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Well…here I am…at Camp Nanowrimo…and…no…that isn’t some symbolic Native American name…it actually stands for…National Novel Writing Month…Nanowrimo…is usually held in November…but…they have started having a summer camp…so…I’ve packed my duffle…filled mostly with Bertha’s shoes…and…here I am…

So…why…you may be wondering…would I be going to some strange writer’s camp…did I mention that it’s virtual…well…the goal of the camp is to write a minimum of 50,000 words in 30 days…that’s 1667 words a day…and…although…that may not sound like a lot…I’ve written eighty at this point…so it takes a bit of writing to get it done…

The whole point to this…is to write without editing…just write…write badly…write nonsense…just write…and…as easy as that sounds…it’s really hard to do…

There’s something about seeing letters appear on this blank white page…that brings out the perfectionist in most of us…and I’m definitely one of those…I know…it’s best to just write it…and…then…edit it later…but…I tend…to stop…and struggle…over a sentence…a paragraph…what Bertha is wearing…what movement would go with that statement…that kind of thing…and…honestly…that just slows me down…and…I don’t think it improves the writing that much…because…no matter how particular I am with it…when I come back to it in a few days…or weeks…I still make changes…I still have ideas for how it could go better…

Bertha…says…it’s…a…right brain…left brain…thing…that when I’m writing in that editing-as-I-go mode…I’m more left brain…but…after I close out the file…and…go on with my life…the story doesn’t leave me…it starts to bounce around in my…right brain…the creative side…even if I’m not consciously thinking about it…so…when I come back to it…viola…all these new ideas come flooding out…

She says…Camp Nanowrimo…is designed to keep me in the right brain mode…I won’t have time to get into left brain editing…or…I won’t have time to eat…hmmm…I think I’ll try right brain for 30 days…just saying…

But…Bertha…goes further…and…relates it to my life…that’s no surprise…she says that it reminds her…of when I’ve invited company over…and…I’ve stressed for days…weeks…even months…over getting everything picture-perfect before they come…and…while…we have a good time…she reminds me…of the times…when…things…have just evolved…without planning…no menu was made…no shopping was done…no toilets were scrubbed…someone just dropped by…and…a good time was had by all…

Now…I know…that isn’t a perfect analogy…but…somehow…it works for me…as I remember days…when my girls were young…throwing hotdogs on the grill with neighbors…playing basketball in the driveway…everyone dashing home to grab something…with no planning…no invitations…just doing it…just having fun…

So…with that attitude…I’m going to camp…

I just wonder…how can I work my blog into the book…hey…it’s over 400 words…I can’t waste them…hmmm…

Jane