Hello, friends! First off, I want to thank you for visiting my little corner on the internet. When I launched my site earlier this year, it was my intention to blog at least on a semi-regular basis. Unfortunately, life got in the way and other than posting some of my previously written poetry and fiction, I have not yet written anything new here.
Enter Camp Nano!
I have taken part in NaNo numerous times throughout the years, and I had heard of Camp NaNo but never joined until this year. One of the things that I really like about Camp NaNo is that you can set your own goal. It’s not about trying to write 50,000 words in one month. It’s about making some sort of commitment to your craft.
Rather than working on fiction, I want to make this month about making a more routine commitment to my writing. While actual butt-in-seat writing is essential to making our writing dreams come true, there are other extremely important aspects to our creative life that we must make time for. And this is what my Camp Nano April 2023 is going to be all about—being diligent about my creativity and establishing more of a routine.
My goals do include some actual writing, in the form of writing new content here on my site. I have set a goal of 5,000 words. This content can take the form of new fiction or poetry, book reviews, or general musings. I love writing about anything but between work and homework for my MFA program, I often don’t make time to dedicate to writing. I write, of course, but it is often for homework assignments. The writing I want to do this month is not writing that I must do but writing I want to do.
In addition to writing, I want to make a more dedicated effort to continue to read more of our books on writing, as well as our various writing magazine subscriptions. Whenever I do make the time to read about writing, I always walk away feeling inspired and more connected to the writing community. I haven’t set a specific goal for this, but I would, at a minimum, like to finish reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and begin one of the many books by K.M. Weiland. Additionally, I would like to set aside at least one hour per week to read a part of one of our writing magazines.
I also want to continue reading even more fiction. After coming off a few years of getting away from reading, I am happy to say that I have reconnected with the lifelong book lover within me. So far, I have read 9 books since the beginning of this year. This meets my current goal of reading at least 36 books in 2023. But I think, no, I know I can do more! And I don’t want to just read for pleasure. I want to read with attention to detail on the craft elements and techniques the author has used in their writing. This learning to read as a writer is beneficial to continuously inspiring and developing our own writing. It can inspire us to incorporate new elements into our own writing, it can validate techniques that are already incorporated, but it can also inspire us to develop new ways of approaching certain aspects of writing based on elements that we might see are missing in certain stories we have read.
My last goal is to create time and space for creative meditation. This focused quiet can allow our muse space to reveal to us aspects of stories we are currently working on or new ideas. I recently had the general plot of my future thesis novel come to me. I allowed myself some time to simply sit and let aspects of the story reveal themselves to me. I then jotted those ideas down. I want to make this a more regular practice. Sitting and meditating not on the breath that fills our lungs but the air that keeps our muse’s lair open and alive. My goal for this is at least 30 minutes 2 to 3 times a week. It doesn’t sound like much but when you sit and allow even just a little bit of undistracted focus to surround you, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that will float to the surface.
Those are my goals! Are you coming to camp? What are your goals?
Until next time,
Stay happy!
Lisa
Lisa M. Gott 