My review of Tim Clare’s Couch to 80k writing bootcamp continues!
My initial review covered some basics about Tim Clare’s writing podcast and my experience with day one, and in this post I’ll share my experience after two weeks of this amazing podcast class.
First, I have to comment on the amount of work and effort that must have gone in to creating this content. Wow! This is an incredible free resource of daily writing prompts. This eight-week course will have six classes per week, and each podcast episode is approximately 20 minutes long which includes a ten minute writing assignment within the podcast. I really love the format, and I’ve enjoyed listening to the podcast every morning with my cup of coffee, and working on the assignment before I start my work for the day.
I don’t want to give away too much information about any of the assignments because I think the element of surprise is an integral part of these exercises. Also, I think it makes it more fun to not know what to expect. I will do my best to provide as much information as possible whilst maintaining some secrecy.
Week One
My first semi-spoiler is regarding week one, which consisted entirely of list making of various types. While this might at first seem like an annoying waste of time, you’ll soon discover as I did that you’re getting some much needed exercise on that flabby creative muscle.
Day two was unexpectedly difficult. I had a hard time with this assignment. Without giving away the details, my takeaway of day two is that it kind of jogs your brain, and gets those little neurons a-firin’. Assessing the results of my day two list was also helpful, and it inspired some basic story concepts while sparking my imagination.
Day four began with my fingers flying on the keyboard; that is, until they came to an abrupt halt. There was a moment in the middle of the assignment when mind-blanking panic rendered me unable to draw upon any creative juice to complete the assignment. I started to consider characters in books, movies and people I’ve known in real life for inspiration. This was useful, but I still found day four to be a difficult one. It does help, though to get out of your comfort zone and do your best to rise to the challenges Tim offers in the…
