Summer Writing Time is Here!

The summer solstice this week marked the beginning of summer writing season. It started getting light at 4:45 in the morning and didn’t get completely dark until 9:28 at night for a grand total of sixteen hours and forty-three minutes of daylight.

Self-care

It’s easy to let all your self-care routines lapse during the summer, especially if you are on your own while your parents are at work. What do I mean by self-care? That includes sleeping, eating, hydrating, exercising, and social media usage. Here’s Dr. Mary’s prescription: Get eight to ten hours of sleep a night; eat enough nutritious calories to maintain good health—not too many and not too few; drink water or juice throughout the day; exercise every day, outside whenever possible; and use social media to stay connected but don’t let it interfere in your self-care.

Most of the above are self explanatory but I want to spend a little time expanding on exercise and social media use. Exercise shouldn’t be a chore. Take the dog for a walk, go to the pool with friends, play in the park, garden, anything that includes physical activity counts in my book. Physical activity flushes out stress hormones and floods the body with endorphins which improve mood and boost creativity. Exercise rejuvenates the body, while nature refreshes the soul. That’s why I recommend exercising outside if at all possible.

Social media is a fun way to stay connected to friends and share what you’re up to on any given day. But when it interferes with sleep, stresses you out, or makes you feel inferior to your friends and their activities, it’s time to unplug. It’s important for writers to experience the world through their five senses in real time. Social media can get in the way. As my grandfather used to say, “All things in moderation.” 

Writing Routine

Most writing routines will have three parts: a warm up, writing time, and a wrap up. Hopefully you have already developed your summer writing routine. If not here are a few ideas. A regular warm up prepares you to write. It can be a walk to clear your head, meditation, reflecting on an inspirational quote, typing the lazy fox jumped over the brown dog to warm up your fingers, or reading the previous day’s pages. Anything that clears your head and opens your mind to new possibilities will work. I like to take a handful of letter tiles from my Banana Gram game and build a crossword, then mix the tiles and use the same letters to build a new crossword without repeating any words. This totally random activity primes my brain for language.

It’s a good idea to set a goal for your summer writing time. This could be word count, pages, time, or some other measure that makes sense to you. Make your goal realistic. Remember, it’s always okay to exceed your stated goal, especially if you’re on a roll. Try to meet your goal 80% of the time. But recognize that some days you’re going to struggle with writing. Don’t beat yourself up over it.

The wrap up allows you to put away your writing for the day and move on to other things. Wrap ups look different from one person to the next. You may read the day’s writing aloud, check spelling and punctuation, celebrate with a special treat, share your word count with a writing buddy, or simply track your progress toward a larger goal. 

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo can help meet your summer writing goals. It is a nonprofit organization whose mission is:       

 National Novel Writing Month believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and  encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.

Click on the link above to learn more about Camp NaNoWriMo or here to learn more about their young writers program. It’s a great way to set and accomplish writing goals in a supportive environment.

Writing Exercises

Summer is here. Make the most of it with these writing exercises.

• Rewrite a fairy tale from the villain’s point of view
• Use these three words in a story: saddle, train, lace