Camp NaNoWriMo

:This article discusses the Camp NaNoWriMo event. For the forum of the same name, see Camp NaNoWriMo (forum).
Camp NaNoWriMo is a "light" version of NaNoWriMo done in months outside of the official Nano in November. It debuted in July 2011 and ran two months, July and August. In 2012 Camp NaNoWriMo ran in June and August. Camp NaNoWriMo has run in April and July since 2013.
== A New Proposed Event ==
A version of Camp NaNoWriMo has been in OLL's three-year strategic plan since the strategic plan's creation in 2008NaNoWriMo history. Retrieved 31 August 2010. http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/history.Speculation began in August 2009 of a proposed year-round Nanowrimo when Chris Baty posted a blog post chronicling his and Lindsey Grant's trip to the screenprinter for the 2009 NaNoWriMo shirtsChris Baty. "Field trip to Babylon!" 22 August 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2010. http://blog.nanowrimo.org/node/247. One of the shirts featured a Camp NaNoWriMo design with the logo "An idyllic writers retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life".
Speculation fueled in October when the Fund-o-Meter showed Camp NaNoWriMo at the $750,000 spot. The text read, "750K = A very exciting new program codenamed 'Camp NaNoWriMo' will be developed and built. The program will bring a free, year-round version of NaNo to the Internet in early 2011. That's right, NaNo citizens: ALL YEAR ROUND!"NaNoWriMo Fund-o-Meter. Retrieved 31 August 2010. When fundraising hit the book before the $750,000 level, Wrimos began to speculate even more about the specific nature of Camp NaNoWriMo. In December, Dragonchilde explained on the forums that Camp NaNoWriMo would give Wrimos some of the tools to do NaNo and that its existence was contingent on fundingDragonchilde. "RE: What is the Year Round Camp NaNoWriMo Thing?" Posted 10 December 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2010. http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3474880#comment-4486803
In May 2011 the NaNoWriMo staff made a teaser announcement about Camp NaNoWriMo, along with plans for a Camp and Guts donation driveLindsey Grant. "Let's all go to camp. Camp NaNoWriMo!" Camp NaNoWriMo announcement. Retrieved 21 May 2011. http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/4032185. The Camp NaNoWriMo website opened on 29 June 2011. 
In 2012 Camp NaNo's sessions were moved to June and August, as holding events two months in a row proved to be extremely difficult for the staff, particularly from a technical perspective.
In 2013, the Camp NaNoWriMo sessions were moved to April and July. These months have not changed since then.
== The Camp Nanowrimo Event ==
Each month of Camp NaNo is its own separate event; participants can choose to participate in either session (July or August in 2011, June or August in 2012, April or July in 2013 and beyond) or both. The default goal for each month was the same as regular Nano: 50,000 words; however, this word count goal is customizable as of 2013. Previous participants of Nanowrimo and Script Frenzy can simply log in with their existing usernames and are automatically entered into the appropriate month upon creating a project for the event.
Camp NaNoWriMo does not have Municipal Liaisons, enabling existing NaNoWriMo MLs to participate without the additional responsibility, but some regions hold camp write-ins or host cabins for members of the region.
The rules are identical to regular NaNo, except you can choose any word count goal (between 30 and 1,000,000, inclusive), and may work on any writing project. Participants working on non-novel projects worked with a word count equivalency, such as 1000 words per hour of editing.
Starting in 2017, participants could choose to track their goal via words as well as hours, minutes, lines, or pages. This feature enables Wrimos to track their own goals more easily without converting to words. This feature was not implemented when Camp NaNoWriMo moved to the main NaNoWriMo website in 2020; however, campers can use a word count equivalency to convert from words to their tracked goal.
Camp NaNoWriMo features Camp Counselors, who deliver bite-sized chunks of inspiration to writers five days a week throughout the Camp months. They may also participate in a tweet chat or Instagram Live throughout the month.
== Site features ==
The Camp NaNoWriMo website featured a profile similar to My NaNoWriMo with some user and novel information (including a larger profile picture). The stats page initially had a count down toward 50,000, but was reverted a few days in to a stats page like the regular NaNoWriMo. The website also had a private message system, through which Camp Care Packages, pep talks from NaNoWriMo staff and fellow participants were sent, along with a Cabins feature that debuted in August 2011. 
Camp NaNoWriMo no longer has a separate site. As of 2020, Campers can create Camp projects and form writing groups using the same tools as those used for the main November event.
== Cabins ==
A feature exclusive to Camp Nano was the introduction of cabins, a small message board containing four to six participants that became functional in August 2011. Participants had the option of inviting specific Wrimos into their cabin, joining a cabin with participants of the same age, activity level, word count goal, or genre. They may have also opted to join a random cabin or not to join a cabin at all. Cabins have a central "wall" on which Wrimos could post messages to all other campers in their cabin. These messages were viewable only to other Wrimos in that cabin. The NaNo tech team ran cabin assignments frequently, so new cabinmates could show up in a cabin after the month began and users could switch cabins if they wish. Cabins closed a few days after the event ended, but participants could continue to connect through private messages or through the main NaNo forums.
Cabin challenges were also run by eensybeensyspider in August 2011. These consisted of writing challenges done as a collaboration between cabinmates and submitted on the forum for judging. It was not brought back in 2012.
After 2011, cabins could hold as many as twelve participants; in March 2017, this number increased to twenty.
In 2020, Camp NaNoWriMo moved to the main NaNoWriMo website, and cabins transitioned into writing groups. Writing groups do not expire, and Wrimos can join multiple groups.
==Camp NaNoWriMo Forums==
The Camp Nano website did not have a forum system. To facilitate community while the Cabin feature was under construction, a Camp Nano forum was created in the December and Beyond section of the NaNoWriMo site. The forums were moderated by eensybeensyspider in 2011 and were locked after the end of August.
In 2012 Camp NaNoWriMo became a section of the forums, near the top of the index, with Campfire Circle and Camp Tech Help populating that section. These forums remained open post-camp but were moved to the bottom of the index in September and were removed during the 2012 NaNo site relaunch.
In March of 2013, Campfire Circle and Camp Tech Help (the latter was renamed "Camp Tech Help & Feedback") were brought back for the 2013 camp sessions and were put near the top of the index. There were also two new boards: Special Offers and Greetings from Camp NaNo Sponsors and Finding Cabin Mates. In Early August, the two new boards were removed, and the other two were moved to the middle of the index, and then to the bottom of the index in Late August, and then removed in Mid-September.
==Camp NaNo Stats==
:Main article: NaNoWriMo statistics
2011 had 6,400 July Participants, 6,236 August Participants, 1,755 total winners.
2012 grew to 15,307 June Particpants, 12,859 August Participants, 3,579 total winners.
2013 grew to 23,221 April Participants, 22,227 July Participants (45,448 total participants) . This was the first year that both sessions of Camp NaNo individually exceeded participant totals in Script Frenzy's peak year (2010). The number of 2013 Camp NaNo Winners has not been released.
2014 saw 55,774 participants writing novels, scripts, and other projects.
2015's Camp NaNo event hosted 57,402 campers writing novels, scripts, and other projects.
==External Links==
* Camp NaNoWriMo official site (archived, retrieved 27 April 2021)
==References==
Category:Office of Letters and Light events
Category:NaNoWriMo forums
Category:Timed artistic challenges