28 March 2014

About Writing and Clothes and Camping

 

Something is about to happen. It’s that time of year. Girls are busy tapping on their computers or scrawling in their notebooks. They’re asking questions such as, “Do you know a good boy’s name?” or “Which of these surnames do you like best?” What are they doing? They’re planning their Camp NaNoWriMo novels!

April is Camp NaNoWriMo month. So how does CampNaNoWriMo differ from the regular NaNoWriMo? Here’s a quick explanation I took from the website:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. Participants work toward the goal of writing a 50,000-word draft during the month of November. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel.

Camp NaNoWriMo is a more open-ended version of our original November event. We have Camp sessions in both April and July, and we welcome word-count goals between 10,000 and 1,000,000. In addition, writers may attempt non-novel projects. Camp is a creative retreat for whatever you’re working on!

So the girls are all signed up. (Sophie and Gemma-Rose are unofficial participants.) They’re packing their sleeping bags and their notebooks. In a few days’ time they’ll be settling into their online cabins (Yes, participants get their own roommates for the month!) and then they’ll start writing.

“Are you doing CampNaNoWriMo, Mum?” asks Charlotte.

“I don’t go camping,” I reply. “You know that.” (I’m a wimp. I like my home comforts when holidaying.)

“You can bring your hairdryer along!” says Imogen. “Just because we’ve camping doesn’t mean you can’t blow dry your hair.” (Sad to say, I’m rather particular about my hair.)

I smile. Of course, we’re just having a bit of fun. It is after all only a virtual camp.

“I have other writing plans for April,” I say. “I’m doing the Blogging from A – Z Challenge.”

Yes, I am all signed up. I’m going to write 26 posts in 30 days, and all the post titles will follow the alphabet. I did the challenge last year. It was a lot of hard work.  But it was also a lot of fun.

Just like the girls, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to be writing about next month. I considered writing an A – Z of unschooling but the girls protested: “Can’t you write about something else, Mum? Something we can read? We don’t like reading your unschooling posts because they’re all about us.” That made me laugh.

READ  The Wobbly Moments of Life

So I did some more thinking and finally, I decided I’m going to write 26 posts based on the same theme: clothes. Now I’m not going to be posting any fashion tips because I’m not one of those cool and trendy people (remember my last post: About Me, About Being Different?) No; my stories will be more personal.

Have you ever thought about how important clothes are? They are associated with so many of our memories, both good and bad.

I remember how agonising it was having to choose a dress to wear to my son Thomas’ funeral. And there is a very special story attached to the dress Imogen wore on that same day as we buried her brother. And every wedding dress has its own tale. I actually had two wedding dresses (and one husband!) Even underwear has a story.

I did write a funeral dress, wedding dress and undies story. They can be found on my Sue Elvis Writes blog:

Wedding Clothes and Funeral Dresses

The Thomas Dress

Married Twice

Why I’m Wearing Stiff Undies.

I wonder if I can come up with 26 more clothes stories. That will be the challenge! I guess I ought to do some further thinking, write a few more notes…The girls have the right idea: the more preparation, the smoother the writing will go.

I open my blogging challenge notebook to see what I’ve written so far. Oh yes, I remember. I was making a list of clothes words from A – Z. Some letters have lots of words and some have very few… like ‘E’. All I have listed for ‘E’ is ‘earmuffs’ and I’ve never ever owned any of those. Can you help? Do you know any clothes words beginning with ‘E’?

 

 

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

6 Comments

  1. You had me so curious that I actually googled clothing starting with e!!! Got….. earmuffs. Period. End of story. I'll be anxious to see what you come up with for that one. Eggshell colored something-or-other? Eyelet material? An Enchanting dress? Or….

    Earrings! Eyeglasses! (…earplugs….?)

    I'll be anxious to see what you come up with for EVERY letter.

    Looking forward to this Enchanting Elvis Event… 🙂

    • Nancy,

      Thank you for the research! I hope you were eventually able to stop thinking about the letter 'e'. I keep finding myself pondering letters at different times of day. Its rather a nuisance! I had another thought about the letters. Words like Ebay and Fashion parade and Vinnies would work too. They are all clothes associated words.

      Enchanting Elvis Event? Thank you so much for your Enormous Encouragement!

  2. Good luck with the A-Z challenge. I'm looking forward to seeing your making clothing interesting 😀 I found espadrille and ermine in a corner of my brain.

    • Uglemor,

      Ermine is a very interesting word. Vermeer's wife had a yellow jacket trimmed with ermine. He used to borrow it, and you can see the jacket in a number of his paintings! I bet Vermeer's model wore the jacket more than his wife did! Thank you for your suggestions!

  3. Goodness me. I don't think I can write so much and so quickly as to participate in the challenge, but you go, girl! I shall provide some moral support by reading your posts. 🙂

    • Hwee,

      I am also wondering if I can write quickly enough. Only one more day until the challenge starts and I'm already feeling the pressure. I shall just have to make the posts short and simple. I appreciate your support enormously. I'm sure it will spur me along! Thank you!

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