Today is the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo–it’s my first Camp NaNoWriMo!– and I’m using something called “The Scratchpad Method.”
You see, I have a writing situation. Is it a good or bad situation? It’s good in the sense I have an abundance of WIPs to work on. It’s bad in the sense I don’t know which one to work on for April 2021 Camp NaNoWriMo.
First, I was going to work on my novella Traption. Then, I decided to work on my novella Normous. Then, I decided to work on the last several scenes of my novel Oblivion’s Hope. Now, I’ve decided to work on all of these.
How?
I’ve decided to use Google.docs.I’m going to create a text document and use it as a “scratch pad.” Each day in April, I’ll write a scene or a minimum of 833 words for whatever scenes need to be done for my various projects, my WIPs. I may stay in one WIP, say my Traption novella, for a few days, then switch to working on my Oblivion’s Hope novel for a few days. If I want, I may even get to some of my other WIPs throughout April.
For some reason, using a blank Google document seems less intimidating. I’m not afraid to write badly–and edit it later.
I know this method isn’t original, but it’s the first time I’ve tried it. For me, the advantages are:
- Working on more than one WIP at a time.
- One document with a word count I can use at the end of the day to record in NaNoWriMo.
- A Google document seems less intimidating to me and I can feel free to just write away and not worry about how good it is.
As always, I find NaNoWriMo a motivation to write. I’ve discovered the methods I use during NaNoWriMo can be applied throughout the year, including this “Scratchpad Method.”
Andrew M. Friday 
Whatever it takes to get the words on the page. Good luck!