Camp NaNoWriMo and Proofreading for Project Gutenberg

The internet has so much information and so many things to discover, and it’s always changing. Even with the tons of new things there are to keep track of, there are other things that have been around for a long time, in internet years, and I can’t believe I didn’t know about them earlier! Here are a couple of things I just found out about even though they’ve been going on for years.

Camp NaNoWriMo

Did you know there is a summer NaNoWriMo? It’s called Camp NaNoWriMo, and they do it in June AND in August. How did I not know about this until now? They call it “An idyllic writers’ retreat, smack dab in the middle of your crazy life.” Only it’s a virtual retreat. When you sign up, you can choose to be included in a “cabin” with other participants, so you have a built-in support group. I’ve signed up to participate in June, and we’ll see about August.

I won’t be writing a new novel in June. Instead, I’ll be working on my second draft of the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo in November. It has been tough to motivate myself to revise this novel. I started it completely unplanned in November, so I really had no idea where it was going, and it’s basically going to be a whole new story. I feel a little sad to have put all of that work into it only to rewrite it, but I wouldn’t have these characters, these ideas, the world building, or anything, if I hadn’t written in November. To help myself stick with it, I’ll be attending Camp NaNoWriMo in June so I can set myself a goal and have some accountability in sticking to it. I have to say I adore The Office of Letters and Light for doing all of this every year.

Proofreading for Project Gutenberg

Another discovery I made is that Project Gutenberg has a program for volunteer proofreaders to help process the books that are scanned and made into ebooks. As a spelling, grammar, and punctuation nerd, this is a project that appeals to me. I’m good at proofreading! I also like Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg provides free ebooks for books that are in the public domain (i.e. not under copyright anymore). The books are scanned from physical copies and put through OCR software, which recognizes the text. But, the software sometimes gets things wrong, and that’s where proofreaders come in! Click through the Distributed Proofreaders Walkthrough to get an idea of what it’s like to help out this way. I’ve signed up for an account, read the proofreading guidelines, and printed out the guidelines reference sheet. Today I took the proofreading quizzes, which helped me reinforce what I’d learned by reading the proofreading guidelines. Now, I get to proofread my beginner’s pages and get feedback from a mentor!

The picture above is of Alamo. Just thought I’d include a picture, since I haven’t had a reason for a photo for awhile! We think it’s funny when our pets cross their legs, and I take every opportunity to snap pictures of these poses.