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!

Time for another Wednesday Writing Weigh In!

The weeks go so fast, it seems.  It's time for another #WednesdayWritingWeighIn, Sockmonkeys!

Thank you to those of you who are participating in these check-ins, whether here on the blog or in one of our other social media spots.  It's nice to hear how people are doing, even if you don't end up checking in every week. Feel free, even if you don't have an update yourself, to pop in and comment or ask questions about someone else's update.  This is a way to try to help us get to know other Sockmonkey writers in the area, after all.

Are you writing?

Are you editing?

Have you stalled on one project and decided to take a break to plan or work on another?

Are you refilling your creative well by reading some fiction (or nonfiction, if that's where you get ideas from)?

Please, check in with us and let us know how it's going!  You never know who else among us might be in a similar situation but feel alone and be encouraged just reading your update.  Plus, it's fun to celebrate other writers' successes with them, so let us hear about yours.

So, what updates do you have for us this week, Sockmonkeys?

Reminder: North Tacoma Write-in March 7

Greetings, sockmonkeys.  Looming write-in!

Where: Wheelock Library, N. 36th Street, Tacoma (Proctor District) Public Meeting Room

When: 1:30 - 3:30, March 7

What: A time and place to put your fingers to whatever word producing media you favor: laptop, notebook, papyrus scroll, cuneiform tablet, lambskin. Whatever floats your character arcs.

Note: If you are interested in some kind of structured activity for part of the (see the Graham Writers extensive playbook) let me know. Options include:

Extreme Scrabble (only words with Z allowed)
Prompts
Exercises
Timed public reading of your WIP
Sprints
Web Boggle

Yours in text

John

It's Wednesday again, Sockmonkeys!

Hello again, Sockmonkeys!

Thank you to those of you who stopped in and read last week's check in post and even commented here on the blog.  It's nice to see participation in each of the various places our writers spend their online time and to hear what you're all working on - whether it's writing related, reading related or just life in general.  It's time to find out what you've been up to since last week.  (Well, maybe not EVERYTHING you've been up to...)

But first -

I'm not sure if any of you participated or not, but last night was the Open Mic Poetry night at the Puyallup Public Library.  If you did participate, how was it?  Were you a volunteer reader or were you an audience member?

Are you participating in any online or in person writing groups?  Are they open to the public? (If they are, please feel free to share the information in the comments and it can be mentioned in a future post.)  A big thank you to John Newsom for starting a writing group in North Tacoma!  I know he plans to post some reminders of his own, but I'll include a link to his original post with information about their next write in on March 7th.

Okay, now that those have been mentioned, how is your writing going, Sockmonkeys?  Are you drafting? Editing? Sending out to Beta readers and working on something else while you wait for feedback?  Busy doing school papers or working on other deadlines, so you haven't had a chance to work on personal projects?  Being creative in a non-written fashion?

Are you filling your creative well with good reading?  What are you reading?  Fiction? Nonfiction? Fanfiction? Poetry? (It IS National Poetry Month for a few more days...)

Please, comment and let us know!

How's the writing going this week, Sockmonkeys?

As a continuation of yesterday's post and a way to start trying to bring this to the blog where more Sockmonkeys will be able to see it and interact with it, this week's #Wednesdaywritingweighin is starting here on our blog.  You can, of course, just weigh in with your update on whichever social site you see this link on, you can comment here on the blog or you can do both. 

I know, a lot of Sockmonkeys aren't used to interacting with the blog, and that's okay.  The thing is, many of our writers do not belong to any of our various social accounts, so that means they get left out of the communication.  I've likely posted a bit about this before, when I first restarted the blog, and I will go into more detail in a future post, but, that's the reasoning behind making this change.  You can, of course, just interact where you're most comfortable.

That spiel out of the way, it's time for you to "weigh-in" with us. 

How is your writing going?  Are you drafting? Editing? Sending work to beta readers?

Are you busy with work or school or family?  Has it been hard to squeeze the writing in?

If you participated in NaNoWriMo during November, have you been working on your NaNo novel?

Read any good books lately?

Please, comment and let us know how things are going for you.

Look forward to hearing from you, Sockmonkeys!

UPDATE: Wednesday Writing Weigh-Ins

This is the graphic used in the first weekly "check-in" post that was created in our Sockmonkey group on Facebook.  A picture of the post (and then the text) follows:

Wednesday Write "Weigh-In" [I didn't want to call it a check in because I was going for alliteration! ;) ]

Last fall, Heather put up a post asking for suggestions about what members would like to see in the group and one of the suggestions was check-ins. So, I'm giving it a try.

I have seen some of you posting your individual updates, which is great. :) But for others who may not want to create a separate post and to make it easier to find progress over time, a centralized post like this now and then could be fun and helpful.

So, "weigh in" with us. How is your writing going? What are you working on? Are you writing? Editing? Having a hard time fitting it in because of family, work or school? Stuck on something? Have a fun breakthrough you'd like to share? Please, tell us how things are going for you so far in the comments below. #wednesdaywritingweighin

There was a week missed due to illness (but some folks started their own check in anyhow, which was great) and then I was back again on February 5th with the following:

Ready for you Sockmonkeys this week! :) It's been nice to hear updates from a number of you. I hope more will join in as time goes along (whether you've been writing recently or not). How is your writing going?

Any new story plans? Working on editing? Taking a break from a story to get some space before editing? Procrastinating in general? Reading any new books on writing? Please, share your updates in the comments! #wednesdaywritingweighin

Finally, here is the post from last Wednesday, February 12th:

#Wednesdaywritingweighin time, Sockmonkeys! It's been great to see so many responses from members. Don't be shy! How's the writing going?

It's okay if you've been busy with other things. Tell us if you've read any good fiction or writing related books lately. Bought any fun new writing tools? Let's share our progress in multiple ways! (And feel free to comment or ask questions about what other folks post in this thread! Start conversation, etc.)

Although I meant to get something posted to the blog about this sooner so it could be sent to the Sockmonkey Twitter for people to see there, I just didn't get to it.  I also meant to post a quick version of it on our Instagram, so Sockmonkeys who follow us there could join in, but that didn't happen, either.  That's why I figured I'd start with this post, so those not in the Facebook group could see what's been going on and could join in either here on the blog, on Twitter or on Instagram.  I have to admit, it was also easier to start testing this sort of thing out for interaction/response rates on Facebook first, because I'm often far too wordy for Twitter (haha) and I wasn't sure how it would translate to Instagram.  But, we're caught up now, so folks not in the Facebook group can see what we've been doing and more of an effort will be made to put this out here where it can be interacted with by more of our group's members.

Now, this post is already long enough, so I will come back another time with a quick post updating everyone on responses that have been given to the Facebook posts (without any identifying or personal information) as a way of helping connect our group more.

What do you think of having check-ins ("weigh-ins", as I've dubbed them) like this on the blog and our other social media?  Any suggestions for future group building posts like this?  Whether you want to answer those questions or not, if you'd like to, feel free to reply to any of the writing questions listed above in the comments below. 

How IS the writing going, Sockmonkeys?

North Tacoma Write-In

We are trying to get a Tacoma write-in group going in 2020. So here's our second stab at it! The meeting room sits 130 frenetic sockmonkeys, but we won't be that many. To quote from the British comedy, "Beyond the Fringe":
'Please, sir, I want to join the few.
I'm sorry, there's far too many already.'

Where: Tacoma Public Library, Wheelock Branch - public meeting room When: March 7, 2020, 1:30 - 3:30 pm Deets: light food and beverages allowed, so it's BYOC. Cots for the mid afternoon slump will, however, not be available. We apologize for the inconvenience. I will bring a couple of plug bars to make sure we have enough typewriter lubrication. If you are planning to attend, please use the comments to indicate interest. Thanks!! John Newsom

Tacoma Writing Group Update

Hello Sockmonkeys!

After the comments left on the last blog post showed that some writers had attempted to attend the write in on January 11th, but couldn't find the host, I contacted them and thought I would come post a brief update, especially if those who tried to attend didn't see the comments in the previous post.

First of all, I'm very sorry some of you tried to attend but were not able to connect with the other writers who were there.  I think it's great that you made the effort!  This is a learning experience for everyone, I think, but I'm sure we can iron out the proverbial kinks and get some folks connected in the future.

I won't type it all out, but above is the comments section on the original post.  I took a screenshot of it so I could post it in a few places I knew the host would be able to see it so they would know there had been interest.  I also replied and let them know that I'd be willing to help facilitate being found in the future with tips from NaNo or a table tent or things like that.  I'm glad that this meetup was close enough to some of you that you were willing to attend and I hope you don't let this little hiccup stop you in the future.  It's always great when writers get connected during NaNoWriMo - but it's even better when you can meet writers during the rest of the year for encouragement and dedicated writing time.

To make this easier to read (especially if someone is using a screen reader) I will type these two comments out:

"LS Schulz: Oh, wow, great to see there was some interest!  Sorry you weren't able to connect with the group that was there.  I'm in contact with the host and will work out a way in the future for them to let people know who they are/where they're sitting so they'll be easier to find at future meetings.  (I've also asked that they keep an eye on the blog posts in the future so they can post identifying info as well as reply to any comments or questions like these in the future.)"

"John Newsom: Hi, all. Sorry I didn't check the blog!  Also bummer that I didn't do a better job of identifying myself.  I only told Josiah.  I'll post on the blog next time!  Glad to see there was interest.  I'll be traveling most of February, but will plan another in March. And I'll post on the blog first!  And get some kind of table ornament.  I'm not sure Bluebeard is the best place - it was very crowded.  I'm certainly open to other suggestions.  There's Anthem in Old Town, and Anthem and Jewel Box at Point Ruston.  I'm sure some of you in Tacoma have favorites."

Thank you for popping into the comments here on the blog, John and updating us.  It's nice to know there will be a bit of a break but that you'll be planning another in March.  Also good to know about the lack of space.  You've put some potential suggestions in your comment, so I'll add them to this post.

Those of you who tried to attend, or who might like to attend a future Tacoma area write in, do you know any good coffee shops that might work as a place for a small group to meet?  Do you have a preference between Anthem in Old Town, Anthem at Point Ruston or Jewel Box at Point Ruston?  Do you have another favorite?  Please, leave your preferences and suggestions here in the comments to help with the planning for the March meetup.

Whether you are planning to attend this group or not, I hope the New Year finds you making progress with your writing.

Stay tuned, more changes and announcements will be coming in the near future that I hope will help knit our spread out group of writers together, including some posts asking for feedback and ideas that I hope more Sockmonkeys will weigh in on.

New Tacoma area writing meet up on January 11th

Happy 2020 Sockmonkeys!

I know, it's been pretty quiet here on the blog.  Sorry about that.  In any case, here's your first update of the New Year - an invitation to a fledgling writing group in Tacoma, if you're interested and available to attend.  I'll start with the original post from the NaNo site/FB group:

In case folks are using a text reader and can't read the words in the screenshot, here is the text:

"Hi, now that the crush is over, I'm interested in following up on this topic- imagining it as Post-Nano groups.

1. I'm looking for one or two critique partners with whom I can share WIP's.  I currently have one fantasy novel in late beta, and two short stories that need some editing.  I'm (sic) have a fair amount of experience doing critiques, and am reasonably gentle in my comments! (I taught HS english for 8 years.)
2.  I'm also interested in a monthly or bi-monthly writing group located in Stadium district or north (I live just north of the Proctor District. There are some good coffee houses around. I'm sad that Metronome closed.
3. As a lifelong writer, I know that there is always more to learn about the craft, so I'm interested in a small group (2 - 4) who would be willing to work through one of the many excellent books on the craft of writing, sharing assignments and doing peer critiques.  Books that I have found helpful include: Steering The Craft (Le Guin), Story Genius (Cron), Story Trumps Structure (James).  My idea for an approach would be to read a chapter every two weeks or so, and then share responses to the assignments.  It's really a self-organizing class, run at what ever level of intensity works for folks.

Thanks for listening:

johngreville (NaNo name)"

It is great that johngreville and another Sockmonkey from the NaNo site were able to connect that way and get something started!  Thank you for posting it in the group and sharing it with everyone.  You have three very interesting ideas there and a writing group could encompass any or all of those things as the attending members agree and decide where to take the group.  He also recently posted a brief update with the date, time and location of their first meeting:

For those with text readers it says:

"Wishing all you industrious Sockmonkeys a joyous New Year and many successes in 2020. Coming up first is a casual write in on January 11, 11:00 am, at Bluebeard Coffee on 6th Ave in Tacoma.  So far two of us are attending.  All are welcome.

Cheers!"

Whether you can attend this first meeting or not, if you're interested in joining a group to write in that general area of Tacoma, please, post in the comments and/or send a quick note (either via email or using the "Questions? Ideas? Let us know." box on the side of the blog) with your contact info and I will forward it on to johngreville so he can add you to their communications more directly.  [I'm a bit sad I don't live closer so that I can attend a write in I don't have to host! ;) ]

Many writers tend to make a writing related New Year's resolution.  If yours is to write more regularly or to get more involved in the local writing community or...you name it, there are many possibilities...attending an in person write in (if you are able to do so) is a great way to do that.  Also, remember that Tacoma is a big city and part of the larger Pierce County area, so if this particular locale/date/time/etc., doesn't work for you, consider hosting one of your own at a time and place that is convenient for you.  But remember, be patient and persistent.  We're all creatures of habit and you're hoping people will disrupt their usual habit at that time to create a new one with someone they haven't met, so you may not get any "takers" at the start.  Just be assured that if people know it's available on a regular basis, they are more likely to put it into their schedule in the future.

Do you know of any new writing groups forming in our area this year?  

How is your writing progressing now that we're past the winter holidays and into the new year?  

Do you know of any local writing classes or workshops that can be posted here? 

Any questions about this post?  

Please, leave your answers or questions in the comments so the info can be passed along to other writers in the area!