I'd like to formally introduce you to my July 2019 Camp NaNoWriMo project:
Month: July
Series: None
Title: Murphy's Musical (formerly A Show About A Show)
Genre: Family Humor/Spoof Script
Synopsis: The local children's community theatre group is performing Disney's High School Musical Jr., and no one's missing out on this opportunity. Katelyn Capulet is particularly enjoying playing Ms. Darbus, since she wants to pursue acting after graduation. Madi Piper can hardly believe that she's cast as Kelsi Nielsen, because she's a genius at all things music. And Rae LaDuca is getting a kick out of being cast as Martha Cox, seeing that she's no slouch at dancing herself.
But being involved in theatre is not always easy. It especially isn't easy once the cast and crew meet those in charge: a director who has no love for the show, a music director who hates children in general, and a choreographer who seems to talk a big game. And together they're a walking nightmare. Luckily there's a bit of relief, in a pair of stage managers who could get the whole theatre company through a zombie apocalypse alive, and the cast and crew members who combine their talent with the strongest passion for what they do. But who knows if that will be enough to make High School Musical a success? Is it possible that everything than can go wrong will go wrong?
This musical-about-a-musical is designed to be one big theatre reference. There are lines and moments referencing popular Broadway shows. Every song is from a Broadway-type musical, from Singin' in the Rain to Spamalot, though words and keys are changed to fit the plot and characters. There are only a few featured male characters, in order to match common school and community theatre demographics. The story takes place in your town and the theater you're performing in, and any scripted jokes about the theater are meant to be changed to fit your theater. This show is a theatre kid's dream come true.
Intended word goal: 30000
What this doesn't tell you is that this project is also a revision of my project from exactly two years ago. The first time I tackled this story in July 2017, I took my laptop to camping at Cape Lookout for a week and splatting out the words all afternoon while avoiding the squirrels that were a little too friendly with the humans. Now I'm in
Want to see how the first 15 days of this Camp NaNo month have gone? Here you go. :)
Oh wait...since these stats are going to have "public" and "private" word goals, I should probably explain what those mean first. :)
"Public word goal": The number of words that I have to write and log into the Camp NaNo website each day in order to finish on time.
"Private word goal": A much easier way to mentally calculate on the fly how much I need to write.
See, July has 31 days, unlike November and April. An even, reasonable word goal of 30000 divides up into a messy 968 words a day. The tough part is, no word goal divides nicely and evenly into 31 days. (Except for 31000, which I seriously considered, but I digress.) And knowing the kind of person I am, I love finishing NaNo a day or two early so I'm not quite as rushed, but I also tend to lose my mojo a bit and fall behind around week 2 or 3. So by telling myself that I have to write 1000 words a day, this ensures that I finish a little early if I stick to it, and gives me a little grace if I don't.
So without any further ado, here are the stats for the first 15 days!
Day 1
Public word goal: 961
Private word goal: 1000
Words written: 1018
Yeah, let's do this thing!!
Day 2
Public word goal: 1935
Private word goal: 2000
Words written: 2097
Nothing can stop me now!!!
Day 3
Public word goal: 2903
Private word goal: 3000
Words written: 2987
…Welp, I already "failed" my private goal. But I still met the public word goal, so...WOO!
Day 4
Public word goal: 3870
Private word goal: 4000
Words written: 4215
Happy Independence Day! National holidays are great for cranking out the words. :)
Day 5
Public word goal: 4838
Private word goal: 5000
Words written: 5048
I got my invisible, not-even-used-in-camp Updated-My-Word-Count-5-Days-In-A-Row badge! Yee haw!
Day 6
Public word goal: 5806
Private word goal: 6000
Words written: 5476
……That's awkward.
Day 7
Public word goal: 6774
Private word goal: 7000
Words written: 6230
The typical fall-back-and-can't-immediately-get-back-into-it.
Day 8
Public word goal: 7741
Private word goal: 8000
Words written: 7061
Okay, week 2 is looking a little better...
Day 9
Public word goal: 8709
Private word goal: 9000
Words written: 9524
Wh…what happened??? (I finally pushed through that difficult section where I had to cut out a character and redistribute his lines in a way that made sense, that's what I did.)
Day 10
Public word goal: 9677
Private word goal: 10000
Words written: 10382
Adding a song to the musical script=easy bunch of words.
Day 11
Public word goal: 10645
Private word goal: 11000
Words written: 11492
Now I'm on the way-ahead-can't-stop-won't-stop track, which is the opposite of a problem. :)
Day 12
Public word goal: 11612
Private word goal: 12000
Words written: 11721
Watching "Race To Witch Mountain" while writing, or at least from a writer's perspective, was amazing for inspiration! Just...for a different project. :)
Day 13
Public word goal: 12580
Private word goal: 13000
Words written: 12014
I was painting my bathroom. (Isn't every writer full of
Day 14
Public word goal: 13548
Private word goal: 14000
Words written: 12014
...Yeah, still awkward.
Day 15
Public word goal: 14516
Private word goal: 15000
Words written: 12014
Safe to say, I just wasn't feeling it.
Oh yeah, on a handful of these days I forgot to log anything I wrote that day. (I blame the Internet.) But thanks to the "Edit page count by day" feature, I just went back later and logged in the past days' word counts as needed. Mega convenient. :)
Perfect? No. Progress? Somewhat. Having fun? Definitely. And isn't that mostly what matters? :)
Can't wait for the next fun 16 days!
~EKL <><
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