Writers’ Asylum: Colonising Minds: Diagnosis

To improve, scrutiny is required.
(Picture: eagle owl eye by Windwalker, via wikimedia)

This year’s Asylum went well. I think it’s pretty safe to say that. All the feedback I’ve had so far has been overwhelmingly possible. When we got to the end of the day, we had happy chatter, and people excitedly telling each other about their colonies and stories.

It makes me deliriously happy when that happens.

Now, a little time has passed and the dust has settled. I’m keen to capture what went so right – and anything that wasn’t so right – to make sure this is a repeatable experience. I’m a firm believer that valuable feedback includes what we’re doing right, as well as what we’re doing wrong. So let’s make sure next year’s Asylum continues the awesome trend.

First, it might be useful to consider the evolution of the Asylum, and how feedback has shaped it thus far.

In the first Asylum, we did 6 challenges over the day, an hour each, no stopping. That also meant no pauses, no food, no comfort-breaks: anything the writers needed came out of their writing time. It ran straight through from 11am to 5pm.

The biggest (loudest) feedback I got that year was that it was too much. Too hectic, too crammed, not enough breathing space. Writers were noticeably flagging by the end of the day, and engagement with the last challenge was strained at best. The feedback included preferences for fewer or shorter challenges.

In response to that, the schedule for the day was changed. We chopped out one of the challenges and spread the remaining 5 across the day, with 10-minute breaks and a 40-minute lunch in between them. The goal of writing 1,000 words in an hour per challenge was retained.

The reactions to this were really positive. It was a more doable workload and writers were more able to have a go at all of the challenges.

However, there was still a bit of flagging energy by the end of the day. It’s hard to know whether to be too concerned about this: it is, after all, a day of challenges intended to stretch people and their writing. Again, I asked for feedback (received in-person, this time), and there were some interesting comments.

What I managed to piece together from the comments was: it was good and everyone enjoyed it, but it was hard work to get into each challenge because they had to start from scratch each time. As the day went on, it got harder to shift gears for each new challenge.

The focus of the challenges also changed between the first and second Asylums. The first was intended to be as broad as possible, the challenges touching on different genres, themes, elements, and perspectives. The second was more focussed, with all the challenges around different kinds of viewpoint characters (hence the name: Altered Perspectives). This was a reaction to positive feedback about the idea when it was suggested and something we wanted to try.

Related challenges seemed like a good idea, but it hadn’t quite gone far enough. One of the attendees to Altered Perspectives suggested that the challenges could all be around a central story. This sounded like a good idea to try to me, so that’s what we did!

So for this year, I crafted a set of challenges that were all built around the same core element: telling the progressive tale of a single colony project. This gave it the name: Colonising Minds.

It had exactly the effect that I had hoped it would. There was much less flagging by the end of the day, still some pauses for thought to get hold of each new challenge, and more excited chatter in between each challenge as everyone’s colonies developed. (There were also a lot of questions about when they could kill off everyone in the colony… we’re a bloodthirsty group!)

I don’t know if it was more or less challenging than before, but it felt like a more energised event. I’m more interested in making sure that it’s fun and something people want to do than a truly ‘challenging’ endeavour, so I’m hoping that it’s hitting the right points!

I’m really happy with how it turned out. Now, of course, I need to make sure we can at least do that well again, if not better, next time. I already have a couple of ideas for next year’s Asylum theme, and will cogitate on that for a while before I commit anything to words. (It’s also not as much fun if everyone is warned up-front about the theme! The surprise is part of the challenge.)

So I guess what I need to know now is: what did everyone think of the day? And the challenges? What could we do or change to make it even better?

Tell me, my brain is hungry!

Writers’ Asylum: Colonising Minds: Epilogue

We have reached the end of the Asylum once more.

Congratulations, you have created an entire world today. You gave it purpose and people, you tested it, and you decided its fate. I hope that you had fun, and that maybe you’ve got a world you want to write more about. It’s yours: take it home and do what you will with it.

Thank you for taking part in the 2015 Writers’ Asylum! As always, feedback is welcome; you can email me or leave comments here.

Turn your padded coats in at the door and don’t let anything hit you on the backside as you leave. Stay crazy!

Colonising Minds: Challenge #5

Start here before doing this challenge.

The colony’s big challenge is over, one way or another. It made it through or it didn’t. The dust has settled. A year has passed since then, a whole cycle of the seasons, a turn of the sun, and a visitor is approaching the colony’s borders.

Why is this person coming to the colony? Is it a planned trip, or a chance visit because they happened to be passing this way? How did they come to be here, and by what means? Do they have a purpose in coming – news, or supplies, or the start of the next wave of colonists? Are they alone, or part of a group?

What is the first thing that this visitor sees? As he or she progresses into the colony, what do they find? Is it still very crude, or starting to look like an established town, or indistinguishable from a city that has been around for decades? What do the people look like, seem like? Do they welcome a stranger with open arms, distrust, relief, or hostility?

Is there anyone left to welcome this visitor at all?

Follow this person through the colony. Picture the places he or she sees, smells, breathes in. What impression does the visitor have, and is it borne out as they move on through, deeper into this place? Is there any sign of the hardships that the colony has been through? Does this person achieve what they set out to by coming here?

Show us this person’s visit to the colony, and give us a hint of what it might mean for the colony’s future.

Finish up: Epilogue

Colonising Minds: Challenge #4

Start here before doing this challenge.

No plan ever goes smoothly. No group of people will live together without trouble, not for long, even with a common purpose. Small issues can be dealt with in small ways, but eventually, something big is going to come along. It could be days, or weeks, or months, or even years after that first breaking of the ground. This thing will give your colony its first real test, and now, it’s make or break time.

Think about what that first big problem might be. It could be a failed harvest, or a supply train that never arrives. A spoiled or poisoned water supply. It could be a malfunction in the terraformer that stops it from converting the atmosphere, or a hole punctured in an essential dome. It could be a clash with a native race or species. It could be a sickness that no-one has a treatment for yet. Or it could be something more sinister, like large-scale sabotage or terrorism that undermines the establishment of the colony.

Whatever it is, it poses a real threat to the continued existence of the colony. Choose your problem and consider what its repercussions mean. It’s sink or swim time, but what does sinking mean for these people? Going back home again, or something more fatal?

Consider how the colony reacts. What does the general populace think about it? Are they aware, or has it been hidden from public view? What about those in charge: what is the first thing they do? Do they have the capability to deal with this issue themselves? Were they at all prepared for this type of emergency? Are they forced to ask for help, or make sacrifices, and are they willing to do it? Does everyone agree with what must be done?

Tell us about the colony’s first big challenge and how it makes it through – or doesn’t. The colony’s fate is entirely in your hands.

Next up: Challenge #5

Colonising Minds: Challenge #3

Start here before doing this challenge.

The long journey is over. Your colonists have finally arrived at their destination. It might be the planned location, or a chance happenstance of the right conditions, or just the place where they finally had to stop. They are here, and now it’s time to break ground on this new home of theirs.

What kind of ground is it? What is it like here? How much work do the colonists have ahead of them to get themselves established?

How does it compare to the place they set out from? Is the contrast stark? Is it comfortingly or disturbingly familiar? Is it what they thought it would be? Are there any surprises waiting there for them, and if there are, are they good or bad surprises? What is the general mood of the colonists as they stop moving and start settling?

Consider the characters you focussed on in at the start of the journey. Did they all make it? For those who did, how do they react when they finally see their new home? Are they relieved, disappointed, elated, excited, scared of what lies ahead, or regretting their decision to come here?

Tell us the story of the laying of the foundations of their new home.

Next up: Challenge #4

Colonising Minds: Challenge #2

Start here before doing this challenge.

It has arrived: the day when the first colonists set forth on their journey. There is a long road ahead of them, but how will they travel it? Do they have ships loaded with supplies and equipment? Are these land, sea, or space ships? Burros and donkeys? Or are they restricted to only what they can carry or drag themselves?

What is the nature of this departure? Is there a fanfare and a marching band to lead them out of the gates? The hiss of separating spaceships? Champagne and shattered bottles? The quiet slipping away into the night to escape from where they have come from? Might they be chased out onto the road? Or are they just another group setting out on another journey, unremarkable in the scheme of things?

Focus on one or two people in the caravan about to set out. Who are they? How are they feeling as they gather their everything and get ready to leave? Are they daunted by the road ahead, or elated to finally set out, or frightened by what might await them? Are they sure they’re doing the right thing? Are they sad about what they’re leaving behind, or hopeful about where they’re headed?

Tell us the story of their first step on the long road to a new home.

Next up: Challenge #3

Colonising Minds: Challenge #1

You’ve read the setup and got your colony in mind.

Let’s go back to the colony’s first beginnings. Not the first foot on the soil or landing, but before that: let’s go back to the thing that drove it into being. There was, at the start of it all, a reason. Ask why: why would a group of people choose to leave on a long road leading to the longer job of setting up a new colony? Why would someone pay for such an endeavour?

It’s also worth asking whether these colonists are moving to or away from something, or both. Are they fleeing oppression or discrimination, seeking a newer, freer life? Are they moving from an overcrowded world into uncharted – or at least un-congested – lands? Are they looking for new resources, or exploring new frontiers?

Consider the effort to bring this project to bear. How public was it? Did it have to be conducted in secret? Was it crowdfunded? Was there a single benefactor, or a heap of government funding?

How were the colonists recruited? Was everyone welcome, or did they have to apply? Was there a lottery? Did they have to be invited explicitly? What about families?

Behind it all, who was driving it? Think about this person – or, if it was a group, think about a single person in that group. Why are they not only a part of this project, but also a leader of it? What is driving this specific person to push this colony into being?

Follow that person home. Think about where they live and how they conduct their time. Now tell us the story of that person, of how they came to be a leader of colonists in this brave new endeavour, and how this project came to be.

Tell us about the genesis of it all.

Next up: Challenge #2

Writers’ Asylum: Colonising Minds: Prologue

Will your colony start like this?
(Picture: The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Welcome to the Asylum. Settle in, make yourself comfortable; you’re going to be here for a while.

We have a lot to get through today: 5 challenges, each with a goal to write 1,000 words in an hour.

This year, we’re trying something different: a series of connected challenges, building up a single world and a single story. These challenges are intended to be done in order; it will make much more sense if you do.

I’m going to ask you some questions, guide you through some decisions, and help to build a picture in your mind. People, places, situations. From there, I’m going to ask you to write about a specific aspect of the situation in front of you.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Today, we’re going to establish a brand new colony. Step by step, you’re going to break free of the comfort and security of an establish community, you’re going to strike out on your own, cross wildernesses and vast open spaces, and at the other end, you’re going to set up a new home. Over today’s five challenges, you’re going to tell the story of this colony.

First, think about the community and society where it all begins. All colonists come from somewhere originally. Think about the era it’s in: it can be anything you like, from ancient Vikings to the tall ships of the 17th century, from magical medieval lands to far-future planet-hopping. It could be a contemporary setting, or near-future, trying to squeeze something new out of an already fully-claimed planet or foraying out into our nearest heavenly neighbours.

Next, consider where your colony will be located. Is it a foreign land, or planet, or climate? Is it at the bottom of the ocean, or huddling inside the warmth of an old volcano? Is it ice-bound, or the temperate rolling of fertile fields? Think about the distance between this new colony and its origin.

You have some idea of what your colonial effort will require now. Equipment, supplies, sustenance. Skills and people. It’s no small endeavour, no cheap feat. You are starting to get an idea of what it might take to make this thing happen.

Next up: Challenge #1

Asylum preparations

Wouldn’t it be cool to sail off in one of these, for lands unknown?
(Picture: scrimshaw drawing on a sperm whale tooth, courtesy of Wikipedia.)

It’s almost that time again: time to delve into the Writers’ Asylum, my day of writing challenges. It’s less than a week away now!

(All right, if I’m honest, it’s late this year, falling in May instead of April. This was due to some factors outside of my control and another event that cropped up; more on thay event later. But anyway!)

The pencils are sharpened, the straightjackets have been washed and pressed, and I’ve got the keys to all the doors. I think I’m just about ready!

Okay, I’m kidding. I haven’t really sharpened any pencils. Who gives asylum inmates sharp things to play with? Seriously.

This year, I’m trying something different. Following feedback last year that it might be fun to try linked challenges rather than standalone ones, I have created a series of challenges that builds upon a single, central story. It was both difficult and fun to write.

That’s part of why I love doing the Asylum: I get to write the challenges. It’s my challenge to myself, because they have to hit a particularly difficult line in specificity.

I read them out to a group of people (anything from 10 to 40 people, if previous years are anything to go by) and some people pick them up from this blog, which means that these challenges need to speak to a broad range of writers. They have to allow people to go into a world that they can connect and work with. This means that they can’t lean too heavily in a particular direction; they need to account for different time periods, magic and technology levels, genres, feels, and preferences.

At the same time, the challenges need to be focussed enough to guide the writers towards something that they can write, right there, on the spot. 1,000 words in an hour. So it has to be packed with sparks that can cross all those boundaries above. The challenge has to push them, and also be about something specific.

Broad, but directed. Allowing for different approaches and options, and yet on the same overall topic.

It’s not an easy target to hit. I’m not entirely sure how successful I am, most of the time, but I think I get there. This time, because the challenges are all linked, it’s harder because I can’t make any assumptions about what the previous challenge has set up.

It’s also immensely fun. It makes up for the fact that I’m so busy running the day, I don’t wind up doing the challenges myself.

Which isn’t to say that they don’t give me ideas. They do! Perhaps one day I’ll get around to writing them. Right now, I’m just happy that this year’s Asylum is all set up and ready to go. The challenges are written and scheduled up on this blog, ready to post in tandem with the live event.

What is this linked story going to be about, you ask? I’m not telling except that it has a name: Colonising Minds. Take from that what you will. True answers will emerge on Saturday, 2nd May. Join us!

I’m ready. Are you?

Altered Perspectives: Epilogue

Time to close your eyes and return to whatever sanity you call home.
(Picture by Pixabay)

The end of the Asylum is nigh. The locks are opening and doors are ready to release you back into the world.

You have spent the day in inhuman heads, writing from alien perspectives. You’ve given a voice to the silent, and told unlikely stories. It’s time to return to your own head now.

I hope you had fun today. I hope you did something new, maybe gained some inspiration you can take forward into something else. I hope you surprised yourself.

I’d love to hear what you thought of the Asylum. Which one did you find the easiest to write? Which one was the hardest? How would you improve the experience for next time? Is there something you would like to have a go at next time? Any feedback, please let me know.

Thank you for taking part. The Asylum couldn’t happen without you. Feel free to take the madness away with you and have fun with it.