Who says you can’t write at Xmas time?

At the busiest time of year a group of writers proved you can!

Our Last Gasp Intensive ran for 2 weeks, 6 – 17 Dec and had a similar format to our Draft Busters Online with participants meeting on Zoom for Motivation Mondays and Feedback Fridays. Novelists, memoirists and non fiction writers attended.

The intensive element came from daily inspiration prompts and check-ins on our LastGasp What’s App Group. Writers were challenged to set aside time for daily writing (10 mins min) and to report what they did to the group.  This gave a great sense of community, motivation, inspiration and energy to the writers and allowed them to break the ‘lonely writer’ mould. Of course once they started they wrote for much longer than 10 mins in fact 1000s of words were clocked!

Why not try it over the holiday season. Set yourself the challenge to write for  a minimum of 10 mins a day, no matter what’s going on around you. Let me know how you go! Bring your pages to Draft Busters Online when we start up again on Jan 10.  Info and booking here.

Here is what our Last Gasp Writers said.

The intensive was genius Jan! I’ve found it very motivating and successful in terms of keeping me on writing and being engaged with my project. Here’s an example. Driving yesterday to a friend’s birthday celebration in Mallacoota I’m so taken with keeping the everyday writing habit, that I stopped at one point, drove up a little sandy forest track, got out my comfy camping chair and sat and wrote for half an hour.  Biff Ward.

It was a great challenge, a good boot up the butt and encouraged me to get on with it, to finalise what I’ve written so far. It really encouraged me to get a wriggle on! I’ve set draft deadline for March. Lisa Sharkey.

I found it really fantastic for motivation. It forced me to push on through the difficult bits. I really appreciated the constructive feedback from the group, asking me questions, pointing out where I need to explain more, that’s been really helpful. The sessions on visualising our book covers and voicing our fears were terrific, they really brought it home for me. Kerry Dwyer.

It’s been really useful. I really liked the daily prompts, esp the ‘cut to the chase’ ones. Every day check in was really good, even if you haven’t done much it’s like a reset for the next day, rather than a week or more passing before you get back to it again. I’ve been reading through my completed MS for small changes I need to make. I’ve got a good sense of the whole of it now. When I go into next year I’ll be able to finish. Now I’m writing a long synopsis adding in the new bits and use it as a blueprint for the new year. Andra Putnis.

It got me over my creative crisis block and thinking about my book every day. I loved the daily check-ins and the prompts and communicating with others daily. Most of all I loved the Monday sessions when we discussed challenging our fears about finishing and publishing. That was massively useful. I may not have the everyday habit back but I feel like I’m definitely in it more. Kate Broadhurst.

I found it great. The prompts were really pertinent. I got into the habit of doing something everyday. I’d been wanting to go back and read my MS through from the beginning as I approach the end. Communicating with others was helpful and made me feel guilty if I didn’t do my bit. I need the deadline threat! I got into the habit of doing something every day, surprisingly in the late afternoon. I’d never thought of writing then, so I’m going to keep to that time slot. It’s given me another deadline and I’m going to try to complete going through the whole MS, by our next Draft Busters module. Jennifer Moore.

I found it really helpful. I’ve already been writing every day for most of the year and was feeling pretty tired. I was putting off starting my introduction chapter and the intensive was a kick up the bum. I’ve got most of the chapter done and I have a really clear idea of what I need to do now and the revisions I need to make so it will be easy for me to come back into it after the break. I really appreciated the tips and especially the little bit of communication and community every day — that was really nice and kept me going. Tamara Jacka.

Draft Busters Online starts back on January 10, 2022.

Info and booking here.