 What's shaking? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. If there's one thing that I think we can all agree on, it's that writing is easy, dude. Haha. Writing slump. More like writing hunk. Haha. I've been struggling a bit with my writing, truth be told. Uh, but you know what? Things are looking up. I've started on a project that I really wanted to get to. I decided to take part in Camp Nanorimo, which I've never done before. And you know what? It's also been really dark and rainy here lately, which I know is a weird thing to point out, but it's just, it's kind of rare here and it, you know, it makes me feel like I'm in a Stephen King novel. I have a few writing-related topics that I would like to chat about today and that I would also like to get your opinions on. I mean, you're my fellow writing colleagues, right? Let's round table this bitch. So first things first is Camp Nanorimo. You probably already know what this is, but if you're like me, you may be entirely new to the concept. I know about and have participated in Nanorimo a bunch of times. National novel writing month, where in the month of November, you will try to write 50,000 words total. From my understanding, Camp Nanorimo is much the same, just a bit more flexible. It takes place in April, which we're in now, and then again later on in July. And is intended to keep writers busy throughout the whole year, pretty much rather than just in the month of November. Imagine you're procrastinating, you look out the window and you see Nanorimo staring at you from the other side of the street. But it's not even November yet. No, it's not. But it is Camp Nanorimo time, bitch. Oh my god. Instead of 50,000 words, you can set your own target, which might be 50,000 words if you're insane. And you can track your progress through the Nanorimo website. So I decided to join in to make sure that I'm still being productive throughout the year because I tend to get a little bit lazy, especially after I finish another project. But I set my goal to a modest 30,000, although I feel like that's still a very decent amount. It's still at least a little bit a challenge. 30,000 words is at least a third or a half of a very standard sized novel, and I'll be intending to write that within just four weeks. So I feel like that's fine. I'm optimistic that I can hit the 30,000 words mark. It's unlikely that I'll be writing every day, but when I do, I usually power out a few thousand words at a time. Plus I'll still be doing weekly live writing sprints and writing in some of my own spare time. So in theory, it should be easy, breezy, extra greasy. Now I should be finishing my anthology of horror short stories during the camp. I only have to add endings to two of the short stories I have, and then the whole first draft is actually done. So it's effectively very far along. The problem is that I'm having a super, super hard time with those endings. I must have tried at least like three different endings for each of those short stories, and nothing fits yet. Nothing feels alright, but I think during April I will keep taking a crack at it and, you know, fingers crossed. I want to get it done because it's been so close to completion for so long, and I'm really, really excited with just how well the rest of it is coming together. In the meantime, however, as much as I try to avoid starting on a new project when I already have something else, I did start on something new. I just, I had to, you know? I was just feeling way too inspired, but that brings me to the next topic that I would like to discuss. This is something interesting that I would like to get your feedback on. Not taking events like NaNoWriMo into account. Do you keep track of your writing stats? I'll explain what I mean a bit better, don't worry. I'm not talking about being a plotter or a pancer. This isn't about the preparation, but rather the notes that you take while you're actually writing. The reason I bring this up is because I was watching one of Kate's new videos and I found myself thinking, holy crap, she keeps a lot of graphs. It reminds me of like, you know how I met your mother? How Marshall is obsessed with keeping charts and graphs? That's kind of how I pictured Kate with the hobby of writing. And I'm not shading her, obviously. She's my friend, my buddy, my pal. My fellow boomer, we've got bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, abacus scales, sundials, the whole deal. And it just seems a bit alien to me. Again, my point isn't, boy, Kate Kavanaugh sure is weird. It's just that I'm curious if a lot of other writers do this as well. I'll admit it does seem super efficient and like a really good way of keeping yourself accountable and on track rather than just procrastinating half the time. And obviously I do keep tabs on the numbers when I'm doing stuff like a writing sprint or NaNoWriMo. But I just can't picture myself keeping multiple charts and spreadsheets of data for any other reason. You know? Now I'm not saying that people who keep that data or those charts do this, but I think if I did, I would find myself measuring my productivity or my success by these numbers rather than how well the actual story is going or how the characters are developing. The figures would probably just stress me out if I kept tabs on how much I write on one day compared to another. Personally, I try not to think about that so much. Also, and probably most importantly, it's entirely possible that Kate only keeps those charts four mil wordy. She's doing that absolutely bonkers writing challenge of trying to do like a million words in a year or something like that. So it makes sense that she's keeping track of the numbers. So I don't know if she would be keeping this data outside of those writing challenges. I could probably just ask her, but waiting for a reply from Kate in the group chat is like being the dog on Futurama waiting for Fry to come back. How do you keep track of your writing? Do you try to hit a certain number in a certain time frame? Or are you more like me where you just kind of wing it and see where you end up? Leave a comment. I'd love to know. So not in an attempt to like plug myself or anything like that, but I did publish a psychological horror book a little while ago. And as I mentioned, I'm pretty close to finishing up an anthology of horror short stories. The new project that I've started on though that I'll probably be working on most of Camp NaNoWriMo is a fantasy. I'm talking entirely fictional world, fictional creatures, magic systems, the full sausage and beanbag. I'm not bringing this up to talk about the story in that fantasy or the characters or what it is or anything like that, but simply so I can take a moment to say, holy hell, am I having a fun writing fantasy again? Don't get me wrong, writing horror is great. I would even say emotionally rewarding, but not much can beat the joy of simply making up stuff. It's just been so long since I've written fantasy, especially a whole new world. And I'm just having a blast, you know, kicking back, trying to think up new creatures, new locations. It's a lot of fun. Writing horror, especially psychological horror, by its very nature is a pretty bleak affair. It can be fun, but it can also bum you out quite a lot. And that's not a bad thing. In fact, I think empathizing with your characters, who are suffering makes for some really great writing. But when you do that for long enough, it can kind of feel like you've got a storm cloud hanging above your head. The fantasy that I'm writing is intended to be part of an epic, completely fictional world, but also it's intended to be a bit more episodic and short. I don't know for sure yet, but I'm thinking that the books will probably only be around maybe 50,000 words each. That is really short for a fantasy, but the way I'm planning on structuring them will allow me to release them pretty quickly as well. They'll definitely be for adults, and there will be many dark elements. But I also want this series to be a return to fantasy that can be fun and colorful, if you know what I mean? So much fantasy now is written to be like, you know, dark and gritty. Like Zack Snyder has them in a headlock. I'm hoping that my fantasy series can be a bit more light-hearted while still being intended entirely for adults. I'll have a lot more info on that series as time goes on anyway, but let me know if you have had any similar experiences when switching genres. I really underestimated just how different it can be writing in one genre as opposed to another, so I would be interested in knowing how you went with it. That's all I've got for now. I make weekly videos on the many struggles of being a writer, so if that sounds like you, then I would love it if you stuck around. Hopefully I can chat with you guys in the comments on this video or in the chat on the next weekly writing live stream. Otherwise, thanks for watching, especially for watching through the whole video. I really do appreciate it. See you in the next one. Catch ya.