The cat’s out of the bag. It’s the end of April (well, start of May) and that means our Camp Nanowrimo adventures have come to an end. Derek only wet the bed twice, Kait threw-up the really questionable victory spaghetti after a day of mud sports and I learned some words in German that I’m not allowed sharing in polite company. All in all, I think we would all agree it was time well spent. For my compatriots, this was their first camp as I had to attend its scary, remote location alone last year. My survival, clearly, inspired them this time and we gladly signed up for a cabin together. Had we ghost stories and pranks to share!
As it turns out, they reworked the cabins from last year and we were crammed into our small quarters with eight other individuals. At least, that was the intention judging by the name placards left on the bunks. As it turns out, we had two no shows and no less than three international kids! Clearly, we were the worldly cabin and Derek got a pleasant atmosphere to practice his German much to the unending jealousy of Kait and myself. Needless to say, we snuck a lot of hot sauce in his cereal when he wasn’t looking. I may or may not have placed a snake in his boot though it didn’t seem present in the morning so that little mystery has certainly gone unsolved. In true fashion, there was only three guys as well, making us a little outnumbered and certainly on our best behaviour – at least for the beginning. It’s remarkable how dirty girls will get when the mud slinging begins, however.
A few stats, because our no shows possibly forgot about full registration, they were put down for a whooping 50,000 words a piece. In comparison, our two geeky, video-gaming enthusiast Americans were 30,000 and 10,000. Our fourth Canadian had himself listed for a measly 10,000 as well. The Germans were a mixed bag of 30,000; 20,000; and 25,000. Kait and Derek were only 30,000 each as well. Thus, when their bunks remained suspiciously empty for the first week it became clear that our cabin was working with a net 100,000 word deficit. That puts even my 90,000 word goal to shame.
It isn’t too surprising to see no shows. I think last year a third of my cabin failed to arrive or abandoned after the first day. But even then I didn’t have this large of a hole to work under. I am happy to report that, despite this significant handicap, we emerged not only victorious but that we exceeded the cabin word goal a whole two days early and that was before Persnickett and myself finished our stories! I will admit that the Germans did a remarkable amount of work to make this a success and they certainly deserve our appreciation. The final outcome of our collective hard work is as follows:
Iome (Playing Catch-Up): 33,219/10,000
crazydominodragongirl (The Skies of Sollaire): 50,180/30,000
hazelk (Untitled): 0/50,000 (never trust a hazy elk)
Razbluito (Untitled): 10,600/50,000 (I like to imagine this as a very lengthy and unnecessary apology letter that arrived two weeks into the month going well into the territory of “too much information” for why these two never showed.)
persnickett (Spellbound): 10,157/10,000
NebucaKirjailija (Fremdes, fernes Land): 33,163/25,000
Iovena (Wolfsregen): 80,768/30,000 (Oh, and there are hunters!)
YeniaAsakura (Mad Hatter): 21,017/20,000
derekgingrich (Grave Cinderborn): 36,043/30,000
BeesEight (Carnevale of Ash: A Dark Drama of Venetia): 93,058/90,000
StarFireControl (A Party of Thieves): 36,840/30,000
I think the biggest thing we took away from this challenge (outside of meeting really chatter strangers and that apparently Derek can bond with anyone over my suffering) is that meeting writing goals is a lot easier when you have someone to motivate you. It is kind of like getting into the habit of going to the gym. When you try to accomplish it by yourself, you face really difficult days where you lack motivation and are heavily tempted to skip and fall behind. But if you’ve made the commitment with other people, then you have a support group that will encourage you when you’re tired or disinterested. You can keep going through the achievements and progress of others. Also, it’s crazy the amount of work you can get done in a word sprit. Oh, and Derek totally got beat by a girl.
I would encourage anyone with an interest in writing to check out the nanowrimo challenges. Camp is far more approachable with its variable goal and dedicated little communes through the cabin system though there is something to be said for finishing the original challenge and its much higher goals. Either way, there is little that can match the satisfaction or catharsis of getting that damn story done. Especially for me since I invariably just murder all the obnoxious jerks I’ve had to travel with at the very end.
Until next year!