SSSBC July & August Vlog

Don't worry guys, I didn't forget about this project! (That doesn't mean I got that much more done on it, but it was always in the back of my mind! :P)
The rest of my SSSBC Project went about as well as it did in June. I continued to fail to prioritize making time to write creatively, and it ultimately became a source of stress for me than a fun, creative outlet. I'm pretty bummed that this project really didn't go as planned, but I will say that I did learn a lot about myself and a lot about creative writing.
I definitely want to do something like this again in the future and to continue on with my caffeine writing project, but I'm not going to put a set timeline on myself for when I revisit it. I hope it will be sometime in 2018, but I think we'll just have to see whenever the writing bug bites again. I would like to set aside a period of time (like a week or a month) where all I do in my spare time is write and see what happens, so maybe that will be something you'll see from me in the future!
Overall, I think this was a really positive experience, even though I was stressed about it a lot of the time and I didn't do as well as I had hoped. We will try again, though, and we'll do better next time!
Watch the below vlog to see my last two months of SSSBC and some final thoughts on the experience!

SSSBC June Vlog + Story Excerpt #1!

BLAHHHHHH WE'RE A MONTH INTO SSSBC AND THIS IS SO MUCH HARDER THAN I ANTICIPATED!!! I totally underestimated what it would be like jumping back into creative writing and while I'm having a great time and really enjoying my story and the way it is developing, it is soooo much harder to fall into this form of creativity and navigate my way around it. Over this past month I've learned two major things:

1. I really love writing dialogue.

2. I suck at prioritizing writing and making time for my story!

These two things are the theme throughout my June SSSBC vlog (especially the second one) and I am struggling for some advice on techniques to make things like writing a priority. If you have any advice you can share with me, please let me know either in the comments of this blog or in the comments of my writing vlog. Any and all advice is appreciated!

Anywho, here are two of the more exciting parts of this blog post: my writing vlog and my story excerpt. Yes, you read that right. I'm only providing you an excerpt of my story and not the whole thing. Why you ask? Well, as mentioned above, I've found returning to creative writing extremely challenging and I haven't been making time to write, so my money is on that this story isn't going to have a first draft until the end of the summer. I've decided to focus on writing this story throughout the entire summer and shoot to have a first draft (fingers crossed) by the time August is over. Will it happen? WHO KNOWS?! That's for future Riley to figure out.

Keep going for my June writing vlog and an excerpt from my story that I'm particularly fond of! :D

SSSBC: June 2017 Prompt

AAAAGGGHHHH IT'S JUNE AND THE SUMMER SHORT STORY BOOT CAMP* HAS BEGUN!!!

*Acronym'd to SSSBC (pronounced "triple-S-B-C") for time-saving purposes

It's finally time to pick my first writing prompt of this creative writing project I'm attempting over the summer, and I'm excited to get my first Short Story under way! After some Googling around the internet, I came across this blog that shared a ton of really fun writing prompts. I sifted through them and came across one that I would love to tackle for my first short story of the summer:

"After a religious cult takes over the government, caffeine is outlawed. Tell the story of a brave and coffee-loving family who opens a #CaffeineSpeakeasy."

I really love the aspect of an alternate society as well as the aspect of the use of a #CaffeineSpeakeasy hashtag. I feel like I have a few ways I can go with this prompt and I'm excited to get this project underway! I'll check back in at the end of the month with (hopefully) a finished product to share with you! :)

Summer Short Story Boot Camp!

New Project Alert!
I've been trying to figure out a way to get back into creative writing for a good long while now. I've always wanted to attempt a novel, but I've never seen a project that wasn't for school anywhere past a few paragraphs. Creative writing is tough but I'm constantly itching to attempt some sort of writing project and I'm always at a loss at where to event start. I was sitting around over the holiday weekend wondering how I can introduce creative writing back into my life and BOOM - the Summer Short Story Boot Camp popped into my head.

Inspired by NaNoWriMo, this is a project I'm taking on to reacquaint myself with writing creatively. I knew I didn't want to plan to take on a full on novel quite yet, so I thought why not do three short stories - one each month of the summer - and see how it feels to just write again. I will be writing a new short story during the month of June, July, and August. Because I'm having some trouble with coming up with writing ideas as of this moment, I'm going to look up a writing prompt to base my short story around which I will announce at the beginning of each month. At the end of each month, I will share the final product with you all right here on the blog!
I have no idea how this project is going to go, but I am excited to reincorporate this avenue of creativity back into my life during the quieter months of the year for me. I will be vlogging my experience and sharing my journey at the end of each month so be sure to be on the look out for those posts! I'm looking forward to seeing how this project will go and I can't wait to share it with you all!
If you have any tips for creative writing or any writing prompts you'd like to see my attempt, leave them in the comments below! Any and all help will be willingly and lovingly accepted! :)