The Wonders of Write-Ins
Last year when I did NaNoWriMo, I experimented with writing in public places. I didn’t think I would do well writing away from the privacy and comforts of home, but I was wrong.
I started off with baby steps. First, I took my laptop to the public library and hid away in a little carrel at the back of the stacks. A few days later, I decided to try writing at Starbucks. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I disappeared into the writing and for the most part was undisturbed by the comings and goings in the shop. The hardest part was when I needed to use the facilities and couldn’t figure out if I should take my laptop with me or ask a nearby coffee drinker to watch it for me.
In the third week of NaNoWriMo, I decided to try something suggested by veteran WriMos: The Write-In. This is when a group of writers carrying laptops gather in a public place–generally a coffee shop but there are other possibilities. For a set amount of time, the writers sip caffeinated drinks and clack away on their novels. Two of my WriMo buddies agreed to meet for a Write-In last November, and by the end of the evening we were hooked.
This year, I jumped at the chance to regularly join 6 other WriMos for weekly Write-Ins. Here we are at the kick off event.
And here is a list of the wonders of write-ins:
- Never underestimate the power of camaraderie in any foolish activity, such as writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. It’s a known fact that kids get into more mischief when there is more than one. Well, the same can be said for writers except that mischief is a good thing when it comes to written expression.
- When you get blocked regarding a word or the name of an actor, movie, song, car part, kitchen utensil or some other triviality that figures into the scene you are currently writing, you can ask your cohorts, and they–not being invested in your story– immediately provide the term that is alluding you.
- I like to ask all the writers for one word at the start of a Write-In. I jot these words in my notebook and then aim to get each one into the story somewhere. These words stretch my thinking in directions I would never have otherwise taken. For example, here’s a list of words I was given at the Write-In pictured above: sizzle, Timbuktu, assassin, mimic, and fiddle.
- When you are in a public place, you often hear snatches of dialog that wiggle their way into your scene. The same can be said for aromas, textures, tastes, and other sensory data.
- If you are even a tiny bit competitive, the fact that your neighbor has reached the requisite word count in under 2 hours will spur you on to reach the goal, and more likely motivate you to get a few words more than the eager beaver sitting across from you.
- The last push to get one more sentence, phrase, or word before departure time sometimes holds the seeds of much better stuff to come.
- And when you are with friends, you never have to worry about leaving to use the facilities because you can trust your friends to watch your laptop while you are gone and who cares if someones steals the last line you wrote. It won’t look the same in their novel as it does in yours anyway.
So Write-on and Write-in.
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