camp nano | Katie Jane Gallagher

The thirty-third chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with brilliant chapter illustrations courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST (and many times earlier)! You can get started on the series with Chapter One right here or on Wattpad.

In writing news, Camp NaNo is going… okay. I’ve definitely been adding words to my manuscript–not as many as I’d like, but what’s new? 😉 I’m continuing to do Zoom dates with my writing buddies, which has been really fun. And I’ve added a new character to my story; this book has a very small cast thus far, so it’s always nice to add someone new into the mix.

I thought it might be fun this week to give some shout-outs to a few new bookish things! The first is Dabble, a writing service that I think I’ve mentioned before once or twice. I’ve been drafting on Dabble for the past nine months or so, and I really enjoy it; it has a similar layout to Scrivener, but everything syncs to the cloud and you can write from a browser if you want to, so that it’s easy to write from multiple computers. What’s nice is that they’ve added mobile support just a few days ago! I’m sure other writers out there will relate to how it can be really annoying to get an idea for your book while you’re out and about and not have anywhere to write it down–I normally text myself in those situations, but now I can just use the app to jot the idea down in my actual story document. Hurrah!!!

I also want to shout out Self Publishing Formula, which is Mark Dawson’s company that offers courses and webinars for indie authors, as well as an excellent podcast. Most indies probably know Mark Dawson; he’s a giant in the industry. Anyway, his company has been running lots of promos on courses for indie authors due to COVID-19, and now they’re working on a BookBub competitor called Hello Books. It’s not up and running yet, but you can get on a waitlist. Given Mark Dawson’s success in the industry, this seems like an interesting opportunity to grow your list and get exposure.

Anyway, I’m going to wrap it up here. Have a great (and healthy) rest of your weekend, and enjoy Chapter Thirty-Three. ❤

Illustration courtesy of Ally Grosvenor.

The thirty-second chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with brilliant chapter illustrations courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST (and many times earlier)! You can get started on the series with Chapter One right here or on Wattpad.

These past few weeks I’ve really upped my word count on my Beauty and the Beast and Aliens WIP–I’m finally feeling like I’m making some progress story-wise! We’re also officially past that interminable kayaking scene. 😛 A lot of the progress I’ve made is down to writing with friends virtually, since, you know, social distancing. I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom sessions with writing buddies, sometimes even multiple times a day. Over the years, I’ve found that my most effective habit for getting words in is to write with friends–we usually rotate coffee shops or sometimes write at each other’s houses, about one to three times a week for two hours or so. These are not critique sessions; it’s just butt-in-chair time with other people. So I’ve been happy to discover that virtual writing sessions are about as effective for me as in-person sessions, and it’s nice to be keeping up with all my writing friends as well.

Something that’s been another small help to me is Camp NaNoWriMo. A lot of people know about NaNo, but not necessarily about the “camps” that take place during April and July. In the camps, you get to pick your word count and you write in virtual “cabins” with other writers, to help with accountability. This year’s Camp NaNo is an afterthought for NaNoWriMo as a company, in my opinion; with the gutting of the NaNo website last year, it seems that there’s hardly any support for camp this year in terms of online functionality. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to be sorted into cabins; you have to join writing groups yourself in the forum. There also doesn’t appear to be any fun new graphics or merch for this year’s camp, different from years in the past where each camp had its own branding. I’m not really sure where NaNo is at as a company (they’re a 501(c)(3)), but I wish they had made camp a bigger priority than it seems to be. Nevertheless, I’m in a couple cabins, and we’ve been using Discord for chatting while we’re getting words in. So it’s been kinda fun… but also a letdown. Anyone else doing Camp NaNo? I’d be curious to hear other people’s opinions about the changes NaNo is making as a company.

Anyway, I’m going to wrap it up here. Have a great (and healthy) rest of your weekend, and enjoy Chapter Thirty-Two. ❤

Katie Jane Gallagher

Tag Archives: camp nano

Chapter Thirty-Three of The Gold in the Dark and a Writing Update!

Chapter Thirty-Two of The Gold in the Dark and a Writing Update!