July is coming up shortly, and that means more sunshine, more heat, and CAMP NANOWRIMO!

One of the things I love most about NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo is that these events give authors the kick in the pants to just write it all down.

Similar to its parent event, Camp NaNoWriMo is a month of slamming out words and hoping your ideas are semi-coherent, though it’s less (or more) intense than November’s full NaNoWriMo depending on what goals you choose to meet. And that’s another glorious part of Camp: you make your own goal. It can be the standard 50,000 words, something more manageable like 25,000, or more determined like 75,000.

You are only bound by your own limits.

The whole idea is to get words on the page. They may not be the perfect words, and they certainly aren’t the final words, but they’re words and once you have words, you are no longer starting at square one. Planners and pantsers alike should, at the end of the month, have a great leaping-off point for their novel, which can then be molded into their personal masterpiece.

However, while I could hype up NaNo for days, the main point of this post is that bit about getting words down on the page.

Whether you write them during and event, at your leisure, or have a strict writing schedule, all books begin with words on a page. Without those words, there is nothing to correct, nothing to polish and perfect and publish. While blank pages have been “published” for comical purposes, your story is likely anything but a joke, so it still needs to be written.

Have a wonderful July, and have fun at Camp if you decide to participate!

Did this article help inspire you? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to check out our other Tips & Tricks articles:

• Part One: 5 Ways to Approach a Writing Prompt
• Part Two: 3 Ways to Use Your Prompt Response
• Part Three: What to Expect from Sharing Your Work
• The Importance of Writing Crap
• Why You Need Featured Images for Your Blog Posts
• How Writing about Writing can Improve Your Writing
• Why You Should Write a Character Based on Yourself
• How to Use PATHOS to Maximize Your Reach
• 5 Reasons to Stop Comparing Your Work with Others
• Why You Should Make a Soundtrack for Your Novel
• Why You Should Follow Your Passion (like, NOW)
• I Should Really Write that Down
• Keeping Track of WIPs
• Finding Time versus Making Time
• Allowing Yourself to Write the Mundane
• How to Tell if You’ve Found Your Calling

Please feel free to share any additional tips or your personal experiences with writing/blogging in the comments, and stay tuned for more prompts every Thursday!

First off, chances are that if you clicked on this article, the thing you’re considering your “calling” is not it.

When you’ve found that missing piece of your life’s puzzle, your passion, your priority, you won’t have to justify it as such, it will just be.

It will consume you, swallow you whole, and leave you willingly ragged and wide-eyed and desperate for more. It will be the thing you dream about, crave night and day… And another funny thing?

It might just be one of many callings you will have.

Creative types in particular get a bad rep for being flighty and non-committal when it comes to projects and passions. Someone could be head-over-heels dedicated to painting in watercolors, and one day wake up more passionate about photography than anything else before. The transition is usually not quite that abrupt or drastic, but the point is your calling might not be the one and only calling you get for the rest of your life. It might be one of two, or three, or fifteen.

But when you pour all of your energy into your craft and forget the world around you exists, including social media posts about finding yourself, then you have it.

So, when you lock in on something that makes you feel like you’d be empty without it, hold tight and let it rule your life as much as possible for as long as possible, because the fulfillment it will give is worth all of those sleepless nights.

Did this article help inspire you? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to check out our other Tips & Tricks articles:

• Part One: 5 Ways to Approach a Writing Prompt
• Part Two: 3 Ways to Use Your Prompt Response
• Part Three: What to Expect from Sharing Your Work
• The Importance of Writing Crap
• Why You Need Featured Images for Your Blog Posts
• How Writing about Writing can Improve Your Writing
• Why You Should Write a Character Based on Yourself
• How to Use PATHOS to Maximize Your Reach
• 5 Reasons to Stop Comparing Your Work with Others
• Why You Should Make a Soundtrack for Your Novel
• Why You Should Follow Your Passion (like, NOW)
• I Should Really Write that Down
• Keeping Track of WIPs
• Finding Time versus Making Time
• Allowing Yourself to Write the Mundane

Please feel free to share any additional tips or your personal experiences with writing/blogging in the comments, and stay tuned for more prompts every Thursday!

SPOILER ALERT: Not everything ever written is a holy grail.

Many works are steaming piles of inked garbage, and that is ok.

Even when you’re writing about how someone walks around a lake a lot or a conversation you had with someone about your eyebrows, it can still be considered writing … even if only remotely.

And whatever you write can lead to more interesting things to write about. At the very least it could be a challenge to make even the most mundane of subjects into something entertaining.

You know what? I actually kind of like that idea.
Consider this an early preview to this week’s prompt:

Try to think of something considerably boring about your life or surroundings, then challenge yourself to write about it in a way that is humorous or interesting.

Some of the best memoirs have elements of everyday life that would otherwise be considered unremarkable, and the author turned them into tiny adventures, if only to laugh at themselves after the fact.

The incredible thing that comes out of this process, however, is that you’re allowing yourself to play with style. If you remove the urge to make every word the right word, and instead focus on the overall idea, perhaps it will start to solidify that idea, which can be spruced up later.

Or not, your choice.

Writing something boring, something mundane, something that absolutely will never see the light of day is still better than not writing anything at all. Every time you put your pen to paper or fingers to keys, you’re learning more about your personal writing process, whereas not writing at all is training yourself to procrastinate, to hope for that sudden jolt of energy or inspiration that may never come.

Writing is work, and as with any job, writing must be approached with dedication and determination if anything is going to be produced. No, not everything will be the best thing ever…

But it could be.

Did this article help inspire you? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to check out our other Tips & Tricks articles:

• Part One: 5 Ways to Approach a Writing Prompt
• Part Two: 3 Ways to Use Your Prompt Response
• Part Three: What to Expect from Sharing Your Work
• The Importance of Writing Crap
• Why You Need Featured Images for Your Blog Posts
• How Writing about Writing can Improve Your Writing
• Why You Should Write a Character Based on Yourself
• How to Use PATHOS to Maximize Your Reach
• 5 Reasons to Stop Comparing Your Work with Others
• Why You Should Make a Soundtrack for Your Novel
• Why You Should Follow Your Passion (like, NOW)
• I Should Really Write that Down
• Keeping Track of WIPs
• Finding Time versus Making Time

Please feel free to share any additional tips or your personal experiences with writing/blogging in the comments, and stay tuned for more prompts every Thursday!