Camp Time

Mr. Savory has gone to camp for the month of August.  Camp NaNoWriMo, an online novel-writing support complete with cabins and mates.

Camp NaNoWriMo is the camp version of National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November.  August works well for Mr. Savory because his days at the office tend to be quieter, so he can sneak in a little time at camp during the day, and his chances of needing to stay late verge on unlikely.

The goal for these novel writers is 50,000 words by the end of the month, roughly 1,600 words daily.  So far, he has been a model camper.  He's written at the pool, in the evening while watching the Olympics, with dogs at his feet, and sitting along side fellow train commuters.

Mr. Savory views this opportunity as a jump start to completing a large portion of his first draft.  Prior to this he said he did a lot of revising and tinkering on his outline and risked not meeting his own goal of completing a novel in one year.

Being part of a large group working towards the same individual goal is really motivating and helps alleviate that feeling of isolation. 

Novelists can ask to be placed in a cabin with other campers around your age and writing in a similar genre.  This didn't exactly work out for Mr. Savory considering that his five remaining cabin mates are all female (the one other guy seems to have packed his trunk to be no longer heard from) and rather young.  The most prolific being a fifteen year old British girl who loves her novel.  Their cabin, however, is apparently the envy of Camp NaNoWriMo and viewed as one of the most active and chatty (campers are allowed to post to their cabin mates once a day and are limited to 250 characters).

At the end of the month, if (and I know he will) Mr. Savory makes it to 50,000 words, he will win a badge to put over his avatar, and more importantly, the satisfaction of a goal achieved.