Badger Camp
Welcome to Badger Camp!
"What is Badger Camp?" you might ask.
This is an opportunity to get some word count in! It is a one-month challenge where we invite you to badger yourself and your friends into accomplishing something.
How does it work?
Well, you can start by joining our discord server if you like, but you're welcome to do this on your own as well.
To get updates click here to sign up for our newsletter!
Meet Spark!
Meet Spark, our Camp Counselor! Spark is the badgeriest of all badgers, and she will be watching your every move to make sure you reach your goal!
Spark is a badger with many days experience badgering her campers into writing words, staying focused, and getting shit done.
Rules
First of all, let me make it clear that I don't believe in rules. So these are like UNO rules. This is how we suggest playing the game, but honestly, do whatever tf you want.
You set your own goal—can be wordcount, page count, time commitment, whatever. For example, you might say, "I want to write 30k words this month. That's 1k words per day. Or 2k words every other day."
You don't have to write every day! Despite common guidance, hardly anyone can actually write every day for an extended period of time. However, we recommend you set a regular number of days per week to focus. You might say, "I want to write 2k words four days per week." Or, "I want to write 500 words during my lunch breaks at work, five days per week."
Tell someone about your goal! Join our Discord server and let us know what you're working on! Or, find a friend or accountability partner to badger you!
Badger! Badger yourself, badger someone else! Badger your cat! How? Well, this is all in good fun, so when we say "badger," we don't mean be annoying or mean. Send gifs! Be encouraging! Check in to see how your friend (or cat) is doing. Make space to check in with yourself. Send hearts, hugs, and badgers. And memes. Always memes!
Update! As you make progress, celebrate it. You can share with your writing buddies (or badgers), post in our server, or just write in a journal. But track your progress so at the end, you can see how far you've come!
It's not the speed that matters, it's the journey itself.
Campers
What type of camper are you?
Everyone is a little different and has different preferences when it comes to how they like to be encouraged and the ways they like to engage with others. Here are a few types of campers you could be! Pick one to let others know how you like to be badgered.
Honey Badger: fierce, protective, and enjoys snacks. Communicates via hissing. Prefers to be prodded gently with a stick. May bite. Badger the Honey Badger with memes, gifs, and the occasional, "You should be writing!" To be friends with a honey badger, you may have to suffer a few wounds initially. But once they like you, you'll be a permanent fixture in their life.
Eurasian Badger: social, cheerful, optimistic. Loves group activities, and will share its snacks. Prefers to be prodded with inspirational quotes and funny jokes. Loves hugs. Badger the Eurasian Badger with memes, gifs, funny videos, and challenges like sprints or write-ins. Friends! They love groups! They live in groups! They thrive in groups! Find them and invite them to groups.
Javan Ferret-Badger: solitary, nocturnal, and mysterious. Communicate by responding to group chats with cryptic one-liners while everyone else is sleeping. Badger the Javan with memes, secret messages, riddles, and the occasional, "You still exist?" They may ignore you for weeks, but they probably haven't forgotten about you. There's just a lot of stuff that goes on at night that you day-critters don't know about. They're busy, okay!?
Otter: playful, adorable, and excellent swimmers. These critters stay focused on their tasks, and form long-lasting relationships with each other. Love hugs and friendly banter. May not be friendly with unknown entities at first, but once they get to know you, they're loyal for life. Badger with puns, friendly jokes, and memes, memes, memes, please.
Marten: forest dwellers who love trees and are good climbers. Tend to explore and can always be found in random places you might not expect. Don't mind company, but may wander off. Badger with snacks, gifs, and memes. Occasionally, "Hey, where'd you go? What are you working on?" They may have veered off into a different project than the one they began with at the beginning of badger camp, but this is good. It means they're still at it.
Stoat: dramatic, bold, fierce hunters. No idea is too scary for them. They will pursue it at any cost. Badger them with hyperbolic encouragement. They really believe they can do literally anything, and will do everything in their power to pursue their goals. Driven, motivated, and strong, they will power through fatigue, pain, and hunger. You may have to remind them to eat and drink.
Wolverine: solitary and strong, these creatures bow only to themselves. They know what they want. Badger a wolverine by tossing them a bloody snack. A vicious meme, an absurd video, a cheerful anecdote.
Whatever you want! Make up your own!
Digging Tools
If you want to keep digging into your goals, we've created a few tools to help you along the way!
Word Tracker
We have developed our very own tool in Google Docs for you to use! This word (or page or day) tracker is pre-programmed to create charts to show you visualizations of your progress! All you have to do is click "File > Make a Copy" and then input your daily word counts! You can change the dates, or customize it however you want!
Stickers
You may notice the Word Tracking doc has a second sheet! This is because we know that writing is a long, arduous process and it's important to keep up our motivation along the way.
One way we like to do this is with stickers!
These are digital stickers that you can give yourself for any reason you want. Maybe you sat down at your desk when you didn't feel like it. Maybe you hit a wordcount or editing goal. Maybe you just think you deserve a sticker!
We've provided a few here, but there will be more to unlock as the month goes on!
Badger ecards
Use these fun badger ecards to encourage fellow writers. Tell them they are awesome, or that you miss their presence! Just a simple gesture like sending a silly card with a cute fluffy badger on it will help inspire your writing buddy to keep working toward their goals.
Beth's Tools
Need a stopwatch or a sprint timer? Beth is always coming up with useful tools!
Click here to check out what she's got available!
Discord Server
If you feel like you need a little encouragement or community, feel free to join us on Discord! We hang out, chat, run sprints, do online events, and generally have a good time badgering each other to reach our goals.
We welcome new members and are excited to learn about you and your projects.
If you want reminders whenever a new Badger Camp begins, or to get updates on new things we're implementing, you can sign up for our newsletter.
