Wow, spring has been busy for me in all of the best ways. Future Wife and I took a road trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto a couple weeks ago (pictures incoming), and I have two more road trips planned in April, first to Denver and then to New England just a few days later. Maybe I’ll post some updates from the road on the old travel blog.

So how about all that writing I’ve been doing? Well, writing is tough when traveling. You try to cram so many activities into each day that by the time you get back to your hotel to rest, you’re just too damn tired to do anything else. Still, I’ve managed to piece together a few thousand words so far this month for a total of 136,000 and change. Based on what the next week or so looks like for me, I’m aiming to hit 145,000 before April.

Camp NaNoWriMo Project

Speaking of April, I have even bigger plans for that month. Turns out that Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up! I totally forgot about this challenge until I saw another blogger writing about it.

I have my camper profile and project all set up, with a word count goal of 160,000 (to be safe). Part of that goal, too, will be reviewing and editing my story to a completed first draft. Then, it’s off to alpha readers!

I’m actually really excited about sending my first draft off to my four alpha readers. At first I was nervous, mostly out of fear that my story is terrible and they would all laugh my writing motivation into oblivion. But after speaking with them individually, and sharing excerpts, they seem just as excited as I do. At the very least, they’re pretending to be excited to make me feel better. And that’s what friends are for, right?

My alpha readers are all close friends who have experience in storytelling in some form, including my dearest Red String counterpart, Jessie. So, these are people I trust inherently. Something I’m actually worried about when sending my first draft away: What the hell am I supposed to do while I wait for their responses? I don’t want to be revising and rewriting my story as they’re reviewing it. I need to approach any secondary revision with fresh eyes.

Obviously, I have plans for other projects to fill the writing void while I wait, but think about it. This story has consumed my life for at least the last year and a half. Even though I haven’t been writing every day (not even close), I’ve been thinking about my characters, my plot Every. Single. Day. I will undoubtedly continue to think about those things, taking notes in a separate space for any ideas that inevitably crop up, but I’ll have to actually stop myself from adding them to the main draft.

Anyway. Excited. Nervous. Super excited. A little anxious. But mostly excited. That’s where I’m at. I’ll continue writing to finish out March and update my word count goals for April 1. I’ll be happy to get near 145k.

Get here faster, April!

Steve D