10 | July | 2013 | awritersfountain

I cannot believe that we are already 10 days into camp and that one third of our writing time has now ticked past. I am still on the first short story – a vampire tale (my 1st attempt) inspired by a Friday Fictioneer flash fiction I wrote a while back. This is the same project that seems to have turned into a novella!

I have spent the night writing over 1000 words, unfortunately my last few word count updates were estimated and sadly I was over zealous and inaccurate!

I am now writing the ending few scenes and a little bit of extra events to slip into the middle. Camp NaNo is not about editing so after that it will gather dust on my memory stick and hard drive until later in the summer.

My current word count should be over 11000 if I was following the daily allowance. However this week has been extremely busy. I plan to attend my first ever REGIONAL WRITE IN for Wrimos and this will give me a chance to catch up with the words over the weekend, I hope. Depending on how much writing we actually do. Sometimes these meets are more sociable.

TOP TIPS FOR CAMP

1) Keep going! You have made it this far!

2) Protect yourself! Wear sunblock and BACK up your saved files to several places.

3) Don’t do the Maths! Don’t even think about the distance you have come whether your word count graph has bars that reach the expectation targets set or not – do NOT worry! Plan a little writing date with yourself some time over this next week to catch up – or readjust your word count total – a new feature this year for camp!

4) Get involved! Send a message to the other campers in your cabin, read and respond to threads on the forum, blog about what you’re doing, change your facebook status – you may be surprised by the amount of your friends also involved!

5) HAVE FUN! Always.

was another exciting month for me as a writer. New opportunities and lots of new friends and contacts were made.

It inadvertently became another month for training. This wasn’t the way I had planned it. I was unable to complete much writing towards the end of the month as the boxing my life up took priority over time and energy and I have only just survived the balance of work and house moving! I gave up on a few submissions and worked on ideas for July and the summer instead.

These included;

Preparation for Camp NaNoWriMo (Online writing retreat – writing everyday throughout July and reaching target word count) I plan to write two shorts and the beginning of a novella. All projects that I have places in mind for later on this year to edit, redraft, polish and send for submission.

Thinking about editing and changes to make to the children’s picture book manuscript, work on which is planned for July.

And completing the online Rhetoric course – which I missed the final week of as I had no internet access and was like a mad woman attempting to pack up my house and still have time to sleep and re-energise! This means that I won’t be able to achieve a distinction, as I needed to complete 1 more level up activity. But to be fair from an academic point of view, I don’t think this would have enabled me to learn more – the bulk of the learning was in the 1^st 3 weeks and the rest was using that knowledge in writing various assignment pieces and public service work.

Considering all the sweat and tears that is a bit of a pain, the course was supposed to be 6 weeks – I never would have enrolled on a 10 week one as I was doing my writing classes in the city once a week at the same time and then as those finished work kicked in with its busy period and I found myself moving house!

I have not been put off by this experience and signed up for another online course for the summer which runs mid July through August, something to keep the creativity and ideas bubbling over – if I don’t commit to something I will end up having the summer off as I will be too tempted to stay out and play in the sunshine of the garden instead of writing.

Again due to moving house I missed some real life festival opportunities and workshops that I would have attended – they are annual so I will pencil them in again for next year. I just barely had the energy to keep going by the end of June!

The children’s picture book course was good and finished this month with the whole class going to the pub. Another group of writers I plan to keep in touch with, two have already gone on a writing retreat and we can hopefully help each other with some critiques. Opportunities have arisen from knowing these people and re-training in the genre (last classes over a decade ago and much has changed in the world of publishing since then!)

There is a conference in November that I will try to get to and also some meetings with writers in the city – one of which I intend to attend in July.

I missed an opportunity to re-unite with writers from my Scriptwriting workshops (May), as I was moving house, having been up at 4 am on my removal day I know I made the right decision with this one.

The Courtyard Theatre (where we went to Alan Harris’ workshops) hosted a Scratch Night – the deadline for writing was back in May and I was in a whirl with work and house matters and unable to come up with an idea, let alone a script in time. Debbie, a friend of mine on the course entered and her script made it through, I would have loved to have seen the work performed and see Penny and Gill again too. Sadly I couldn’t make it. Then on the 10^th there is a trip to Cardiff to see Alan’s new play and I don’t think I can make this either. It’s a work night and a good long drive – I may look into trains.

If not I hope that the summer will bring me a chance to catch up – although looking around the house at all the work we need to do now we have moved I am not sure that the summer (only 3 weeks off) will bear the promises of most years. Plus I need to do some job searches having resigned my position last month!

Other than writing June brought a flurry of house action – we took ownership back in May, had the electrician and plasterer in and a month after we bought it – it was ready to move in – it has taken the best part of 3 weeks to manage that! But now Mr G, 100’s of boxes and I are in. Whhooahhooooo

And in the future this being home and not having to travel miles in round trips will free up space in my head and allow me more time … to write, live, sleep and

B R E A T H E!

My July writing plans are vague and sketchy the schedule has just had the words

Blog

NaNoWriMo

Copy and pasted in every box!

With some slots for manuscript deadlines and emails for the writers meeting on the 20^th filled out too.

I think with the practicalities of finishing work, unpacking, selling my apartment, attending college reunions and arranging socialising the schedule is full on enough for the summer month.

I am also planning on attending NaNoWriMo Meets in the city – we are having at least one if not two over the course of the July camp. I missed the meets they had in April. I think it would be good and this will make it the 4^th group of writers I have met this year who in my future as a writer may be able to keep me sane and away from that overwhelming feeling of isolation.