Hey all, Sam here.
Okay, so June was obviously a reading focused month, which was wonderful, and I was happy to be able to focus on that, because I really needed a good reading month. I’d missed the feeling of just devouring book after book. That being said, I did mostly let my attention drift away from writing, which is sad because I was enjoying using my Freewrite and committing to writing every day (or almost every day).
Thankfully, it is almost time for the Pathfinders Writing Collective Summer Bookish Bootcamp, so I’ll be able to focus on writing a little bit more again. The only potential problem I can see with the current schedule for this event is that the last handful of days are during Gen Con, which means that I will be pretty busy. Of course being at the Writers Symposium at Gen Con technically does fulfill any writing craft study requirement, and being out and about in Indianapolis does also qualify as going on an adventure, so basically all I need to focus on is keeping up with my daily writing goals (something definitely made easier with my Freewrite while traveling).
Oh, and I’ll have more information about my plans during Gen Con here in a couple weeks. I already have a rough draft of the post being prepped up. But today I’m talking about building better story craft and writing habits with the Pathfinders Writing Collective Bookish Bootcamp. So, let’s go ahead and talk about what this healthy habit challenge is, and what my goals are for the event.
When: July 6 to Aug 2
What: Spend 4 weeks building your writerly muscles by developing good habits and expanding your creative well!
How: There are four flexible writing/wellness habits for you to choose from. You pick and customize which daily or weekly goals you’d like to work towards over the four weeks. Use the Bookish Boot camp templates to pick and share which habits you’re building, and join the PaWriCo Discord to connect with fellow writers during the challenge. Follow @PathfindersWritingCollective on Instagram and use the tag #PaWriCoBB
The four habits:
- Create : Build writing or other creative habits (examples: write 30 min/day, draft 1000 words/week, edit 10 pages/day, work on project 3x/week, sketch 1 hour/week)
- Consume : Take in books/art for inspiration (examples: read 10 pages/day, read 1 short story/week, watch a movie with story structure in mind 1x/week, discover new music daily)
- Craft : Dedicate time to learning craft (examples: read 10 pages of craft book/day, listen to one podcast/week, watch one writing craft YouTube video/week)
- Care : Nourish body and mind so you can create (examples: drink 2 liters of water/day, take walking breaks between writing sprints, swap one sweet treat for a healthy treat each week)
Be as flexible as you’d like. You can start with one habit and add more as the challenge progresses. You can shift and change things as needed. There’s no way to fail here.
Now that we’ve gone through what this challenge is all about, here are my goals for the month:
CREATE: Write one scene/flash fiction piece per day. My D&D character is constantly having flashes of memory from her various past lives and I want to explore more of those, because it will help with roleplay, but it will also help with the story I’m writing about her. I have it set up for her to be writing her memories down in a journal, so if I can write those little memory flashes down, maybe one little scene that basically amounts to a flash fiction piece, then it should be a good writing month. I’m imagining these memories to be anywhere from 300 words to like 1000 words. Obviously the longer ones will probably take a couple days to do.
CONSUME: Read two fiction books per week. My standard break down of books per month to achieve a goal of 100 books read in a year is basically eight books, so this is my normal base reading goal. I have some pretty good options on my July TBR, so I feel pretty good about my ability to complete this goal.
CRAFT: Read 1-2 writing craft books during Bootcamp. I put The Happy Writer by Marissa Meyer on my TBR for July, but I might also read something else. I haven’t fully decided yet.
CARE: The goal I basically had for this particular part of the challenge last year was to get out and do something/”have an adventure”/”touch grass” once per week, and I think I’m going to stick with that. I can go for a walk or get out and do something like disc golf or putt-putt. Just something to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors.
All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 