Camp NaNoWriMo July 2021 – Page 2 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Six

Words written: 334
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 4,214
Total words remaining: 25,786
Total words behind: 1,594

Not much writing today, unfortunately. Had to run some errands with the baby, including a visit to the house we’re renting out, which had a malfunctioning sprinkler. Also, I’m trying to typeset Queen of the Falconstar and order the proofs before going on a family vacation on Thursday, so that I can have the paperback up when the ebook launches on the 20th.

But in spite of all those things, I really should have gotten more words in. I have lots of ideas for this story I’m writing, and the more I write the better and more refined those ideas become. But I have to actually write.

With this family vacation, I’ll either get no writing done at all, or get a ton of writing done because all of the other domestic concerns are gone. I’ve been calling it a family vacation, but really it’s a men-of-the-family go whitewater rafting and spend the weekend up in a cabin kind of vacation, so I’ll be out with all my brothers-in-law while Mrs. Vasicek takes care of the baby back home. So there actually is a decent chance I’ll get some work done.

Anyways, that’s all for now. It’s a bit early, but I think I’m going to turn in so that we can get some extra sleep. Always need more sleep.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Five

Words written: 1,105
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 3,880
Total words remaining: 26,120
Total words behind: 960

Way, way, way too busy today. So many chores, so much time doing babycare, so much other insanity. I have no idea how people play video games and get anything done. They must not have children.

Anyway, started a new story today. The character is a bit of my own take on Solomon Kane from Robert E. Howard. I thought there was a bunch of untapped potential in that character, so I’m drawing on that for inspiration for my own character. Except he’s not the viewpoint character in this story either, so really I guess the purpose of this story is to draw up a portrait of him from the point of view of someone else. Oh, and this story is a direct sequel to “When She Awakes,” which I just published.

Can’t say much more than that, and it’s already super late and the baby just woke up again, so gotta go.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Three

Words written: 1,778
Total stories written: 1
Total words written: 2,775
Total words remaining: 27,225
Total words behind: 129

Made good progress today. I’m still a bit behind where I should be, but not by very much. It’s a lot easier to write 30k words in a month than 50k words. Maybe I’ll make the full 50k nano word count my stretch goal.

Anyways, one short story down, and it’s a dark one. For that reason, I’m not too keen on it, but it was a story that needed to be written, to get it off of my chest if nothing else. The rough draft comes to about 4.1k words, but I think I can cut a solid 600 words out of it, or more, and it would probably be an improvement. But that’s going to wait until next month, at the earliest.

Also, I’m reasonably confident that this story will get me blacklisted at most of the pro-paying science fiction markets, or at least the ones that keep a blacklist. But I care less about that than the fact that most of them will flat-out reject it, on political grounds if not for the quality of the writing or the story, and I’m certain that most of them will. But whatever. I think my readers will like enough to make a splash when I self-publish it, and I care more about that at this point than about making a professional sale.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day Two

Words written: 0
Total stories written: 0
Total words written: 997
Total words remaining: 29,003
Total words behind: 939

Friday was an admin day, unfortunately. The baby woke up early from her nap, and the plumbers were working on the house most of the day, so no progress on nanowrimo.

Saturday should be better. I’ve got a few errands to run, but after that the day is totally clear. Now if only the baby will take a nice, long nap!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Day One

Words written: 997
Stories written: 0
Total words written: 997
Total words remaining: 29,003
Total words ahead: 29

So after moving into my in-laws’ house to house-sit for them while they’re gone for the next 18 months, and hosting a ton of family in June when they came through for summer vacation, I’ve decided to get back into writing by doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month.

Just like last year, I’ll be doing short stories instead of a novel, only my goal will be 30k words instead of 50k. That comes to just under 1k words per day, which is actually a leisurely pace compared to a typical nanowrimo. But we’ve also got a lot going on this month, including new renters moving in, a family vacation with my in-laws, family from my side moving into the state (and needing help moving in), etc.

The first story I’m working on is actually an old trunk project of mine, that I feel I need to either buckle down and finish or else trunk forever. Part of that is because it’s about the breakup of the United States of America, which means that it’s going to feel extremely dated in another decade or so, no matter how current events play out.

After revising through about 1.5k words which I already wrote in the story (and which I’m not counting toward my camp nanowrimo goal), I put in about another 1k words and called it a day. I don’t think this story is going to be much longer than 4k words (maybe as many as 5k), so with luck I’ll be able to finish it on Friday. But the plumbers are also coming, and that has the potential to wreak havoc on the baby’s napping schedule, so… we’ll see.

At least things are off to a good start!