Hello ,

You’re never too old for summer camp—so grab your flip flops, friendship bracelets, and mosquito spray—it’s time for Camp NaNo!

Many people are familiar with National Novel Writing Month (aka, NaNoWriMo) which takes place in November, but did you know they have a July camp?

And, that The Creative Academy has a community to support everyone who'll be putting their sticky, s'more fingers on their keyboards in July...

NaNoWriMo / Camp NaNo with your Creative Academy friends.

Hello, camp spirit!

We want to celebrate the long days, spirit of exploration, good friends and, all the types of protein that gets cooked on a stick over an open fire. Camp is about trying new things, building community, and having fun. What perfect goals for us as writers, too.

We have some camp-inspired writing challenges for you this month:

• Learn at least one new thing.

It might be related to writing or publishing.

Perhaps it’s research for your book.

• Reach out to someone you don’t know.

Leave a comment on someone's post.

Attend a workshop with us, or in your IRL community

Go to an author reading.

You name it, but reach out and broaden your circle.

• Remember to play!

Writing is supposed to be fun.

Try something new, write in a different place, interview your characters, create a vision board.

Let yourself be silly.

Writers who meet all the challenges above will earn valuable merit badges.

(Okay, there aren’t any actual badges, but there are imaginary ones, and they are pretty awesome!)

We have all kinds of support to help you reach your creative goal for Camp Nano, whatever it might be. You may be wanting to revise a project, get some words in, hit publish—you name it we’ve got events to cheer you on.

Like this beauty — a community spreadsheet to help you stay on-track!

Creative Academy Camp NaNo Word Count Tracking

Camp out with your Creative Academy friends

If you want to share your love of singing—or writing!—in rounds, check out everything we have coming up in July.

The EVENTS tab on the home page will show you a list with dates and times. If you click RSVP, we’ll even send you an email 30 minutes before the start time to remind you.

Special Camp Nano daily prompts

To celebrate Camp Nano, and help you get your creative juices flowing, Jenny, Bonnie, Leslie and Jacqui will be taking turns, sharing a prompt each day. Keep watch on the Home feed, then join the gang in the NaNo community for cheerleading and accountability.

12-week year—summer school edition

Join us on Saturday, July 23rd for our summer season “12-Week Year” event. This one will be focused on the rest of the summer—so just the next 6 weeks. 😄

We’ll be talking about resilience and how to power that up in ourselves and our writing, and we will do our focused activities from 10am to noon Pacific. Folks who want to do a round of open circles and socialize can stay for that at the end.

We'll do a full 12-week planning session again in September, with fresh new school-year energy!

Behind CSI: Myth-busting forensics in movies and TV

The Mystery and Thriller Community are excited to share this presentation on Saturday, July 30th.

Join Melissa Kreikemeier as she discusses what TV/movies get wrong about forensic science and how you can get the details right in your manuscript. 

Melissa is a freelance editor and forensic science educator. She guides crime fiction authors in the use of forensic science in their books through her services and courses.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can help to ensure your mystery or thriller is accurate (or had a random interest and just wanted to learn more) this is the session for you.

Check out Melissa's website in the mean time: Flowers and Forensics.

Your drop-in Q&A (with Steph Candiago)

Mon 4—Drop in Q&A Indie Publishing

Tue 12—Drop-in Q&A Publishing Tools & Tech

Mon 18—Drop in Q&A Indie Publishing

Tue 26—Drop-in Q&A Publishing Tools & Tech

Your author biz (with Crystal Hunt)

Wed 6—Author Biz & Marketing Mastermind

Wed 13—writing for Social Change: A crafty roundtable

Wed 20—Expert Q&A: Physiotherapy with Leslie Wibberley

Your story craft (with Eileen Cook)

Wed 6—Happy Hour: Prologues & Epilogues (this month's focus for the Crafty Critique Club)

Wed 13—Happy Hour: The character's emotional wound

Wed 20—Happy Hour: Prologues & Epilogues in action (Eileen & Tracy)

Wed 22—Happy Hour: Blue pencil and story storm

Your hot seat (with Donna Barker & members)

Tue 5—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Lynette)

Thu 7—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind

Tue 12—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Janee)

Thu 14—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind

Tue 19—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Lynette)

Thu 21—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind

Tue 26—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Janee)

Thu 28—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind

Genre meet-ups & open mics

If you're new around these parts and haven't found all your genre peers yet, find your people by joining the communities that match your interests! And then meetup with them at one of these events.

See all the communities you can join right here: FIND YOUR PEERS!

And all the events scheduled for June right here: JULY MEET-UPS

Sat 2—Literary Fiction Group Meetup (with Lily)

Wed 6—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)

Sun 10—Memoir Community Meet Up & Open Mic (with Vig)

Tue 12—Historical Fiction Meet Up (with Jenny)

Wed 13—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)

Thu 14—Young Adult fiction Writers Meeting (with Bonnie J)

Sat 16—Romance Writers Rendezvous (with Crystal)

Wed 20—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)

Sun 24—Memoir Community Meet Up & Open Mic (with Vig)

Tue 26—Historical Fiction Open Mic (with Jenny)

Wed 27—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)

Writing sprints

The writing room is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are several times every day when you can be pretty sure to find at least one other person in the room to keep you company. No matter where you are in the world, we’ve got you covered! Check out all the times here:

https://creative-academy-for-writers.mn.co/courses/2010738/events

We'd love to see you in one of our events this coming month.

xoxo

 Stephanie, Crystal, Eileen and Donna

P.S. As any parent knows, summer camp can be expensive. We strongly believe that this community needs to be open and available to creatives, especially for those who may be struggling.

We run on a donation and a pay what you can model. That means if we’re counting on your and your generosity to keep the lights on.

You can make an ongoing or one time donation. We appreciate your support so much that if we were camping together, we would let you have that unicorn, perfect s’more.