So Camp NaNoWriMo has ended. I didn’t meet my goal, but let me tell you why I’m not devastated or disappointed in myself. If you haven’t already, read my other posts chronicling my Camp NaNoWriMo journey! Introduction|Week 1|Week 2|Week 3

Also, before I start, I’d like to give a big shout out to Lia from Lost in a Story. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t have even found out about Camp NaNoWriMo, nonetheless joined. She also reached her goal which is amazing!

I’d also like to thank all my fellow Cabin mates for sticking by my side and helping me whenever I had questions or doubted myself! Their names will have links to their blogs if they have one! These lovely ladies are Camille (who has a subscription box company!), Tiana, Sea, Lizzy, Kitsune123, and last but not least, Saida. You are all such amazing people and even if you didn’t reach your goal, I’m still proud of all of y’all.

Camp NaNoWriMo has unlocked my inner writer. I’m a candle and my wick has been lit. I’ve gotten inspiration and so much help from so many people, even if it’s just people on Twitter who are participating as well, seeing how much they’ve written has inspired me to write. Before Camp NaNo, I hadn’t written a single word in my book in about 6 months (possibly more) and the only other things I’ve been writing have been school essays and blog posts.

I only hit 10,887 words, but I’m so proud of myself for that. I doubt myself a lot as a writer even though everyone around me has done nothing but support me and loved my work. I think if we’re all honest with ourselves we’d admit that we are our worst critics. I doubt almost every word I write and it’s a struggle. It’s already difficult enough to write a book, but when you’re unsure if you like what you’re writing or not, it makes it even harder.

So, yes, I’m proud of my 10,000 words and I’ve heard there’s a Camp NaNoWriMo in July as well. I don’t know if I’ll be participating in that or not – since it’s both summer and my birthday month – I will try and see what’d going on then, though, because sometimes my family goes on spur-of-the-moment trips during the summer months (especially since not only is my birthday in the summer, but my sister’s and dad’s as well).

I am proud of how much writing I got done and how confident I am in my characters and story. I think the easiest way for me to write is to just jot down random scenes that pop into my head without any chronological order mapped out in my brain. My future self who has to edit this book and make it readable will probably hate my present drafting self, but that’s the only way I’m able to get myself to write without getting really bad writer’s block or doubting what I’m writing and what I’ll be writing next.

I’ve also got a few more snippets for y’all (some I didn’t want to previously share because I was honestly a bit scared y’all might not like it):

“I hum a song I’ve listened to on repeat, the harmony of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, and Richard Wright in my ears. My feet hit the sidewalk to the beat of the music. I probably look like someone who doesn’t know how to properly control her feet, but I don’t care because Pink Floyd is my escape.”

I didn’t like this paragraph after I wrote it and looking back at it throughout the month I still didn’t like it. I found it cliche and so unlike something I would write, but I’ve broken the chains that I’ve bound around myself for the longest time and now that I look back at it – having written 10K more words than when I had written this sentence – I realize how much I actually love it. This paragraph defines me as a writer more than I’d like to admit.

“I bite my bottom lip, a bad habit that’s grown on my within the past year. I open the bag and smile at the contents. Blueberry scones. I look up at my mom who is smiling as well.

“If you don’t eat them, I will.”

I grab the bag and hold it against me in an embrace as I smell the scent of the scones wafting out of the bag, still warm. “Do you have coffee?” I ask. “You know scones are useless without coffee.”

“It’s almost 10.” My mom says, though she knows how seriously I take my scones and coffee.”

I just loved this exchange with my main character Madison and her mother. It kind of reminds me of Gilmore Girls in a sense and I think that’s why I wrote it.

“I sit in my room, empty boxes surrounding my naked bed. I sit cross-legged on the stained mattress and frown. My door squeaks open and I see my mom’s face pop in. She looks at the boxes for a second before giving me a sympathetic look. “Would you like coffee, sweetheart?”

“What I would like is for these boxes to disappear. What I would like is to stop being judged for the color of my skin. What I would like is for Mrs. Oliver’s bakery to stay open and for you to work there because you love it there.” I say, looking her in the eye. “But we don’t always get what we want, now do we?”

“One or two sugar cubes?”

“Two.” I grumble.

She disappears and I lay back in my bed.”

There’s another mother-daughter scene of mine, which I absolutely adore. I have more snippets I could show y’all but I don’t want to give away too much of my story because there are a lot of surprises in store!

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Did any of you participate in Camp NaNoWriMo? If so, did you meet your goals? I’d love to know! Getting feedback on my snippets would be great as well! I had so much fun during Camp and will definitely participate as much as I am able to in the future!

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