Weekend of Writing Wildly Twitch Stream Writing Event April 9 & 10, 2021

 

Hi Sockmonkeys!

I mentioned this event briefly in my post a few days ago, but since the hosts created this graphic with a listing of the stream names and times (it is listed in EDT, so you'll need to subtract 3 hours), I thought I would share the schedule with you here and on our social media in case you wanted to join in on the event.

Here is the official event announcement text shared by the hosts:

"The Weekend of Writing Wildly is a continuous live stream writing event that takes place on Twitch and is put on by the 100 Hours of Writing team for Camp NaNo.

The April Camp event will kick off at 2pm (EDT), Friday April 9th, with a stream from Titchwithpitch123 in Birmingham, England and will continue unbroken for the next 34 hours till it ends at 11:59pm (EDT), Saturday April 10th, with a stream from Dreaming_Rose in Georgia, USA.

There will be 17 individual streams, all raiding one to another for an unbroken experience of 34 hours of writing!

If you want to follow us on other platforms feel free to go to our flowpage (below) and check us out! The link to the discord for the event is on there too!

https://flow.page/ohhow

We are really excited to have you join us for this fun adventure!"

As I stated on my social media posts about it, you do not need to attend the entire event. You can just join in on the streams that work for your schedule, if you'd like to do so. The easiest way to know which stream to join is by joining their Discord server, because they have it set up to remind everyone where to change to and when, but, if you don't use Discord you can use the streamer names listed above in a search at the Twitch website to find their stream at the appointed time.

Did you participate in the One Hundred Hours of Writing streaming event during November? Are you interested in participating in this mini version? Have you participated in a streamed write in before?

Let us know in the comments!

Are you writing or editing with us during the April session of Camp NaNo?

 Hello Sockmonkeys!

If you get the emails from NaNoWriMo, especially the ones from our region, then you have hopefully already seen that we have some virtual writing events set up during the month to help you reach your writing or editing goals. You are welcome to attend them, whether you are officially participating in Camp NaNo or not, so I hope you'll join in on any that work for your schedule and come write or edit with other Pierce County Sockmonkey Writers. (If you don't get the emails, they are always posted in the chat box on our Tacoma/Pierce County Region Page on the NaNo site.) Regional events are listed in the Events tab on the NaNo Main site and on our regional Google calendar, which can be accessed from the Sockmonkey Writing Calendars link at the top of the blog and is linked in our Facebook groups and on our Regional Discord.

We have two special events coming up, though:

Monday, April 5th, we have been invited to join members of the NaNo LA Coffeehouse Discord server to chat and write with them from 7 - 9 p.m. (See calendar entry for details.)

Sunday, April 11th, I have invited writers from the LA Coffeehouse server to join us in a Cozy Cross-Region Campfire Write and Chat on Google Meet from 1 - 3 p.m.

I hope you'll consider joining us for some or all of one or both of these events!

If you enjoy streamed writing sessions on Twitch, the Weekend of Writing Wildly is coming up this Friday, April 9th and Saturday, April 10th. You can find full details in the entry on our Google calendar if you're interested in checking that out.

Above is a graphic calendar for the month which was created by Shauna J. Smith, a Municipal Liaison from Australia, with daily social media prompts writers can participate in during April. It was created for Tik Tok and Instagram, but I will be posting the prompts in our NaNoPierceCo Facebook group, our Instagram, our Twitter and our regional Discord, so I hope some Sockmonkey writers will participate on whichever social site they are most comfortable with. It was created as a way to help connect with other writers during the Camp session. The prompts are open-ended and open to your own interpretation. I hope you'll consider sharing your posts with the rest of us. Be sure to tag them #campnanodailyfun , #nanopierceco and also @ the Sockmonkey account on that social site so I can be sure to see it.

I hope your writing or editing is going well so far!

Forming NaNoPierceCo April Camp Cabins!

 

Hi Sockmonkeys!

I cleaned the old cabins out and new cabins for this year's Camp NaNo season are now ready for campers!

If you plan on participating in Camp NaNo during the month of April, please sign up on one of the forum threads linked below and join one of our regional cabins to help connect with other Sockmonkeys who have decided to participate. 

I'm trying something a little different this time and have dedicated one cabin to those who are writing during Camp and the other to those who are editing during Camp (although the overflow from the writing cabin may join this cabin if it ends up being necessary).  If you're doing both, then either pick the type of project you're mainly going to focus on and join that cabin or join the editing cabin and let everyone know you're multitasking. 

Click here to visit the NaNoPierceCo Cabin #1 (2021) Writing Cabin thread and sign up if you're writing during Camp.

Click here to visit the NaNoPierceCo Cabin #2 (2021) Editing Cabin thread and sign up if you're editing and/or multitasking during Camp.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or email them to me at the Sockmonkey gmail address.

And whether you're participating in Camp or not, I hope you're staying healthy and that whatever projects you might be working on are going well.

Old NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo Public Site Archives to be Retired February 25, 2021

 

Hi Sockmonkeys!

NaNoWriMo HQ recently sent out an email to let everyone know that public access to the site archives will end on February 25th, 2021. Above is a screenshot of the official post on the current NaNoWriMo forums, which reads, in part:

"Based on our tech team's recommendation, and the continued cost of maintaining the servers for these archives, we're going to close both archive sites by Thursday, February 25. If you have anything you want to save from the NaNoWriMo archive or the Camp NaNoWriMo Archive, please make sure to copy and paste it, or preserve it in some other way from the archives by then!

...

Archived data will not be deleted, it is simply being taken offline. Our technical team will still have access to it and the import tools will still function."

If you didn't read or receive the email about this, you can read the official post about it on the NaNoWriMo forums HERE. (It also includes direct links to the Archive site and Camp Archive site, as well as links to the Pep Talk archive and directions for how to re-import project data to the new site.)

If you joined after the new site was in use and didn't use either of the old sites, you don't need to do anything, but, if you've taken part in NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo for a while and you have old NaNoMail or buddies on your buddy list or anything you'd like to save for later, now is the time to go save that information.

In case you find yourself on the forums and decide you want to check the Archive site for yourself, you can find it at the bottom of the forum navigation drop-down menu, pictured below:

The Archive link is in the left-hand column, at the very bottom.  When you click on it, your browser may warn you that it's "not safe" to go forward, that is because they no longer have the site certificate active. You can still visit the site.  When you do, you will, if you've been part of the NaNo community for a while, see a very familiar screen:

Once you log in, you will be able to access your old projects, old NaNoMail or old buddy list and save the data you're after.

Accessing the Camp Archive from the forums is similar:

The link to the Camp NaNoWriMo Archive is at the bottom of the column on the right-hand side. You will get the same browser warning mentioned above, for the same reason, but you can still access the site. When you do, it may not have the graphics it used to have, and may look like the screen pictured below:

You will still be able to log in to the Camp site and grab, copy, or take a screenshot of any of the information you would like to save.

If you don't get to this before the deadline, you can still bring project data over using their import tool. You just won't have access to anything on either site directly.

Any questions about this, please leave them in the comments below or go to the thread on the forums and ask NaNoWriMo staff directly.

I hope you're all doing well and staying healthy now that we're firmly in 2021!

NaNoPierceCo July 2020 Camp Cabin Sign Ups Open!

Sorry for the silence, Sockmonkeys!

It's time to get ready for the July session of Camp NaNo!  This summer is likely to be a bit different for most of us, so you may find yourself participating or you may not.  If you'll be working on a writing or editing project and you'd like to have the virtual company of others in the Tacoma/Pierce County area, please consider joining one of our regional Camp Cabins.

We had two cabins during the April session of Camp NaNo - one with 20 campers and the other with 14.  If you participated in the April session and were in a Cabin but won't be participating during July, please visit your NaNoWriMo profile page, visit the Cabin and click the button to leave it so there will be space for another participant. (You can always join a cabin in a future session.)  If you participated in the April session and would like to stay for the July session, please reply to the July Camp NaNo thread on the forums and let me know that.

If you're new to Camp NaNo, the region or both, and you'd like to join a Cabin for virtual writing moral support during July Camp, please visit the July Camp NaNo thread on the forums and reply to let me know.  You will be sent an invitation from the Cabin that has space available and you will need to accept the invitation in order to be a member of the Cabin.

Those of you who receive the regional emails from NaNoWriMo Headquarters will find most of this information repetitive, but I know some people don't get those emails (whether due to a glitch or because they unsubscribed) and a post here is easier to link to across our social media so that more Sockmonkeys will hopefully see it.

If you participated in April Camp and were part of one of our Cabins, how did it go?  Do you have any suggestions for the cabins?  Would you like to see writing prompts?  Quick word games?  Any other things that might entice you to visit the Cabin and participate in the community more often?

Whether you'll be participating in Camp during July or not, I hope you're staying healthy and being as creative as your circumstances allow.

Last Wednesday of April CampNaNo Weigh in!

Hello Sockmonkeys!

Well, it's April 29th, which means we're on the next to last day of the April session of CampNaNo for this year.  Even with the uncertainty going on around us, it feels like this month has just flown by for me.  How about you?

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who signed up to participate in one of our regional cabins this session!  It's been fun to see bits of conversation as well as the occasional site badge go buy as an update of various writers' progress this month.  If you weren't able to join this time, don't worry!  There's another session of Camp in July.  You can participate solo or can join a regional cabin at that time and join with other Pierce County writers as we work toward our writing and/or editing goals that month.

Whether you participated in Camp or just did writing on your own, how did your writing go this month?  If you participated in Camp, how did it go? Did you reach your goal?  Were you editing, rewriting, drafting a new project, writing a number of shorter works, etc?  I remember seeing some of our participants mention a little of each of these and I hope everyone got their projects where they hoped they would over the course of this month.

Please, leave a comment and let us know how the projects have been going, whether you participated in CampNaNo or not!  Will you continue working on your April project during May?  Will you be taking a break from writing to do some reading?  Other Sockmonkey Writers would like to know!

Are you cat-waxing?

 Photography by fotoedu/Thinkstock

Are you?

Not sure what cat-waxing is or how it relates to writing?

You're not the only one... 

But, let me back up slightly and explain where I heard the term.  I generally listen to a number of writing (as well as some other) podcasts.  It was a great way to spend the time I often spent driving in the car by myself.  Except now, I'm driving a whole lot less, so I'm a bit behind in my podcast consumption.  

I decided to try listening to a few of them, in between brief chats, while out with my son on his required daily walks for his walking fitness PE class.  Today, I ended up listening to an episode of I Should Be Writing by Mur Lafferty that was posted in March. (ISBW #483 Crap and Revision, if you'd like to listen to it yourself.) I heard her talking about all the things she was doing during revision that weren't revision and she mentioned cat-waxing.  I made a note of this in my phone and continued my walk, determined to look into it further when I returned home.

In looking it up, I found that one link, which led to an article from a writing conference, was a dead end, so I continued scrolling.  Eventually, I changed my search term slightly and found the urban dictionary entry for it which reads: Cat waxing verb: an industry term for procrastination by writers, with heavy connotation of trying to justify the activity as something that "had" to be done. Usually activities that can arguably be considered productive, like household chores or (highly tangential) background research."  (It also included the hashtags: #avoidant behavior, #procrastinating, and #displacement activity.)  These are things we are encouraged to avoid during NaNoWriMo in November in order to reach the 50k word goal and I find it funny I haven't heard the term until now.

Whether you're working on a project for Camp NaNoWriMo this April or not, if you're currently working on any sort of writing project at all, have you found yourself guilty of cat-waxing?  Had you heard the term before now? Do you listen to any writing related podcasts?

Please, comment below and let us know!

Bringing Wednesday Back Again.... Sort of!

Hello Sockmonkeys!

I realize it's been a little while since our last Wednesday writing weigh-in, but I think we've all been adjusting to things - changes in our routines and schedules, etc - and I'm no exception.  But, I guess it was missed in the Facebook group because one of our members posted their own quick check and got a few responses, so I decided it was probably time to bring this back again.  I'm not sure if weekly is too often and maybe bi-weekly would be better for folks, but I guess I'll find out, won't I?

Whether you're participating in Camp NaNoWriMo with us in one of our two regional cabins or not, are you getting some writing in?  Or are you just participating in a Camp project on your own?  How is your writing going?  Or are you getting in some reading and refilling the creative tanks that way?

With the quarantines and lock downs, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and I thought this would also be a good time to ask how everyone is feeling, too.  Whether you're writing regularly or not, are you getting enough rest? Eating and drinking to stay healthy? Observing hand washing protocols and other precautions?  Keeping in touch with isolated friends and family members?  How are you passing any extra time this Stay Home, Stay Healthy time is giving you? 

No matter how much writing you are or are not doing, please join me in saying thank you to the various healthcare, emergency and other necessary services workers who are out there trying to keep things going while we stay home trying to help flatten the curve.  We appreciate all of your efforts!

Need an Ebook with some Writerly Inspiration?

Hey there Sockmonkeys!

I hope everyone is staying healthy and hasn't had their routine completely upended by the need for physical distancing.  High hopes, I know, but hope is a good thing to have, even when things are so strange at this point.

In any case, one of our original Sockmonkey MLs/group leaders, Darlene Reilley, shared with me an e-book she created and released to try to aid writers during this unusual time.  She is offering it as a free download from her blog Darwrites (link to follow shortly).  I am writing about it here and linking you to her post with her permission, so please, feel free to go check it out and leave her some thanks, comments, encouragement, etc.

How do you download it?  Visit The Writer's Pocket Book of Inspiration page and follow the instructions listed.

Technically, this is something that would be part of Self-Promotion Saturdays, but, since she just released it, is offering it for free and it's both timely with current events and the start of Camp NaNoWrimo, I'm making an exception and posting it right away.  I hope you find it encouraging and useful if you decide to visit and download it.

On a side note, since I just mentioned Camp NaNo, our first regional Camp cabin is full (though a few people still haven't accepted their invitations) but we have plenty of room in our 2nd regional cabin. If you're interested in doing some virtual writing with us this April, please visit the sign up thread and let me know.

Sockmonkey Wednesday Update Time and Mini April Camp NaNoWriMo Update

It's that time again, Sockmonkeys!

Is weekly too often for these?  Oh well, I'll try to keep them coming and I hope more of you will chime in as you have various updates to add.

How is your writing going?  Or have you been reading?  Been sidelined by other life responsibilities?  Using your creativity in other ways?  Please, pop in the comments and let us know a bit about what you've been up to, we'd love to hear from you!

If you're new to NaNoWriMo in general and Camp NaNoWriMo specifically, you may be wondering what this whole "Camp NaNoWriMo" thing is about.  To put it briefly, it's like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, but during Camp, you can choose your own word count or creative goal.  [Although, I believe they are still coding in some of the old Camp functionality, so right now it only tracks words.  They eventually hope to allow you to track progress by minutes or hours spent, say, editing.]

The thing they've added that's very similar to the old Cabins from the Camp NaNoWriMo website is a thing called "groups".  You are allowed to join more than one group, if you choose, of course, but if you'd like to join a Regional Cabin with other Pierce County Sockmonkey Writers, I have set two up.  (If you get the emails from NaNo Headquarters, you've likely already seen a very short blurb about this with two links directly to the sign up threads, if not, please consider this your invitation to join.)  You need to be a registered user on the NaNoWriMo.org site in order to join a cabin/group. 

If you'd like to join Cabin 1, please reply to the thread linked here.

Once Cabin 1 is full, please reply to the Cabin 2 thread here. 

Each Regional Cabin has a capacity of 20, minus the Head Camper (me), so two should be plenty, but I can create more if we have that many who want to join us.

I will send you an invite from the NaNo site as soon as I'm able after you reply to the thread and you'll need to accept it in order to join the cabin.

Any questions?  Please feel free to leave them in the comments (someone else may have the same question, after all!) or send an email to our regional email @ PCsockmonkeywriters@gmail.com .

And, whether you decide to participate in April Camp NaNo or not, happy writing!

The NaNoWriMo site is transitioning soon!

Hello all!

I just finished writing and sending out a regional email on the NaNoWriMo site about this, so I feel like I'm repeating myself, but that's okay.  I'm pretty sure not everyone gets the email notifications about new NaNoMail, so that's why there's a blog post about it, too.  If, after reading the NaNoMail or this post, you have questions, please leave them in the comments so every visitor can see them and the answer(s) in one central location - rather than some in one place and some in another.  Thank you! :)

To briefly repeat what was stated in the NaNoMail, the current NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo sites will be taken down soon and merged into the new, updated site, so that when you visit NaNoWriMo.org, the newest one is what you will see.  If you didn't get (or didn't read) the email from HQ about the changes, this post on the current forums has all of that information for you.  According to that mail and post, the transition is planned for mid-August, which means it could happen any time now.  One thing that they are working on but that isn't quite set up yet is Regional Forums, so, inspired by the ML of another local region, I have made this thread on the new forums to help keep us all connected on the site.  Updates on the Regional Forums will be posted here on the blog and via our social media accounts, as well as via NaNoMail, if that's a feature the new site gives Municipal Liaisons.

Please take a look around the current location of the new site by clicking here to help you get a feel for it before November rears its proverbial head.  The new forums system, Discourse, works a bit differently than the old forums did, so when you have time, pop in and look around.  After you've signed in, you can check your forum mail there for a note from Discobot which will take you on a brief tutorial of some basic posting features, as well as an advanced tutorial for learning to quote posts and other forum tasks.

If you'd like to be notified about new posts on this blog, including any posts related to the NaNoWriMo site update or event planning for November, etc., please feel free to use one of the boxes on the right to add it to your RSS feed or to sign up to get posts via email.  You will only get email when there is a new post.  Emails are sent automatically the day after a post goes live on the blog.

Let's hope the site transition goes smoothly!

Questions?  Please add them in the comments and I'll answer them as soon as possible.

Do Campers get Internet?

Well, the cabin was created late, but we still had 5 PCSockmonkey Writers in it, chatting, sharing encouragement and a few writing resources.  Thus, the title of this post - because in it I will share a few of the sites that were shared by this year's Camp NaNoWriMo cabin mates in our regional cabin.

johngreville shared a website that features a number of writers, including James Bell, that gives free first page critiques of your work.   There's a bit of a waiting list and they specialize in mystery/thriller, but they aren't limited to those genres.  Even if you aren't ready to submit your own writing, reading the critiques of other writers' first pages could be helpful and give you some tips.

Sasuri shared a website that allows you to create a customizable word count goal that adjusts as you update it with your progress.  The free version allows for two projects and limited extras.  The premium version is a monthly subscription.  Check it out and see if it might work for you.

johngreville linked us to an online Pomodoro timer with a few options to it. 

Sasuri mentioned the Forest app, which Kyrthanna seconded, since the time limit can be adjusted each session.  Sasuri also talked about using their website when on the PC to keep focused that way, although you cannot link your progress in the app with your progress on a browser unless you sign up for a paid plan.  But, either version can be used for free.

Do you know of any sites that offer critiques to authors?  Do you have a favorite online timer or productivity app that helps you during your writing session?  Please, feel free to link to them or list them in the comments and they can be added to a future post.