Camp NaNoWriMo Update

I really am doing Camp NaNoWriMo! I was afraid that I would give up before I started due to the reality of my extreme shortage of free time. I'm rather amazed with myself for sticking to it. The factor that makes my participation at all possible is that while the normal National Novel Writing Month--November--requires that you write a 50,000 word rough draft, Camp NaNoWriMo allows you to set your own goal. Because I have been working 60 - 70 hour weeks, I decided to keep the stress really light and only planned for 10,000 words. Since  2500 words in in an afternoon is easy if I feel sufficiently inspired, I thought that four afternoons spread over the month ought to just about do it. Especially since I only have four afternoons per month that I can work on fun stuff like this. I'm doing my best to just let it rip and write garbage without editing. The depressing part about writing garbage, though, is that it is garbage. I'm waiting for the characters and situations to begin pulling together in that magical way that almost always seems to happen when you give a story enough time. However, I think I need to work on it more than one afternoon per week to keep the story fermenting in the back of my mind. So far, nothing. But pages are filling up, so I guess that's all that matters at this point.

Another thing about Camp NNWM is that you have "cabin mates" to cheer on and who cheer you on. My cabin contains 6 women who are all writing fantasy of one type or another. Ahhhh! Soul mates! People who take the imagination seriously and don't laugh at your interest. Yey!

And speaking of people laughing at your interests, I saw the greatest video a couple of weeks ago that I found hugely useful as ammunition in the arguments I have in my head with people who look down on things I love, and on me for loving what I love.  

Are you ever embarrassed to reveal the things you love? Are you ever afraid of being made fun of for your taste of reading or music or academic pursuits or for collecting salt shakers or loving Renaissance Faires, and so you stop telling people about things you love, or you even feel like an idiot and try to stop loving them at all? It's like being poisoned. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knro0i2JH44

This guy, zefrank, is aaaaammaaaaaaazzziiiiiiiinnnnnngggg. Somebody is yucking your yum "when you like something harmless and someone tells you to stop liking it."