14 January 2013 - 9:17 pm

Mad writing specialness

When I was sorting out the library room for my Creative Writing Group for this year, I was informed that I couldn’t have the room in April. At all. It was booked out for some month-long event. For about five minutes, I was upset. Then I shrugged and decided to see it as an opportunity to do something a bit different.

April used to mean Script Frenzy, a challenge to write a script in a month brought to you by the OLL (the same people who do NaNoWriMo every year). However, it ended last year; there won’t be one this time around. It’s a shame, because I had hoped to take part one year. But it seems that April is opening up for writers all over.

Now, we all know that I can get a bit ambitious when it comes to writing events. My ‘let’s do something a bit different’ impulse is what led to the Writer’s Retreat. I’ve got a lot on my plate this year, so I shouldn’t go too crazy here. Right? Yeah, okay.

So naturally, ‘we can’t have an hour and a half’s CWG meeting’ prompted the question ‘why don’t we do a day of writing things instead?’ Because that’s a logical progression. My brain immediately leaned towards the notion of making a day out of it, of making it something special, a stand-out event in the year rather than just a fill-in thing we did because we couldn’t do our regular meeting.

I might as well aim high, right?

That was the extent of my pondering late last year, when I got the confirmation of my CWG dates. Then other distractions took over and I put it to the side. After all, April was months away.

It’s a little closer now and my brain is, apparently, a bit restless. So I got to thinking about what we could do, where we could go, options options options.

The easiest thing would be to use the Monthly Write-in time to do something for the whole day (it’s on a Saturday, which means I won’t have to juggle work). That means we could use the cafe where we usually write. Venue and time: easy.

But what to do? We get together and write all the time. It should be different to that. It should be challenging and invigorating. It should be inspirational. Everyone should be able to walk away feeling positive and good about what they’ve done that day. And it should be drop-in, drop-out, because not everyone can make day-long events.

That’s how I wound up with the notion of let’s do a day of writing challenges. Not just writing prompts, but actual challenges. Not snippets, but longer pieces (500-1,000 words). On the hour, every hour, for a whole day. A variety of stuff, things that people might not normally try in their writing. Challenges to push and stretch us.

Uh oh. I feel a plan forming.

I think this can work. I’m already thinking of ways we could make it more awesome. We could have an online version, and post the challenges up online (on here?) so people who can’t make it to the event can still join in. I could see if my lovely friend Sarah would want to start us off with Writercise, a bit of gentle exercise and mind-prep for a day of writing. She created it for the Writer’s Retreat and everyone loved it. I could also see if the QWC would want to be involved (prizes? Maybe even an alternate venue? Or support and advertising?).

That’s what I’ve got so far. What else? I’m not sure. Ideas are still percolating. Anyone got suggestions? Ideas? Candy? Send ’em over, I’m sure I can put them to good use.

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3 comments

  1. Sarah says:

    This sounds fantastic! I would love to – will have to check if I’m going to be back in the country by then, though. If not, I can always walk someone through the routine so they can lead for me. Might even make up a new one for the event.

    January 15th, 2013 at 9:39 am

  2. Mel says:

    Awesome! We can coordinate about that, then. 😀

    PS: Ahahahahaha.

    January 15th, 2013 at 12:40 pm

  3. Miranda Sparks says:

    I am totally down for this. 😀

    January 15th, 2013 at 12:54 pm