‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp: Day 5
Look how far we’ve come
Hello, friends. And welcome to Day 5 of ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp—I’m really glad you’re here.
What Day 5 is all about
If you’re reading this, then you’ve managed to show up for your writing project today despite ‘all the everything’, and I congratulate you. Maybe you’ve shown up for every single day of this Writing Camp. Maybe you haven’t. But you’re here now, and that’s huge.
Where do we go from here?
First of all, thank you. Thank you for signing up, and thank you for showing up. Thank you for sharing glimpses of the progress you’ve made and the challenges you’ve faced during this round of Writing Camp. It’s been a real pleasure sharing this time with you.
Secondly: I’ve kept today’s prompts relatively simple. They’re geared towards getting you through one more day of chipping away at your project and helping you reflect on where you need to go next.
Finally, I hope very much that this round of Writing Camp has given you a few tricks and tools you can use to keep showing up in the weeks and months to come. I know there are dark times ahead. I’m scared, too. But we’re all in this together, one way or another. And even though writing is often a solitary pursuit, it doesn’t have to be lonely.
If you’ve found ‘Let’s Get Writing’ Camp helpful, you can repeat the experience on your own whenever you like, or you can even organise a writing retreat of your own using the prompts I’ve provided—as always, I’ll be making the posts and prompts from this edition of Writing Camp freely available to all for the foreseeable future. I only ask that you give PBP a little shout-out when sharing these resources with others—Page by Page is part of how I make my living, and I’m very grateful for any form of support you feel able to give me.
Day 5 Writing Prompts
Pick whichever one you feel up to today.
Option 1: Freewriting
Skim through what you’ve managed to produce this week. Then freewrite for 5 minutes on any aspect of what you’ve read. Remember: Do not stop. Do not look back. Do not worry at all about using perfect punctuation or sentence structure.
If that’s all you feel up to right now, that’s fine. Keep these notes somewhere visible so that you can pick up where you left off when you next sit down to write, whether that’s tomorrow, Monday morning, or whenever.
If you feel like you can do a little more, you can use this exercise to jump-start your writing today. You can either (a) set yourself a goal for your next writing stint today (e.g. set a timer for 20 minutes, or set a goal of writing at least 200 more words) and/or (b) try out Options 2 or 3 below.
Option 2: Directed prompt
Skim through what you’ve produced this week. Then take 5 minutes and write about any one of the following:
How your sense of your project has changed
How your sense of your project hasn’t changed
If this is all you’ve got time/energy for today, that’s just fine. If, on the other hand, you’d like to try taking another step, you can also try aiming to write for 20 minutes or until you have 200 more words.
Option 3: You do you
If you’re at Writing Camp for the camaraderie and support rather than the prompts, that’s great. Do your own thing, and let us know about it—and about how you’re doing—in the chat.
Ok, folks: time to write! And if you feel like you need additional support in the coming weeks and months, you can become a paid subscriber in order to get weekly check-in sessions with occasional prompts and tools.
As ever, thanks for reading. This is a reader-supported publication, and the best way to support it is to become a paid subscriber (either at $5 per month or $50 per year). Paid subscribers can access everything on the site, from the archives to the ‘Things That Worked’ sample materials.
If you’re really feeling generous, and you’d like access to everything above and regular feedback on your own writing whenever you need it, you can become a Founding Member ($150).
VB,
M