A Camp Nanorimo Reflection

Sunday was the day that the Camp Nanorimo cabins closed up. It was relieving and yet heart braking to have Camp Nanorimo end. I mean will I miss stressing myself out to write? No. Will I miss discussing with the two lovely guys I met in my cabin? In every way. The three of us decided on just going our separate ways. Not that we didn't love each other, just that we thought that just we should see what happens. See if we meet up in one of the many Nanorimo forums or get assigned to the same cabin in April. Kind of just let fate do the work. It was funny all the things we talked about. Though the cabins were mostly for discussing our novels and things along those lines, my friend who went by the name "Monkey Typewriter" or as we just called him "monkey" and I trailed off the ever so stressing subject of novelising and talked about things we liked. Music, video games, Tumblr. The two of us became pretty close and made a pact in the middle of the month to give each other verbal slaps to the face if we even said a word of giving up. We all were on each other's teams and were sticking together for this month of insanity. I ended up cutting my 50,000 word goal down to 30,000 for I had come in fifteen days late all because of camp. When I was just so frustrated and felt as if the only thing I could do was give up, one of my other cabin mates, Sky told me something that I will use for the next how ever many Nanorimos there are to come. He said:
"write terribly. Write drivel. Write boring and dull characters and a menial plot. Just write, and soon the greatness will start to come."
 What my awesome cabin mate told me brought me to the realization that I would not walk out of Nanorimo with a novel ready for publication. This was only a rough draft and therefor we should all just write terribly and have greatness come when greatness comes.
 I really did wish that the other people in our cabin had participated. We had about eight campers and only the three of us talked and worked on our novels. We didn't let the lack of people stop us from having fun though! Every single mile stone we hit, we would do a dance party. This didn't mean just for yourself. We danced when Monkey hit 10,00 and still danced when Sky hit 15,000 and that memorable moment where I got to 20,000. We were all just as happy to have ourselves hit halfway and have another one of us hit a milestone. Not only was there a lot of dancing involved, but Monkey and I came up with what we referred to as "The Camp Nanorimo Theme Song" which lyrics consisted of 
"Just keep writing just keep writing. What do we do? WE WRITE!" sound familiar? We typed and hummed that song about five times a day each to each other. 
About my novel, clearly not my best work but I decided to not edit it and just keep it as a memento from an awesome summer with awesome people. Sky brought up novel swapping in which we would read each other's novels but we then just came up with keeping them to ourselves and not sharing them with anyone else. It was funny how much the three of us connected. 
Camp Nanorimo July 2013 was the best thing I have ever put my time to and would love to do it again. Will I talk to my virtual cabin mates ever again? I have no idea but the three of us will always have the memories of a wonderful Summer filled with virtual dancing, high-fiving, and face smacking. So now I am sitting there looking under the community section of the website and not being able to see my cabin. It is extremely painful but I guess I should just smile for it has happened. 
Just keep writing. Just keep writing. What do we do? WE WRITE!
-Ann

Friday Extra: In Which Ann Brags About Her Novel

Yes indeed I am writing a 50,000 word novel! This Summer, I am ecstatic to be working with Camp Nanorimo in writing my very first 50,000 word teen romance book. Before I go into detail of my own story, I guess I should do a little explaining. Nanorimo is an organization of people who during November basically put a pause to their lives and write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. This Summer however, they will be running another program called "Camp Nanorimo" in which writers will be spending their Summers trying to complete a novel during the month of July. I was heartbroken to find that I would be at actual camp during most of July but I am willing to stretch myself out into writing this book in the last couple weeks that I'm back.

Now onto my novel. Anyone ever heard of the song "Saskia Hamilton" by Ben Folds and Nick Horby? Could you guess where the idea was sparked? My biggest inspiration for my upcoming piece of writing was the narrator of the song. This young poetry nerd is such a perfect character and has so much potential to grow that I couldn't help but instantly fall in love with him. A couple weeks and a ton of brainstorming later, this boy is fifteen years old, has a group of the most interesting nerd friends I could think up, a billion letters to Saskia and a name: Colby Marks. I could seriously talk for hours about all the possibilities and twists and turns this book could include.  At the moment the plot is leading to my main character sort of guiding his way through life with his crazy group of friends and just having him fall in love with the Saskia he has created for himself. Like the song goes, the character is not exactly sure what she looks like or who she is really except for the fact that she is a poet. I want to create a fantasy between a nerd and a woman with an extraordinary name.
The thing I am most excited for is how the entire novel will be written. I am planning on making the entire book be written in letters Colby has written to his fantasy of Saskia Hamilton that he keeps in his notebook. I find that this will paint a more mental picture of the Saskia fantasy he is living in and will stress how much Colby feels that she can understand him. With both Saskia and Colby being poets and great poetry lovers, poetry will be a definite theme in the book and I am positive that there will be a number of poems in the book some taken from other poets and some written by me.
In the end, I am shaking with excitement to start writing The Year I Fell In Love With Saskia Hamilton. I am also thrilled to be informing you that I got my cabin mates yesterday! The feature that I am most excited for this year are these writing buddies that we will be given to help each other through the insanity of writing a book. Each of these six writers are so unique and interesting but I have taken up a liking for seventeen year old Sky who is a nerdfighter (you could imagine how we clicked) and my fifteen year old cabin mate who goes by the nickname "monkey typwriter" for his profile made me laugh so hard how well he made fun of himself. With my entire cabin being mostly older teenagers, I am indeed the youngest which I absolutely love how none of them give a shit about the age difference and treat me just as equal as the others. Even though I have only known these writers for a day and half, I can tell these people are pretty rad. Maybe this Summer will decrease world suck.
Camp Nanorimo- An idyllic retreat smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life
-Ann
My Nanorimo Profile
Camp Nanorimo
Nanorimo
Charlie Mcdonnell's music video for "Saskia Hamilton"

p.s I would like to inform you all that I am the single follower of the "Ministry of Magic play list on spotify by Allison Ott. You guys are missing out on a seriously amazing collection of songs by the Harry Potter rock band. 
Ministry of Magic