Tag Archive for: virtual events

The Write Life: Upcoming Events

This month has been chaotic and exhausting! Even though that’s part of the write life, it isn’t the part I feel like commemorating and discussing this month. Instead, let’s talk about upcoming events and where you can find me and my advice in the near future!

Upcoming Workshops

Writing Advice You Can Ignore

Virtual Workshop — Thursday, June 6 at 7pm ET (click to register)

Orange background with squiggly lines and confetti around the text "Writing Advice You CAN Ignore by Alli Martin," one of two upcoming events available online.I’m teaching a new workshop this June called Writing Advice You Can Ignore. Most writing advice is well-meaning but not one-size-fits-all. Because of that less-than-universal quality, some advice can do damage to writers who try to follow it or make those writers feel like “they’ll never be a real writer.” I’ll be covering several common pieces of writing advice to break down why the advice is given, when you should ignore it, and when it might actually help you.

If you’re struggling to feel like a Real Writer because you can’t follow some advice you’ve been given, check out this free workshop to discover it’s not you, it’s the advice.

Time Management for Writers

Virtual Workshop — Tuesday, July 2 at 7pm ET (click to register)

Dark blue background with organized boxes framing the text "Time Management for Writers by Alli Martin," one of two upcoming events available online.About a month later I’ll be sharing one of my newer workshops, Time Management for Writers. This workshop steps you through how to make the most of your writing time and how to prioritize your writing to actually finish projects.

This workshop is great for writers who are struggling when they sit down to write and for writers who are struggling to find any time to write.

 

Both virtual workshops are being hosted by the Orange County Library but are open to anyone from anywhere. When you register at the workshop links above, if you don’t hold an OCLS library card, just skip that part of the registration and know you are very welcome to attend!

Book Launch

But before those other upcoming events, I’ll help helping my friend José with the book launch for his middle grade book Benny Ramirez and the Nearly Departed.

I’m very excited to support my friend who has been an amazing contributor to the writing community. This is truly an occasion to celebrate!

If you’re local to Central Florida, join us in Orlando at the Dr. Phillips Barnes & Noble on Saturday, May 4. The festivities (including a reading and signing by José Pablo Iriarte) begin at 2pm.

 

 

For full access to The Write Life and more about what I’ve done to assist with my creative life, sign up on Patreon for $1 or more per month. You’ll also receive a personalized thank you in a future edition of The Write Life.

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The Write Life: NaNoing November

Any way I slice it, November is NaNoWriMo. This year I elected to save myself a little frustration, aggravation, and sanity, and decided to not write 50,000 words. 2020 has been enough of a mess without struggling to slap words on a page while feeling the stress of an arbitrary deadline (plus needing to fulfill my duties as a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for Orlando, FL). Ultimately, I think this was the right decision, and it freed me up to enjoy more of the events I organized during the month. And the one I want to talk about is the biggest event I worked on: Write Around (Virtual) Disney World.

We’ve been running an in-person Write Around Disney World since 2013. We meet in a central location on Disney property and then use free Disney transportation to travel (by all means available) to various non-ticketed locations to write. Our path typically takes us to hotel lobbies and cafeterias, where tourists wonder why there are suddenly so many people sitting around with laptops and furrowed brows.

When the pandemic looked like it would keep our region at home this year, I began planning how to turn our biggest writing event into a virtual experience.

With the help of my friend, KL Cripe, we created a virtual traveling write-in hosted on three of our NaNOrlando social media platforms—Discord, Twitter, and Facebook. Since a virtual experience removed the need for a Disney ticket, we also took the opportunity to move our writing stops inside the Disney parks, visiting three inspiring locations in Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (yes, we picked Galaxy’s Edge), and Magic Kingdom.

Each location included a welcome, description of the location, how the location could inspire a writer, and time in which to write. We posted pictures from previous years (or from independent visits, in the case of our special in-park locations) and links to ambience sounds or music to help writers feel like they were actually there. We also included transportation between each stop because traveling by boat, bus, and monorail is just part of the appeal of Write Around Disney World.

In the past we’ve escorted up to 70 writers at our in-person write-in, which was about the same turn out for our virtual event. And not everyone was from Orlando. We had writers joining us from California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Virginia, Ohio, Vermont, and even Canada! I’m so glad we were able to successfully execute this event virtually. Every year we have writers who can’t join us, often because of transportation or mobility issues, and I’m excited to prove that we can bring this unique writing experience to everyone, despite the limitations that exist in the real world.

2020 has been an absolute mess, but I feel like it’s been a year to teach us about accessibility and I hope more event organizers are learning the same lesson I am—with a little creativity, we can shift our events so that anyone is able to participate.

If you want to check out Write Around (Virtual) Disney World, I recommend visiting our Twitter threads, organized by location:

 

 

For full access to The Write Life, sign up on Patreon for $1 or more per month. You’ll also receive a personalized thank you in a future edition of The Write Life.

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