NaNoWriMo...Camp...?

I've known about NaNoWriMo for a couple years now.  I've been meaning to jump on board with it.  This year was the year.  I'm going to do it.  It would be good for me, but it also means something to my kids.  If they seem me working on this, well, maybe it will inspire them.

Then I heard about Camp NaNoWriMo.  It's two months of NaNoWriMo in the summer.  The site has a cute summer camp feel, and it looks like this is the first year they're doing it.  I've been feeling inspired lately.  I've been meaning to write a story.  It's in my brain, but I just have to write it.  In theory I could write both segments as one story and end up with a story about 350 pages.  That's a pretty average size novel in my experience, but that might be on the long side.  I don't know how it all pans out.  What I do know is anything I write is definitely not going to be something I try and sell.  I'm not that good of an author, and I know first attempts at novels rarely sell, so I don't think I'll even try.  Hell, I might not even be able to do it, but I've got to try, you know?

So, what is this whole NaNoWriMo?  Most of the people I know will be reading this already know.  It's National Novel Writing Month.  The idea is to write one 50,000 word novel in the month of November.  That's an average of about 1667 words a day.  To someone like me that can easily throw that into one blog post, that's not really a lot, but in putting it into story format it just might be.  I've got a lot of work to do if I'm going to make this work.  I guess it's a good thing it's summer.  I'm not focused on homeschooling so I can really take the time to write.  I might even be able to carve out some time at Starbucks to escape and get some work done.  I'm excited and inspired.

This is going to be a huge step for me as a writer.  It's not even about my abilities, or how good of a story I'll write.  It's really about accomplishing something, about saying I've actually done something with my life.  It's a goal with a very definite deadline.  If I can pull off a 50,000 word story in a month, what else am I capable of?  There's no time like the present, right?  So we'll see what I can come up with.  My focus is going to be July (even though I've missed the boat on the start date) and see what I can come up with.  After that, maybe I'll take on August?  Maybe I'll start a new story?  Maybe I'll just shoot for November?  Most importantly, if I can do this, I'm more than ready to take on a new challenge.  If I can do this, there's no question on whether or not I can take on the challenge of school!  If I've got that kind of dedication, school should be that much more realistic of a goal, right?  What a way to inspire myself as well as my children.