5 Reasons I Love Camp NaNo + Question Call

I'm back, y'all! I got back from a week-long missions trip to Belize last Monday! I meant to get back to the blogging life last Tuesday, but I needed some extra time away to get healthy, so I took it. I hope to get back to reading y'all's posts now that I'm feeling a bit better.

I'm planning on writing a post about my trip and I'd love to answer any questions that you might have about it. Feel free to leave as many as you'd like in the comments and I'll try to answer them!

Today I decided to write a little bit about Camp NaNo seeing as it's just around the corner. #eek

It's no secret around here that I love the NaNo events. Three times a year, us introverted writers come crawling out of our holes to do something completely out of the ordinary for us. We interact in a big way, both online and in person. While I do love the main NaNoWriMo event, I love Camp NaNo even more. Here are five reasons why!

~Community~

I've written about the community of writers before. It's one of my favorite parts of writing. Despite our reputation for being cloistered introverts, we strive to help each other become better writers and better people through our uplifting words and advice.

The cabins are soooo awesome for this because it gives us cool people the opportunity to talk things out and celebrate with one another when we hit milestones. We also get the opportunity to urge one another on when we hit rough patches. Many times we've virtually carried each other over the finish line. It's pretty awesome and is something NaNo proper misses out on. The forums have nothing on the cabins!

~Realistic Goals~

Let's face it: not everyone has the time/motivation/ability/desire to write 50k words in a month. For some of us, it's not realistic. Camp NaNo offers the chance to lower or raise the goal depending on what you think you're able to accomplish. Think you can only write 10k this month? That's great! Put that as your goal! Want to try your hand at writing 100k in a month? Wow, you're insane, but sure, go ahead!

Whatever your goals or abilities are, Camp NaNo is willing to work with you. It's pretty awesome! I also love that you can change your goal as you go along. If you feel like you can push yourself harder, you can raise it, or if you feel like you aren't going to reach your goal, you can lower it. It's pretty awesome!

~The Non-Writing Geekiness~

The Order of the Pen has two Camp NaNo traditions. 1) the Change-Avenger-Movies-Quotes-to-Writerly-Wisdom tradition and the 2) #writeeverythingasahashtag tradition (which Evangeline refuses to participate in for some reason. That's cool. I write enough hashtags to cover for her). #itsawesome 

The cabins provide an epic way to geek out over other things besides just our writing (though that is a big deal). I really love the camaraderie that you find in the cabins. Again, the forums on the main site just don't come close to the epicness. 

~Flexibility~

Working on anything but a first draft? Great! You can join right in! I love that Camp allows you to work on editing, plays, poems, songs, or whatever other kinds of writing projects you feel like working on.

Last July I was working on edits so I set an hour goal. I started with 40 hours, but I had to change it several times because #lifehappened. I think I ended with 30 hours. That flexibility was so nice to have (or else I would have lost completely).

~Opportunities~

Okay, so this is more from a personal experience rather than something everyone experiences. But, I suppose, if you keep your eyes open, opportunities can spring into your lap. You just have to know how to ask. 

Two of The Order of the Pen members were first guests of our cabin before they became members. We got to hang out, learn more about them, then as the month came to a close, we couldn't see ourselves without them in our group, so we invited both of them. Camp NaNo's cabins gave us the opportunity to get to know these awesome people. Who knows what might be waiting around the corner. Collabs? Critique partners? Someone who has answers for your particular struggle? There's a whole world of opportunities waiting out there. Just reach out!

I hope you enjoyed my list of reasons why I love Camp! No, I wasn't paid to be an advertiser. I just love the program that much!

Do you love Camp NaNo? How many times have you participated in it? Are you doing it this time around? What are some of the reasons you love it? Do you have any questions you'd like me to answer about my missions trip?