LIFT-OFF Writing Camp Day 5
Going the distance
Gooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you happen to be! And welcome to Day 5 of LIFT-OFF Writing Camp! 🎉 🥳 🙌
Quick reminder: If you’ve been enjoying Writing Camp and want to support PBP, you can get a 2-for-1 deal on paid annual subscriptions until 1 Feb! Instructions can be found at the end of this post.
What Day 5 is all about
I can’t believe we’re already on Day 5 of LIFT-OFF Writing Camp!!! It feels like only yesterday that we were identifying our new projects and devising Cunning Plans to complete them. And now that we’re at the end of this week of writing, we’re going to use Day 5 to think about how we can keep this momentum going after Writing Camp is over.
Going the distance
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. Because now that you’ve gotten your new project off the ground, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to go the distance (a phrase that always makes me think of the Cake song ‘The Distance’—I can already hear those drums and trumpets!).1 I hope today’s prompts will help you do that.
Finally, I hope very much that LIFT-OFF Writing Camp has given you a few tricks and tools you can use to keep your new project going and to get new projects off the ground in the future.
If you’ve found LIFT-OFF 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 writing prompt suits you today.
Option 1: Follow and update your Cunning Plan
This prompt is in two parts!
Part 1: Look at the Cunning Plan you made on Day 2, and at the goal you set for yourself today. That’s Part 1 of your assignment for today!
Part 2: If you haven’t already filled out the next couple weeks of your Cunning Plan, take a few minutes to do that now. Remember: If you’re feeling a little at sea when it comes to devising daily tasks, feel free to choose one or more of the following super feasible goals (and feel free to set the same goal more than once!):
Freewrite about some aspect of your project for 10 minutes
Read something relevant to your writing project for 30 minutes
Try sketching an outline of part (or all!) of your writing project
Listen to something relevant to your writing project for 30 minutes
Reach out to a potential collaborator on your project
Meet with a current or potential collaborator on your project
Watch something relevant to your writing project for 30 minutes
If after that you still feel like doing a little bit more today, pick whatever part of your project you’re most interested in tackling, set a timer for 15 minutes, and see what you can write in that time.
Option 2: Freewriting
Reflect on what you wrote or did yesterday pertaining to your project, and on where you need to go next. Freewrite on any aspect of that for 5 minutes. Remember: Do not stop. Do not look back. Do not worry at all about using perfect punctuation or sentence structure. Just write as though nobody’s watching (because they aren’t).
If that’s all the time or energy you’ve got for today, that’s fine! Take a moment to look through what you wrote and circle/highlight/underline anything that strikes you as particularly important to your project. You can use this to help keep track of your thinking as you move forward with your project, or as your writing prompt when you return to it.
If you feel like you could keep going, you can either (a) set a timer for 20 minutes and see what you can write in that time; or (b) set yourself a goal of writing 200 more words before you stop for the day.
Option 3: You do you
If you’re at Writing Camp for the camaraderie and accountability rather than the prompts, that’s great! Do your own thing, and let us know about it 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.
To celebrate my birthday month, I’m offering my usual 2-for-1 deal: 2 people can enjoy 1 year of a paid Page by Page subscription for the price of 1 subscription!
If you’re a free subscriber who’d like access to everything in the PBP archive (plus all paid subscriber posts) for a year, or if you’re someone who’s been waiting for an even more affordable way to support my work, this is your chance!
To take advantage of this deal:
Find a buddy who’ll reimburse you for half the normal subscription cost for 1 year.
Sign up for a paid annual subscription.
Send me your buddy’s email (to mary [[at]] marycflannery.com) so you both get a paid annual subscription at 50% off for 1 year!
If you’re already a paid subscriber and want to take advantage of this deal and share the PBP magic with a friend: no problem. Just follow Steps 1 and 3 above!
If you’re really feeling generous, and you’d like access to everything on PBP and regular feedback on your own writing whenever you need it, you can become a Founding Member ($150).
As ever, thanks for reading!
VB,
M
I had never watched the music video for this song until today, and it was an experience. Keep your eyes peeled for the dancing man in a skunk costume.