After my work with Zahara proved so rewarding last semester, I’ve continued as her assistant over this summer. This means I’ve been able to attend not only one but two Staycations–and this time as an apprentice Fellow, which means this Friday I’ll be an opening and lunchtime speaker.
It also means that, with four weekdays dedicated to my own projects, I finally have time to ressurect some of the old draft posts for this blog.
So what is the Staycation, exactly? SomeECards explains:
Except instead of cupcakes we have healthy snacks (and some carefully guarded chocolate covered raisins for emergencies), and the internet access was spotty on the first day because of router and bandwith issues. Which made this Monday one of the most productive of my summer.
The idea is that writers who aren’t able to swing a Writer’s Retreat in the Rockies by a cristalline mouantian lake may find it easier to take some time away from 10-5 every day for a week, and get all the productivity, sociality, and some of the treats at much less cost. Personally I have never appreciated ‘me’ time so much, to say nothing of the treats and, indeed, the social side of things. It’s especially great when I can meet up with people who write in my favorite genres. And writers can spark off each other. The other day another writer overheard me talked with my sister about how “Something has to change or I’ll be killing her off, too”. The callous extermination my character inspired this fellow writer to look at her own cast, and lead to the erasure from existance of one of the protagonist’s multiple siblings. My (late, but not forgotten) character would be proud to leave such a legacy of destruction.
This week I’ve done some polishing on short stories, but my major efforts are going towards The Starter Guide for Professional Writers and One Hundred Days. I’m not moving linearly through either of them, but I’m finishing about a chapter a day plus scattered paragraphs and margin notes. While the substance of the Starter Guide is mostly there, it needs much more organization than I at first realized, and while taking with other Staycation writers and learning their questions and advice I’ve found even more content to add. I expect to have the final version complete soon!