Camp NaNoWriMo

This year has been like being stuck upside on a roller coaster while they are searching amusement park ticket. . . It’s only been the first three months. Sighs. I claim that the other nine months will be so much better. We had started to year with paperwork and money issues that was so stressful that gave my brother, with a million other health issues, ulcers and breathing issues. I finally got everything to settle down for me to get a tooth infection, so bad it gave me headaches, severe dangerous swelling, and breathing and sinus issues. I had to go to the ER and specialist dentist. (I’m still waiting on surgery) Then we had a death in the family; which now I feel had caused silent wars (at least wars in my head over what is really good/Justice/Fair vs what I needed to do for my brother and my own health? I’m working on personal writing, kind of memoir…for NaNoWriMo …trying to break my writer’s block.)

(Camp is kind of a joke mom and I have when I tell her I’m writing for Camp NaNoWriMo during the months of April and July (or is it August). . . )

Short story idea:

Funny story (fictional). . . I am missed the bus for camp. . .

Anyway. . . they have set up the camp each time with a different theme. . . I’ll be honest I haven’t checked out the theme and now I am on hold for forty-five minutes and heard the song “You put the lime in the coconut” at least eleven times.
I negotiated with this secretarial lady who went on about her kids that were actually cats all named after candy. . . Tootsie pop was a Tuxedo cat, Nerds was a clumsy orange striped male, Snickers was tortoiseshell who was very nutty, Babe Ruth was a black and white cat who knew he could go the distance, Milky way was the mama cat who was a mixed breed rescue, and Skittles was a white cat with brown spots and very hyper.
“We have a lift. . . bus picking up the few that got left behind. . .” She sighed as this happened every camp. They gave me at time to be ready on day two. . . but I will miss the first day. She gave me writing assignment for day one. . .
“Write two short stories: Why were you late? However one story is the truth and second story is very far off lie. Please have these two stories with you on the bus.” She exclaimed. . .”the bus will pick me up at 2:30, please be packed, ready, and stories finished. You’re first group will be in the bus.” She rushed. . . “Thank you have a nice day!”

2024

After the 24th of this month, I’ll be down for a while as I’m getting carpel tunnel surgery.

I am frustrated as I was 11,411 words short of my 600,000 word goal for 2023.

https://rebekahquinne.wordpress.com/2023/01/

I did manage to write something everyday thanks to my boyfriend and writing partner. I love you and thank you my sweetie!

I didn’t finish the projects, but I am currently finish a book that I decided to make more therapy than one project to publish. (I plan to read the projects while I’m down and healing. It may be hard to turn a jar or lift more than a cup of coffee, but maybe I can at least turn a page or scroll down the screen.)

My hopes for 2024 (I’m not giving myself goals)

• Read at least 10 books (they are not mine) and review then.
• Read a new story each month and review it
• Eventually write between 400,000 to 500,000 words
• Research differences between self and professional publishing
• Heal my wrist
• Reread my novels
• Cut back on notebooks.

Ambition vs Happiness

I read this article. Please Stop Telling Me to Find My Purpose
Wanting a roof over my head should be enough.
ByAnonymous
Finding Purpose https://www.wondermind.com/article/purpose-driven-life/

And I saw the movie Author Anonymous. It’s about a writing group. I get the cliches, and it makes me realize that even the younger and pretty writers get picked first…. Grrrr. (They are more attractive and get more connections.)

I will admit, I am extremely grateful for the roof over my head and my fridge full of food.

I do feel we all have some sort of purpose, but it’s not for us to figure it out..(It’s the God’s and Goddesses are putting the world in a puzzle and each of us are pieces, but you don’t always know where you will end up in the puzzle. The purpose is the fact that you a piece somewhere in the scheme of things and every piece no matter how big or small counts.)

I’m 40. My first 35 years of my life, I’ve been driven my passion, ambition, “purpose.” It’s the last five years of my life that I am appreciating the “now” and the little things.
I agree with the writer statement….it is chaotic and if you find a professional publisher, you lose your voice. If you self publish it gets lost in the sea of so-so stories and grammar and plot issues. Writing is my joy, when I am simply writing. As for publishing, I’m not sure what going to do yet, but I do want the world to read my paranormal books.
I hope you just enjoy something each day: a good cup of coffee, playing with your pet, leveling up in a video game.

I do want a better living situation and to be happy. I might have to cut down on writing to do that.

I wrote over 36,000 words within the first 15 days this month, and broke my writers block..I enjoyed writing, but I realize I also need to improve my living situation. The thing is I need to be comfortable to really be way more productive in my writing, especially editing. I also figured out reciting into my Google docs, I can do times times the word count versus just typing or handing writing.

Another epiphany: I also realize I want my guy more than any writing at this point. Damn distance.

Word count obession

I have learned that writing a huge project like a novel or series or script or a book . . . it is NOT a one day affair. (Short stories, poems, and articles can possibility be written in a day.)
In fact, the most I have ever written in one day was just over ten k (10,000 words) . . . after average novel is between 75,000 and 90,000 words.
The day I wrote that many words: I was not cleaning, or cooking, and I had very little interruptions (which rarely happens.)
I also was so burnt out that I could barely write two day afterwards.
I learned like everything else. . . I need to take things one day at a time.
One day I could get 1,500 words,
The next day I struggle over 500 words.
The day after that I might get 2500 words
Over that weekend I might not be able to write at all. . .
It’s just a day to day thing and each word counts.



I was never into the word count until NaNoWriMo. (I was also told publisher care about word count as well as editors.) I have thousands of words that were written that were not counted. . . I used to just count pages.



I would love a genie to grant me a dollar for every word I have written. I know I would be a millionaire

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023

I have several hand problems. . . I have had them for years. . .

Warts on my finger that are fighting back. . . .they will not go away. (I had to go to dermatologist just to get very strong cream that has made very sensitive to the sun and has messed up my skin badly. I honestly think that I got them holding a pen that someone else with the HPV virus. . . be careful what you touch. . . It’s been a throbbing, burning, and overall painful process. . . freezing them off is the next step. . . sigh.)

I have a small ganglion cyst, but it’s so small that they cannot do anything, but it feel like it’s pinching nerves up my middle finger. My middle finger twitches by itself which is kind of creepy.

I also have tendinitis and carpal tunnel. . . I wear a brace at night, but if that doesn’t help surgery will be the next option. Sigh. I get throbbing, aching, and sometimes it’s swollen.
Typing hasn’t been too bad. Holding a pen can get tricky, and have moments of spasming and I drop things.

I gave myself 30,000 words in Camp NaNoWriMo: April, but I had gotten sick and only got between 26,000 and 28,000 which wasn’t bad when I didn’t write at least ten days in April.

This past month (June) I did a 15,000 words in seven day and I did succeed in that. Yay!!! I will admit it was two projects that I was working on, but I did get the word count in.

If you asked me twenty years ago about word count . . . I would ask you why are obsessed about that, but publishers want to make sure novellas and novels have a certain amount of words.

My personal goals for Camp NaNoWriMo this time is to get a few of projects from my written word onto the computer and to work on a few other projects for my health and future issues.

I also gave myself a word goal of 30,000 words in 30 days.

Just hope I can keep my goals in spite of my hand issues.

Things I’ve learned in 2022

1. I get distracted easily (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and phone games, even coloring … when I should be writing.) 
2. Most …I mean 90%of Instagram is fake people and scammers. It seems like everyone is out for money.
3. I’m obsessed with health research. Google chrome is my search engine of choice. (It’s a distraction as well.) 
4. My complex hyperplasia was dire and half of my extreme female problems were caused by it. My hysterectomy went well physically as I have more energy and less brain fog, but I’m still working on mental and emotional issues (more on health blog: https://rebekahs.health.blog/) 
5. I’m now 40 years old and my social circle is practically non-existent. (I hope to change it next year.) 
6. Expect less from most people. They can still shock and devastate me though. (More about that in my spiritual blog: https://spiritualbeck.wordpress.com/)
7. Life is short: you never know when your time is up. A friend of mine passed on unexpectedly, and I hope she is resting in peace. 
8. Enjoy what you can: writing is my Bliss. Without my brain fog so thick, I can focus and write more. 
9. I know more than anything I want to be with my guy and write together for a living. 
10. It’s easy to keep things simple. Don’t let possession rule your life. 

Good bye Instagram

I’m a bit disappointed.. As a writer and artist, I’ve been slowly trying to build my network for my writings and my art.

One of the things in 2023 I’m doing … is getting rid of Instagram. I even gave it a very low rating of two stars . . . During the year 2022, it has gotten worse. 

I used to go to Instagram for posting links to my blogs, (like this one,) and posting pictures I colored and some I even drew. 

I also enjoy cat and panda videos, sarcastic memes, and Pagan tips. 

However I keep getting “single fathers” who think it’s a personal page, or fake “psychics” who say my ancestors say I must have a reading.

They are all scams!

The single fathers are always from one place but live another, and their beloved wife died of cancer or car accident. (Just like in the show Catfish, they notice fakes, use “C” words too.) They claim to have a kid to get sympathy. They also ignore the fact I’m happily taken. They try to get you in another chat and then try to get money or scam with gift cards to pay for their “phone.” The scam is that they use the card and then complain that there was no money on the card to get their “money” back …. 

The fake psychic/ reader scam: they all say the same thing….I am blessed, but Ihave a spiritual blockage, curse, or a dark cloud over me, and I need a cleansing or spell to clear it for an extra charge. It was usually caused by witchcraft as I was a baby or child. This is a scam.

 Please note: there are real psychics and readers out there, but they will not approach you on Instagram. I have several real psychics and readers that I watch on YouTube who have Instagrams and even they say on the video, they use fansonly and patron pages for paid readings. 

I understand Bitcoin and Illuminati are out there, but I’m not interested as well. (Note:There are scams with both of those too.)

Note: even Norton has an article about scams on Instagram. https://us.norton.com/blog/online-scams/instagram-scams

Now over the past several days I have been getting rude people. WTF….. today I got told I’m not real and told to leave. It’s bad when the fake people get rude, because I’m NOT falling for their native gullible bait. 

What is sad is that I just wanted to show off my art and writings and maybe make an online friend or two. I guess I’ll go on my Deviant Art or Facebook for that. 

I gave Instagram a two star rating, the cat and bear video saved a star. However there are maybe 10% of “real” people and the majority of those are artists, writers or those selling jewelry and other things. I hope the real people on there are not getting harassed with scammers like I was. (Note: not every American is rich. I even posted this on my profile and tagged it Scammers don’t read your profile.)

I hope Instagram gets a process were they can catch the scammers and may karma give the scammer their just desserts. 

Update July 2022

I sit in the middle of the storm of my mind….No roof …no desk….no computer … No pens ….all the paper is blowing in the wind.

My mind looks like feet out after the party of the year .. I do not remember any of it. However everything is shredded and simply needs to be thrown out and refurbished and redecorated.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have not been able to be productive.

Not with short stories, not with notes for my longer stories.

I haven’t even had the focus to read long stories of others work. It’s felt more like work than pleasure.

If it was going back and forth with my boyfriend, I would not be writing anything at all but lists and my diary.

I’m beyond flustered and depressed..

I have not finished NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo in almost two years.

My health physical and mental have been pulling my energy and attention. I really need to get back into my creative process.

*sighs* I just want to get back into my creative bliss .

NaNoWriMo 2021

November is NaNoWriMo which main goal is 50,000 words in 30 day. . . Out of 11 years, I have accomplished this goal 8 years.

This year I wrote 25, 960 words which mean my personal goal of 25,000 words. I have been deal with money issues and health issues, so I have a lot on my plate.
I had two projects that I wanted to get on the computer, both notebooks got finished. I still have to work on the ending of both pieces, but I did accomplish my three goals.

I dyed my hair my dark red for it, which was my reward.

In December, any writing this month is extra bonus to my yearly word count. (I have a medical procedure next week, and I’m not sure of my focus or energy level.)

I realized that I’m just over 438,000 in my yearly count, so I will not get to my goal of 600,000 words. I really fought myself with writer’s block this year. I did write a few short stories and put them in a few contests, but didn’t win: at least I tried.
Next year, I want to finish three projects, and edit two of my main projects.

If a new project really inspires me, then I will more than happy to write it out.
I do hope to get 600,000 words, if I get motivated and inspired, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, I am focusing on some personal issues and physical healing.

Editing Update 2

First of all, my living situation has not been the greatest, but I have made the best of it.

Secondly, formatting issues with google.docs has me reediting my friend’s piece from the beginning. So far so good. (I am trying to edit her piece at least one day each week next month, even with Camp NaNoWriMo.)

Thirdly, between migraines, eye issues, and sinuses, I have pushed my way through.

I had a goal of 60 to 75 hours of editing but 11:59pm March 31st.

Editing hours: I have less than six days, and I am up 39 hours and 40 minutes. I do not think I will reach 60, but I will try to make at least 50. (Which was the original goal of NaNoEdMo)

I’m taking today off due to a horrible headache, and I have to get some errands done. I need more coffee.

(Just a side note, just because I am at the computer and it looks like I am reading or reorganizing it does NOT mean I am NOT working, goofing off, or lazy. I have been struggling with health issues so when I do finally sit down on my folding chair with a throbbing foot (gout), and stiff back, I usually there for a reason. Sorry, about the rant, but I was called lazy because I was getting up and doing “physical” work. )