What I’m Planning for Camp NaNoWriMo

April’s Camp NaNoWriMo was really productive, so I’ve decided to up my game this time around with July’s CampNaNoWriMo. I reached my word count goal of 10 000 words a lot easier than I had expected last time, so I’ve decided to set the bar at 20 000 words for July. Which is about 650 a day and should have me well on my way to writing 50 000 in November.

 

I am not going to work on just one project, however. My main project is a collection of short stories (*gasp* did I actually admit that in public?) – a project that I have been keeping under the radar for the most part. While I probably won’t put up parts of the stories to read, I am going to give some of the inspiration behind the stories. 

I also have quite a bit of revisions to do during July, as well as another huge project which I am absolutely giddy about(watch this space).

 

If you haven’t signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo yet, and want to, it’s free and you still have the rest of June to do so. Cabins will be assigned from 20 June. Go to the Camp NaNoWriMo site to find out more.

Writing and Studying and Proofreading, O My!

Or, an update of what I’ve been up to the past month

While I’ve been off on “vacation”, I’ve actually been working at top speed on the Everlasting Dissertation. It now only needs a final proofread! And I finished a few days before my leave ended, so I had a few days off to let my mind remember that there is a world beyond the pile of books in front of me. That world includes more books and afternoon naps…

Some proper writing time

In the rush of the past few months I’ve only been able to jot down some ideas and not really giving much thought to my other writing endeavours. So, in my few days off, I indulged in some writing and am now busy with four short stories. (These are just too long to be considered flash fiction.)

The stories are all speculative fiction, though for quite different markets. I don’t want to divulge too much about the stories, but I can say that they include a Christian fantasy story, a zombie story and one for which I need to do some extra research on archaeological field methods.

Some Plans for the future

I’m also going to do Nanowrimo this year with one of my friends (if all goes well!) and I’m really looking forward to that. And there is another local competition I want to enter. The main gist of the idea is there, but it still needs quite a lot of world building.

Until then I’m burying my face in the Eternal Dissertation one last time before handing it in. Wish me luck!

Seeing the Alien, Seeing Magic – Writing Wednesday

While writing what was supposed to be a piece of flash fiction, I was confronted again by just how important details are when setting a story in a specific location. In this case the story is set in my hometown. Well, city, to be exact. I sent the story in for critiques to my writing group (The Anomalous Sandbox) and received some notes which made me realise just how alien the description was to someone on the other side of the world. While the bustling streets were familiar, layout of streets and shops, things in the shops and the weather were noted as being “wrong”.

Photo courtesy of 
Belovodchenko Anton

As I had described a neighbourhood akin to mine (and weather I’ve been living with my whole life) I knew that what I was describing was indeed “right”. But I had not painted a clear enough picture of the setting. Not only that, I had not included the details which I take for granted every day which would have set the story more firmly in a specific city (or neighbourhood).

I started reworking the story, putting in a bit more description here, a little bit more “local flavour” there, and soon realised that a bigger story was waiting behind the first scribbled draft. I’m still working on the second draft, though, but this time around it is most definitely set in SA. Or, at least, the small part of the country which I live in.

It’s a strange mixture of cultures, languages, violence and compassion. Only when speaking to some people from other countries do I realise anew that it’s not second nature for everyone to switch between two (or more) languages during a day, or normal to walk into the kitchen at work and hear four different languages spoken. And I realised once more that setting a story in my little part of the world is as alien to some readers as if I had set in on another planet.

Protea, SA's National Flower

You may ask yourself ‘what is the point of all this rambling?’ Good question. My answer is that the point is learning to see _your_ world through different eyes. Not the eyes of the person who travels the same route to work every day, or who visit the same shop every week. It’s the eyes of a person who sees a place for the first time, who sees anew the people, the neighbours, the streets, the music, the poetry and the jokes. There is a magic, a fantastical world waiting to be discovered in your everyday surroundings. And, sometimes, I forget that.