Monday, April 4, 2011

C is for Creative Camp

Double word score!!! So if we were playing scattegories I'd be ahead of the game. However, since we're not I'll be moving on.

Creative Camp. We have the writer conferences and the blog conferences every year but what if as bloggers/writers we made up a placed called creative camp. Together we compile of lists of things we love to do at camps and incorporate them into the week long event where lack of sleep gains you brownie points.

We'd play scattegories and scrabble - though I should mention even though I'm a writer I hardly ever beat my husband at these games.

To make it more writerly we could play it so that only words that we could create a definition for would count. Made up words are the only one's that would pass.

Everything would have a fun writerly twist. If someone was having plot problems we'd have writers play pretend and step inside a character and see if we can't brainstorm new ideas.

Then of course chocolate, candy, pizza, and any caffeine that could be found would be added to the mix. That's right as writers we can have one week of bad foods and talking about writing all day long and feel guilt free.

So who's with me?! Let's get this Creative Camp running!

Where would you want it to be held? By the beach, river, mountains? And what game would you want to incorporate!

Spill! I want details people!

102 comments:

Laura Pauling said...

We'd definitely need a tournament of Boggle!

Katie O'Sullivan said...

Camp needs to be in the woods- Cozy cabins, creaky cots, caterpillars, crafts, campfires... okay, I'm out of C words. Sounds like fun, though ;-)

Unknown said...

What fun! I would like to play this game in a crystal cave that I found in a forest halfway up a mountain. Made up words is my specialty and I am rather fond of a jibberish language called, childeon. This is a form of storytelling that my children and I made up when they were small. Let me try to explain, we would build a story off of one another using random words that strung together making crazy sence.

Bish Denham said...

Charades and Pictionary would be good games to add.

Emily White said...

I'm in! :) But it must be held in the mountains (lots of woods).

Miranda Hardy said...

I'm in. Sounds like a camp I'd really enjoy.

Anastasia V. Pergakis said...

Red rover with our muses! LOL

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That sounds fun! Add Bookworm - I kick butt at that iPad game.

Unknown said...

oops, ran out of message room. I am planning on using one of the alphabet days to explain :) My son is now grown up but he continues to play this game and he and his friends gather once a week to play a game called "LIVE" which sounds alot like what you described. He is also very involved with Cos-play, not sure if this is something they do in the states. The explaination is to long for this comment box. so another time.

Lindsay N. Currie said...

Oooh, I love the idea. I say we need warm sleeping bags, lanterns, plenty of stuff for smores and, last but not least, old school notebooks and pencils for scribbling down ideas for WIP's! Let's play Songburst too - I love that game:)

Thomasina said...

I love this idea! I'd want the camp to be held by a beach, and we def would need to play a good ole game of Uno!!

Creepy Query Girl said...

I think writers camp should be held in a mysterious fog covered forested alcove with stone cottages. And there should be unicorns. Yes, lots of unicorns.

Anonymous said...

I'd want to have it in a small town, so that we can go people-watching to get inspiration for our story characters, but the traffic isn't loud enough to be too distracting.

And there should definitely be old-school role playing games - because what would be better than a game that's basically a half-dozen people teaming up to write an interactive story?

Ruth said...

Boggle, definitely boggle.
Also I like the mountains.

Joss said...

totally agree on the boggle front I love that game. As for where to have it can we not do a road trip, spend a few days by the beach, a couple by a river and a couple in the mountains lol.
why have one when you can have them all.

Nate Wilson said...

Get that many creative people in one place, and I can only imagine the type of prank war there'd be between the bunks.

Also, Taboo. Need Taboo. And ice cream sundaes.

Gina Ciocca said...

I am so in for camp! And it should definitely be on the beach, like the one in the photo you loved in my title bar! And if you're in the mood for stalking today, I'm having a contest on my blog. Stop by! :)

Unknown said...

Ooh, count me in. I agree with boggle, that's a definitely must.

August said...

I'll second or third or fourth the Boggle suggestion!

I'll bring the s'mores :)

~Sia McKye~ said...

I do make up words, but I don't know how good I'd be at it if I had to do it.

I'm a Bookworm game person.

Where to have a camp like that? For me, somewhere near close to a beach. I live in the woods so that's home. A beach, yah.

Nicole Zoltack said...

This sounds like so much fun! I would definitely want in.

Jessica Bell said...

I'm in! I'll bring my guitar! :o)

Brenda Drake said...

I'm in, but I'm thinking wine country and definitely Pictionary. :D

Joanne said...

Camp should be in a big chalet in the mountains, with inspiring snow-capped mountain views :)

Dafeenah said...

I'd be in! Definitely camp by the lake. Peaceful serene and my friend Jason could come. He's great at parties.

Dafeenah

Samantha Sotto said...

Hmm...well, a couple of my main characters like to play strip scrabble... ;-)

Kelly Polark said...

That would be a blast!
I just played Scattergories with my kids for the first time last week. So fuN!

Aubree said...

if it has the chocolate you promised i am on board. maybe a chocolate factory.
and one time i cheated in scattergories off the person next to me because i didn't know if two people had the same answer it didn't count. fail.

Dan said...

A summer camp for writers. Just think of the ghost stories!

Dan

PS - I vote for a lake in the woods.

Tracey Neithercott said...

That would be so fun. Warning, though. I kill at Scattergories. My husband hates playing with me because I'm such a stickler for the rules, especially the If You Can't Prove it Exists, It Doesn't Count rule.

Michael Di Gesu said...

Oh, yes,

I with Brenda.... Wine country. A vineyard chalet... roaring fire and heavenly wines and chocolates.... We don't want to gain too much weight. lol.

Elizabeth Twist said...

Creative camp: the perfect solution for creative cramp! I am in.

SharleneT said...

Definitely the woods, fellow A-Zer! And, I'm a killer at Scrabble, too. Have fun!

Hello, fellow A-Z Challenger! Isn't this fun? Come visit, either of my blogs when you can and leave some comment love:

http://rockingchairreflections.blogspot.com (A-Z)
http://www.mainstreamsolarcooking.com

Tony Payne said...

Camp to me would mean a Flaming Fire, a Big Barbecue, a good old Sing Song, Scary Stories, and Silly Stories Too.

Brilliant topic :)

Cindy said...

That sounds fun... I'm not a writer though so I'd just tell my writer buddies about it :)

Shah Wharton said...

Pictionary is hilarious!! Oh and connect four and cludo. Oh and most card games, and.... okay I like the idea. Lets do it ;D

Hi - great post - here from the A2Z Challenge stopping by and I think I'm gonna follow!. http://wordsinsync.blogspot.com/2011/04/z-blogging-challenge-april-2011-c.html Shah. X

Grandpa said...

I'll do better - I can offer The Farm - for free - as the venue. It has river, mountain, and whatever else you want.

It'll be nice if you include snake and ladder.


Grandpa
Life on The Farm

Shannon O'Donnell said...

MUST be in the mountains--definitely!! Let's do it. :-)

Kirsty said...

Can I vote for an indoor camp with flushing loos (I quit The Girl Guides after my first outdoor camp).
Chocolate is a must.
I had a BBQ once for some writers from an Open University course I was on, we played Alternative Jabberwocky (taking out the random words and putting in your own) and pin the pen on Shakespeare. We gave him a fountain pen rather than quill (I thought it was funny, not sure about everyone else, they may have just been humouring me).

Nicki Elson said...

Yes, yes, YES! I love it. Let's see, we could add Bananagrams (its like a fast Scrabble). And to go with that...Banana Daiquiris!

Melissa Sarno said...

I want to be in creative camp! I usually find the mountains very inspiring, but given the weather in the northeast these days I'm going to have to go with: BEACH! I'd like to do a scavenger hunt too, please.

Ellie Garratt said...

Could we move creative camp to space camp? I've always wanted to go there and I could promise to write sci-fi stories whilst I'm there!

Ellie Garratt

Julie Jordan Scott said...

Wow. This is actually one of my life dreams: to create a creativity camp and artist's retreat for multi-generations... it is still a dream at this point, but in the interim I have created something called Writing Camp which I have done virtually (via Teleclasses and Eclasses) and now have done some in person in parks and by rivers and even in a high school class room and in a hospital.

I would want to have a lot of sensory elements. Stuff that smells good - sounds interesting - creates conversations and connections.

Wow. I am so grateful I found you today via A to Z challenge. I haven't had enough time to visit all of them yet but I am working on it!

You may see my check in for "C" here.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I love the extra brownie points for sleeplessness.

Can we have wine and/or single malt whisky at the creative camp? I vote yes.

At my yearly writers' retreat, we bring along pictures of the actor/actress/model muses we're using for our characters, place them all together for viewing, and the rest of us have to guess Whose Muse is Whose.

Ella said...

Great idea; I want to be near the ocean. Outer Banks would be cool! Those long walks on the shoreline would stimulate lots of story ideas!
Pizza, chocolate n' caffeine...my kind of party!

Mairie said...

sounds good - I would probably need a quiet escape place too - to deal with creative input overload.

Mairie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura S. said...

People always expect me to be awesome at Scattergories and Scrabble. I wish I could say that I am, but too bad being a writer doesn't make me any better at these games than anyone else, lol! However, I'm good at Balderdash. It's so much fun making up crazy definitions!

Ann said...

Sounds like an exciting idea. Love the double C

Matthew MacNish said...

I like your new picture, you look very thoughtful!

Candyland said...

Oh it would have to be in the mountains and we would wear footie jammies and drink hot cocoa while neither of us wins at Scrabble bc I'm no good either:/

Laura said...

In the woods by a river where we can swim... and there needs to be a resident masseuse! can i come?!!!

Lx

Pearson Report said...

I think I'm in Creative Camp already - I type into the wee hours - denying myself my much needed beauty sleep, all the while eating everything you've listed (and more).

Yup I'm there, except for the games - I'm in want of some serious "practice" in the spelling department.
I'm always grateful for my "delete" button and "spell check" and my "trusty dictionare" (see I left that "e" just so you could see I'm telling the truth)

Cheers,
Jenny

Martha said...

It would be at the beach and there would be beer. Lots and lots of beer ;-)

Anonymous said...

It would have to be at the beach. And I would probably require some kind of tropical mixed drink to be at my beck and call. I never went to camp but this sounds like something worth attending. If only it existed...

Anonymous said...

In the middle of the woods, where it is dark, we can hear each others' words, but only see the outline of faces. Whooooooo. Double word score - yes! I actually had 5 B words on B day!

Mary Aalgaard said...

I'm in! I actually have a real place in mind. It's a family church camp in the summer. They've put in some winterized cabins and a lodge. It's on a lake. A gorgeous creative space. Let's go!

Unknown said...

For real!? How cool. Sounds like so much fun!

Murees Dupè said...

Made up words and bad food, sounds like fun! Thank you for dropping by my blog and for the nice welcome.

Tracy said...

The creative crappy catepillar can't cartwheel 'cross the crater!

:)

Christina Lee said...

woo hoo! Okay I say in the mountains near a stream, and we'd need to play pictionary!

Jenny said...

I'd go to one at the beach!!! We could write Mad Libs in the sand! And consume massively unhealthy doses of Pixi Stix and Snickers minis!!!

LTM said...

love it, and it would most definitely have to be at Seaside... mmm~ :o)

Marjorie said...

Sounds like fun! I wish I liked camping. Perhaps we could at least have cabins?

Jamie Gibbs said...

Creative Camp would need to be in the mountains for me. Somewhere where you can look out and see the land spread out before you, or see into the bottom of a valley. That would definitely get the creative juices flowing.

Tea said...

I say let's head for the beach. Ummmm, writing and creativity is hard for me to deal with in one sentence especially when you are asking for feedback. Well, we would have to write about the place. The place we choose whether the mountains, river or ocean would allow us a lot of room to flex our writing side of the brain and make us really look at our setting.

teakettle58(at)yahoo(dot)com

Lindsay said...

Sounds fun. There should be mountains. Oh, and a supply of chocolate :)

Bev Hankins said...

Sounds like fun to me! Thanks for stopping by mine!

Jennifer Hillier said...

Let's go to the mountains!

What a fabulous idea.

Sa said...

Hey Jen, thanks for stopping by the blog. I am really looking forward to starting the challenge!

Hannah said...

In the mountains sounds fantastic!

Nicole said...

The creative camp is a nice concept for writers. I'd use it to get help with some of my story plots or to just throw some out there to find out which ones are the most interesting to other participants and that would determine which story I make the priority in my daily, weekly or monthly tasks.

The Madlab Post

Mimi said...

Creative camp in the mountains with chocolate? Yes, count me in too! Not sure if I'd be any good on the sleeplessness, but I'd certainly play the games and drink the wine!

Jolene Perry said...

creative camp?
I vote we do it on some small island out in the bahamas, and make it mandatory, so we ALL have to be there.
That would be awesome ;D

Paula Martin said...

How about taking over a Cruise ship on the Nile?

Petra said...

Creative camp at a mountain lake with cozy cabins all sprinkled about for those of us who like to sleep too! :-)

Penned Pebbles

Unknown said...

Creative Camp sounds like a great idea. There would have to be Boggle and maybe Apples or Apples. I think it should be by a lake.

Jennifer Gladen said...

Sounds like fun! BTW - thanks for stopping by my blog!

Unknown said...

Stopping by to say hi and how much I'm loving this challenge. a to Z rocks!

Creative Camp would have to be somewhere near the beach. I love staring out at water when I'm thinking of story ideas. We'd play Mad Libs and Password. Caffeine and chocolate are a must along with ooey, gooey brownies and cheesecake.

R.M. Hepler said...

OOOH! This is just a COMPLETELY CONVINCING CANNY CREATION! (couldn't help myself XD) Cabins and a lake with woods...mountains could be fun!

Far as activities...apples to apples is a really fun game;it actually helped me with my NaNoWriMo novel this past November lol. OH! and charades! I LOVE that game....(though it might just be my inner actress talking)

jkraus8464 said...

OK creative camp would be for me on a mountain, overlooking the valley. Working from a balcony area where we could see tops of trees and green and feel cool air and see hummingbirds and blueberries.
Can you tell I live in sunny hot Florida?

Unknown said...

Yes, yes, yes!!! LOVE! I'm TOTALLY in. I'm a total nature freak so I say it be held on a beach or tucked away in the mountains. I make nifty prompt jars - (jars full of writing prompts), so I'd contribute those to the camp. It would be wonderful to have quiet reflection / brainstorming / writing time too. I think that's just as important as writing!

Wonderful idea, Jen! :)

~Melissa
Reflections on Writing

Sue said...

Balderdash must be in. and a couple of others that I've forgotten at the moment. Oh dear "teflon brain" strikes again :(

Sue@jumpingaground

Kimberly said...

A writer's camp sounds so fabulous! Balderdash would be an awesome game since you have to make things up!!

Anonymous said...

That sound like it would be so much fun! Don't forget the s'mores!

Thanks for stopping by Pawny's Pen!

erica and christy said...

I'm in! Just let me know when and where. I'll bring the wine! christy

alexia said...

Heck yeah! I'll bring more wine and chocolate. And, beach, totally.

Brianna said...

When I think of camp I think of a lake so I'd like to have it in the mountains near a lake.

The best part would be at night around the campfire telling ghost stories! I love ghost stories.

Tara Tyler said...

I love camp - and being with a bunch of like-minded souls would triple the fun =)
Thanks for stopping by my blog - I'm participating, I just added more after my "C" post today...=)
happy c day!

Alison Miller said...

I'm in! At the beach!

Anonymous said...

This is such a super idea....after meeting a lot of the A-Z bloggers (I have been already following you for some time now), I don't mind going to camp with them :)

Anonymous said...

This is such a super idea....after meeting a lot of the A-Z bloggers (I have been already following you for some time now), I don't mind going to camp with them :)

Jai Joshi said...

Mountains, definitely mountains.

Jai

Jennie Bailey said...

Mountains! And I want Smores on the list - oh, and jiffy pop over the fire! Fireside stories every night! This sounds like so much fun!

Trisha said...

This creative camp sounds AWESOME fun! :)

Samantha VĂ©rant said...

How about in France????

B. Miller said...

That sounds like so much fun! I love Scattergories... let's go to the beach and have a picnic with our games!

M. Reka said...

Great post. I love this idea, sounds really fun!

Short Poems

Michelle in a shell said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I LOVE this idea! I never went to camp as a kid so it would totally make up for all of it! (PS- Let it be at the beach!)

Donea Lee said...

Creative camp? Too cool! We'd definitely have to play spoons! Just to break up the word games. And I say we rent out a spa in Tuscany!

Kittie Howard said...

Great idea! I'm all for that spa in Tuscany!

Stratoz said...

just don't forget about a space to be in silence. A river with waterfalls would be quite nice.