This April is the A-to-Z Challenge. And it’s also one of the sessions for Camp NaNoWriMo.
A-to-Z is a blogging challenge, in which you blog all of the letters of the alphabet over the course of a month. Camp Nano is a… well, fairly open-ended challenge that spun off from National Novel Writing Month. Both are time-consuming and intense.
And I’m probably not going to be able to do both, at the moment.
I have a weird relationship with A-to-Z. On the one hand, it’s the thing that really got me into blogging regularly, and I met a lot of people while I was doing that. On the other hand… the first year I did it, my sister died during the challenge, and continuing was very much a way of having some defined and predictable activity, and space away from things to myself. I was successful, that year. All the way from A-to-Z, and then… I just kept going.
My general pattern with NaNo (both the regular thing, and the camp sessions) is that I will succeed, if I don’t feel like I’m taking time away from something else I’m more eager to do. (Specifically, whatever revision I’m on.) If my attention isn’t divided between major projects, there will generally be a rough draft at the end of the month. A good start on one, at least.
So, right now… at this moment… I’m working on a revision. I’m very close to the end, and I don’t want to stop the momentum to work on a different project. I’m hoping to be done with it soon, though, so that may not matter by April.
I have exactly zero theme for A-to-Z, but I think I meet more people there than I do at the nano camps.
On the other hand, a rough draft would keep me from going insane while I submit the current novel to agents. And true to form, I didn’t wind up with all that many words for the November NaNo last year. (The story still has potential, and I’d like to keep going with it. Yes, of course, there are sentient, cannibalistic insects. Every novel has to have a romantic subplot.)
So, if the revision is finished by then… I’m pretty much evenly divided between the two challenges. Any thoughts on which one I should do? Any thoughts on what would be a fun theme for nano? And… No. I’m just going to assume you’re completely willing to date a cannibalistic sentient insect.
What do you mean, you’re already in a relationship?