The Office of Letters and Light Blog

The Camp Rebel Files: How Camp Can Help Your Study Habits

If you’d been in the office in the first half of April, you would’ve seen various NaNo staff members furiously working, writing inspiring pep talks, and being generally magnificent. You would also have seen Chris Angotti, the NaNoWriMo Program Director, in full teacher mode, quizzing me on literary theory, pastoral elegies, litotes, and other such nonsense.

Why, you ask? Because I was using this past April’s Camp NaNoWriMo to study for the GRE in English Literature!

When I first registered for The Test, as it was lovingly called by roommates and friends, I saw it as an impediment to my Camp success. But thus, my friends, began my month of literary abandon. I’ve been out of school for over a year, so my brain needed a wee bit of dusting. It went a little like this:

The Plan and Its Benefits

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A Note from Your Beta Reader: 4 Tips for Receiving Feedback

For a long time, I considered myself more an editor than a writer. And if I was being really honest, as I’m sitting in this office writing this to hundreds of creative and dedicated Wrimos, I’d still say my strong suit is helping other’s write.

That being said, I’ve been on the receiving end of some fairly harsh writing criticism: professors telling me that my argument is unsupportable, or friends pointing out the skewed ratio of fluff to substance in my essays. And it sucks. Because that’s my writing, and that’s me. All of those deer-in-red-penned-headlights experiences have come to inform my edits, and there are a few things I always tell my friends when they hand over their precious drafts:

Clone me! 

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To the Victor Go the Spoils: Celebrating Your Creative Self

“Love your writing self…think about how you can keep the kitchen clean enough to keep that love simmering all year, until it’s time to turn up the heat next November. You deserve to create.” - Tupelo Hassman

This past November, our favorite former OLL-staff-member-turned-published-author dropped the above bit of wisdom, and guess what? You’ve done just that: because of your incredible self’s dedication this April, the noveling machine has been simmering all through the beginnings of spring, and the promise of an even more prolific summer is on the horizon for our July session of Camp NaNoWriMo.

By taking that leap of faith and dedicating your month to the creative endeavor you’ve cherished, you’ve both made an investment in and professed your love for your creative self. From personal experience, I know how that accomplishment can get lost in life’s daily shuffle. “Yes, I wrote. I made. I created. Great: now, on to scrubbing that stovetop!” It happens.

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Book Thoughts: Relatable, Action-Packed Writing Advice

“You can find inspiration everywhere. The trick is to keep your eyes open.” – Just Write: Here’s How!

I am a glutton for writing advice, and the most common tip I receive is “write what you know.” Personally, I find that a bit vague; if I only wrote about what I truly know of the banality of daily life, I’d have a pretty boring book on my hands.

Few advice-givers take the difficulty of crafting action into account, and this might be my favorite thing about Walter Dean Myers’ book, Just Write: Here’s How! Yes, he guides his readers towards writing about topics that are familiar to them (with good reason!), but he also gives specific and detailed descriptions of how to turn that boring high school fitness test into an emotional turning point for the main character.

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