Author Kirstin Chen is your Camp Counselor this week. Find all Camp Care Packages in Breaking News throughout the month of July, or learn more about Camp NaNoWriMo!

When I’m feeling lost or overwhelmed, I go back, again and again, to this wonderful quote from E.L Doctorow: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” And it really is true. You don’t have to have everything figured out up front; you just have to know enough to take one step forward, and then another.

Today's Writing Dare

Write without worrying what comes next! Turn your font white, or cover up most of your notebook with a separate sheet of paper. Then, set a timer for 15 minutes and write without any inner editor telling you to stop.

What's up at Camp?

• On YouTube: Hear the advice writers wish they'd been told the first time they tried NaNoWriMo.
  
  
• On the blog: Try this easy activity to write without your Evil Inner Editor.
  

• Check out the Camp NaNoWriMo Calendar to stay up to date on what's happening, including Virtual Write-Ins every Monday at 1 P.M. Pacific!
  
  

Kirstin Chen’s new novel, Bury What We Cannot Take, has been named a Most Anticipated Upcoming Book by Electric Literature, The Millions, The Rumpus, Harper’s Bazaar, and InStyle, among others. She is also the author of Soy Sauce for Beginners. She was the fall 2017 NTU-NAC National Writer in Residence in Singapore, and has received awards from the Steinbeck Fellows Program, Sewanee, Hedgebrook, and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. Born and raised in Singapore, she currently resides in San Francisco. Visit her at kirstinchen.com.