexibility on my trip next week. 

Please bear with me, as I can’t promise I’ll be as engaged on Twitter or WordPress this month, with so much else going on. I still love you all ❤

Hopefully the rest of this ride isn’t as much of a roller coaster as the first two days have been. Thankfully, I’m in a cabin with an awesome group of people, and the CampNano community is already amazing. I’m hanging in there, and I’ll try to update as much as I can. I still love to hear from you–both campers, and otherwise! Have a great week 🙂