My Camp NaNoWriMo April 2020

Hi guys!

I can’t believe that we are already at the end of April. Today is my Brother’s 15th Birthday so happy birthday to him xx

Anyway, I’ve been seeing a few people do update posts throughout the month of their Camp NaNo attempts and wins so I thought I would do something similar but just once at the end of the month. If you want to be my NaNo friend – my link is here 🙂
Also I am a NaNo noob… and although I worked on this project in previous NaNo events I gave it it’s own project cause I’m dumb so ignore that!

My goal for the month was to edit the 55,000 words I have written previously because I wanted to change some things up, fix minor continuity errors but more so that it’s been quite a while since I worked on this WIP so it gave me a chance to re-familiarize myself with all the characters a bit than just reading my notes. If I managed this goal, I then wanted to write some more of it because I think I probably have about another 10k words to go before it’s completed.

The start of the month I did so well!! I thought it would take me so much longer to fix/edit the chapters than it actually did. I think I managed to edit it in like 4/5 days. And then I had a couple more days of being super productive and working on new chapters. And then on April 8th I stopped…and I haven’t worked on it since. I know it’s so bad, but I just had no oomf to work on this project. I did small bits and pieces for some of my otehr WIP’s but nothing more to this one.

Singing in the Spring is more of a guilty pleasure write than anything else. I set it at my old high school and (very very loosely) based it on my friend and my experience in our last year there. It is basically one long inside joke with a romance plot running through because it’s me we’re talking about here – I have to have romance! It’s very dramatised and fake but that’s what I wanted it to be like because that’s how I felt like everything was in high school – everything was a big decision – even when it wasn’t. Anyway, my point is that I’m not devastated that I didn’t get it done because it’s never something I planned on having published unlike some of my other WIP’s that I hope one day I can publish.

I’m going to leave a short excerpt of Singing in the Spring below! Please leave some feedback and tell me how to improve it? I always want to learn and get better with my writing! I hope your NaNo went better than mine if you did do it, if you did leave your link below so I can go and see how you did! Have a good day, and see ya tomorrow!

Excerpt:

(Lucy’s POV)

“It’s okay. You don’t have to love me.”

Jamie stood in front of me, a pleading expression holding his features. I pressed my lips together and hung my head low. My hands were clammy from having twisted them within each other. His words sunk in and the realisation hit hard. My throat began to close at the thought. I inhaled sharply, gulping down air like a fish with water. I wished this feeling would go away. I was going to have to answer him and it was going to be a lie.

“I just don’t see you that way,” I replied, my voice came out quiet and apologetic. Never lifting my eyes from my feet, I let out a long exhale before I turned on my heels and left.

Once I was around the corner I leant against the wall and let my head fall backwards, the guilt of my lie rolling off me in waves. I had never been good at lying but lying to Jamie was even harder. When you love someone, not telling them the truth leaves a burning in your throat, stabbing behind your eyes and an awful pang of guilt in your stomach. It’s your body’s way of telling you to come clean before they are inevitably hurt. Why else would you keep it a secret in the first place if it wasn’t to spare their feelings?

 I have had a crush on Jamie – or Jay as I have called him from the age of six – for as long as I can remember. I realised just under a year or so ago. I always liked him, but it took me until last year to really admit it to myself. It was always just a part of me, of our friendship – bubbling under the surface until hormones kicked in and flipped everything I thought I knew right side up. Sometimes I wish I didn’t remember the day I realised because that way I wouldn’t remember the last day I was ever honest with my best friend.

I’m not obsessed with love or romance. I don’t believe in love at first sight or the one. But I do know that at one point in my life I want an all-consuming love. A love that makes the sun seem brighter and the sky bluer. A love that is so strong and so wholesome that we could still smiling and hand-holding way into our eighties. A love that doesn’t need work out but instead leaves my heart so crushed by the loss of our love that it will still hurt to think of him even once I am happily married to someone else. Is that too much to ask?Probably.

Miss Noel’s claps were resonating through the old wooden panelling of the wings. As the curtains drew closed Jamie hot-footed it across the stage, pulled me from the wall and whisked me into a bear hug that nearly knocked over the backdrop as he spun me. By the time he lowered me to the floor, my fear and guiltiness had been replaced with smiles and giggles.

 “You were amazing Lu! Where did my shy girl go?” He whisper-yelled, an unbelievable smirk spread across his face.

“Still here,” I whispered back. “Good thing too, ‘cause I like you exactly as you are.”