The summer of victory!

Tyler and I both took on one ambitious goal last month: Writing books.

A month later, and thanks to National Novel Writing Month's Summer Camp (CampNaNoWriMo), we both succeeded in cranking out those first drafts. 

She wrote a synopsis on her book-writing process here, and today I thought I'd share mine. 

The backstory

I actually started my book last November. I had a dream about the opening scene, woke up and wrote it out. I kept going for the next 50 or so pages with only this vague idea of what exactly this book was going to be about. I had to let the story begin to come to life before I could really develop a concrete plot. 

If you're a regular follower of this blog, you know that a few months after November, I was busy getting married (and preparing for that), so the book took a huge spot on the backburner. I would write still, but it was sporadic and random. 

Still, I kept talking the plot over with some trusted writer friends (like Tyler, my rock) and developing the story in my head. 

When I heard about NaNoWriMo's summer camp, I immediately jumped on board. Sure, July is hands down not the easiest month to tackle a huge project, but what really is? 

The writing process

Two things are true about my writing style: Sitting down and doing it every day is a challenge; a mandated word count is hard to meet. 

I had to do both of those things in July, and somedays that was a gigantic hurdle. We went out of town a lot that month (hello, summertime!). I still had to write. 

If I was sick or just tired from working or anything else, I still had to write. 

The discipline got easier for me at the end. Actually I did not start camp off with a bang but rather eased my way into meeting my daily word counts and being anti-social when needed. 

At the beginning of the month, the whole thing was pretty daunting to me. Somewhere in the middle I started to get in a groove and fell in love with writing all over again. And by the end I was just rushing, tired and ready to finish. 

Now what?

I definitely have taken a good week or so to just relish in the whole completing a first draft process. 

Now, it's time to buckle down and write the second draft, get it readable and as Tyler said, beg beta readers to read it for me! 

And definitely lots of blogging. I actually have a super huge announcement coming in a separate post soon, soon, soon! 

—Holli Anne