Have You Tried the 30 Day Challenge that Will Shake Up Your Writing Routine?

The many reasons to love Camp NaNoWriMo

Photo by author: one of my favorite writing spots during Camp 2020

What can you accomplish writing wise in 30 days? That’s one of the basic structures behind Camp NaNoWriMo- you set your own goal and work towards it a little each day. It is perfect for setting a writing routine, creating products or even just getting a few writing projects done.

Camp NaNoWriMo is an off-shoot from NaNoWriMo, a challenge in November to write 50,000 words of fresh content. Camp is more laid back- you choose your own goals based on lines, pages or words. The way to win Camp is to set and finish your own goal.

Camp is held twice a year (April and July) to keep writing spirits strong during the year. It is the perfet time to work on one project- an ebook, poetry volume, or even working on a content calendar for Medium or other blogging. It is possible duing camp to split writing goals between projects. It is a perfect time to challenge yourself to post an article every day for a month or even when just start a writing routine.

While it’s possible to set any goal and track your writing goals during any month of the year- there is added value in Camp. There is a lot of support through cabins, forums, and WordSprint accounts on Twitter to help you stick to your goal. It’s during these months that the writing comunity gets together to encourage each other to make progress. You can find the Camp website here and the Twitter handle is @Nanowordsprints.

Camp is also the perfect time to develop your routine and word count in a more relaxed way. The original goal of 50,000 is intimidating if you’re just starting (1700 words a day). Setting a goal that large and then not accomplishing it can lead to stress and feeling like we failed if we don’t cross the finish line.

Sometimes we just don’t have the kind of time and stamina when first beginning the writing habit. Instead of setting unrealistic goals, Camp allows us to start smaller and build up to the 1,667 words. It allows us to begin to build muscle by practicing reps instead of going into a full blown strength training exercise. It allows us to step just outside our comfort zones and add the challenge to increase our daily word counts.

I love Camp because it has the potential to mean so many things to so many people: from their word counts to daily practice to what you actually want to work on that month. Camp NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to start by customizing your own plan.

At this point, there are 9 days left in Camp. However, there is nothing stopping us from declaring our own camp and working for one month on increasing our writing and goals. What will you accomplish in the next 30 days?