 Okay so now that the stream people are hearing us, hello people from the stream, I use this one so people are actually hearing us. Thank you. Okay hello again, people in the room, hi, hello people in the stream and on the recording. My name is Claudia, this is Barbara. Yeah I'm Barbara. The thing is we're doing a creative writing workshop here so as soon as the lorry is going around there. Dear, maybe you can have a third try to start that workshop now. Why do we do that? Because we want to let's hack words here. Really? Okay I'm doing this partly as my job. I have a normal day job and then in my very limited spare time I'm also an author so I write books for two publishers and yeah mostly crime novels currently so not changed to science fiction now because I can't think of all this stuff going on around us this is much worse than anything I could think of. Well I'm also writing on my day job and I'm a journalist and I'm writing for a big newspaper in Austria and besides that I'm writing on my first big novel which is already finished 400 pages but it's not published yet and it will not be published in the very close future but maybe in one year and for me I'm all started with creative writing. I attended some creative writing workshops myself in the last couple of years and they really helped me to get started with my novel because before that I was always thinking about oh well I should write I should write but I didn't start and finally after having a workshop like this I started so I want to share this experience with you. Actually we're sharing this experience like once a month because we're in the same writing group that's a thing with authors are those separated creatures sitting in dark chambers you know that from the nerd parts right but we come out once a month sit there together in some cafe and write for about two or three hours yeah but you can try that maybe later if you like what you're experiencing here. For the people on the screens in the stream you can interact with us via Twitter just write to Shrumbab, Shrumbab is Barbara here and we can we can answer your questions then. Hi there come in. And everybody who just came in new into the tent here and needs some paper and pen just raise your hands and I will bring it to you because we are here in a workshop and you're going to write actually it's not only we are talking but you're writing so anybody who needs some stuff just yes you can use your computer. Yes you may use your computer if you like you can also just try to write with your hands because this is a completely different experience so for all of you who has already tried writing for the people in the room who has already some experience with writing software is okay-ish. Okay so who is writing novels and who is writing software? Novels? Okay one two short stories short stories okay great yeah okay and code nearly everyone okay I guess this is the same for the people in the stream yeah documentation oh we love you scientific papers yes does that mobile microphone work yes great maybe it works over there thank you um this is the part with the question of your expectations from this workshop um you don't have to say much if you say something it will be on the stream uh people on the stream uh you did grasp around you get some paper and pens right good if not do it now um your expectations from that workshop just one minute thinking who wants to say what what he's expecting here so we can we can actually one sec for me it's to um just get encouragement and motivation so I've been to a number of workshops and each time each one just helps a little bit but it's all it's all helpful so it's um I'm motivated by attending these things okay that's it so you're you're already keen on writing we're totally motivated that you're here well my expectation is to have one page of this at least filled with something coherent you might reach this goal hi well thank you for giving the talk um I have a lot of thoughts and write these down like small pinpoints and whatever but I never get further than just these small pinpoints and I think it will be really interesting to grab them together into bigger essays and you have to make time for that and maybe this will be a nice stepping stone in the front set to start making that time okay anyone else did you see a hand yes no yeah no no no I'm quite blank I thought creative writing I can I can I can learn something okay we're working on that one anyone else yes every every technique like dancing or making paintings has its own ways of getting into the creative process so I'm interesting in what aspects and what techniques there are in this field okay well we'll also come come around some some of the creative techniques yes we will um okay for you to start yes please thank you this is about free writing free writing is already a technique who already knows free writing no hands I can't see hands from the stream but we just go on with people in the room then um free writing Barbara well free writing is actually something you should you can use to get over writing blocks it's a creative technique which you are starting to use before you actually want to write something that is important it's like you're sitting now here and you might have something in your mind that disturbs you the whole fucking day and you are not getting rid of it and you really want to get rid of it because you can't concentrate on the topic you really want to write about like a shopping list the car insurance that guy in the office like anything that's disturbing and coming back to your mind I guess everyone knows that right yeah I see nodding good yeah not not only me and that's why you use this technique like before you write what you really want to write you write down what disturbs you and you're doing this in one huge line it doesn't mean that you know well actually you shouldn't stop writing at all and if you're not if nothing comes into your mind write nothing comes into my mind nothing comes into my mind nothing comes into my mind oh maybe now maybe now well let's try oh my home is so bad today or no today the wind and the tent maybe it's not secured yet whatever just don't stop writing and you do that for I think we said we do that for five minutes and five minutes is normally the time you use that okay then your mind should be more empty than before and then you can concentrate on the real things right so actually every one of you is just grasping the pen or your keyboard and just start writing anything that comes to your mind just anything yeah so and the the reason for is it is that it will go out go away and afterwards you will be a bit more clear and you will have it all out of the way afterwards so when we come to to the creative process itself fine five minutes and go and if somebody needs a paper and pen and hasn't got it now raise your hands I will bring it to you immediately yeah and stop okay how did it go it was one sec I was pleased that I kept going for five minutes my hands tired and I still had stuff left to right so I think I'm doing good thank you that's good anyone else how did it go you look at looking still still pleased one sec coming to you uh pretty good I've managed to write a whole lot of nothing I think that's good that's exactly what you were supposed to be doing yeah one thing I'm wondering but probably there is no right and wrong here uh is that I did everything grammatically very correct instead of no I don't know blah blah blah yeah yeah that's that's totally fine as long as you don't stop writing it's just getting everything out of your of your mind so your brain can come into a create creative mode um so in normally during the day you're in like a uh non-creative working mode I have to do this I have to do that and so on and the car insurance and the cat and whatever um and you when you when you start free writing it all comes out and it goes out of the way does anyone already notice is it a bit for the first first time maybe yeah maybe I see a nodding okay close enough I actually liked that I heard a lot of people writing so the the sound of pencil on on paper and then some people on on the keyboards was great and I saw I saw people actually smile doing it so that was good um so and we are going to continue writing now it's not over yet this was just a warm up that was the warm up yes um we have a writing proposal for you how did come that there's still a typo in that okay I have a typo in the slide I'm actually I'm sorry I was sure I corrected it but okay sorry for the typo I'll correct it uh when you are writing again uh no I didn't use a spell checker because the spell checker always cuts out everything that that I usually write down so um this is just just bits and pieces from from writing experience when you write um what a dialogue how people speak they don't speak as you write texts so um if you say no I'm gonna do this or whatever and you write that down the spell checker cuts it out out so that's why I actually seldomly use a spell checker only in in business business emails yes I think with a spell checker also you have a distraction something that stops you like you're writing and all of a sudden there's this red line that says hey wait a second and you need to write click and say oh okay I meant this word it stops your flow so I think that's another reason I type in Dutch and the spell checker will be on English and then type in English and it'll be on Dutch so always get rid of squiggly lines yeah the red lines can be really disturbing when you want to write something in one uh line and yeah yeah so our spell checker not for the first draft it is it is good when you're when you're rewriting afterwards so if you're actually going through your texts again and want to do something with it then spell checker is fine but for the first draft no uh maybe those screens uh slides were my first draft then maybe possibly yes no okay okay for the subject we propose uh you can say no I have a clear idea about uh something that I actually want to write about I know a new short story I know uh a scene that I've seen somewhere on the camp or something you can of course write about that you you can do whatever you like this is just a proposal from us so if you you're going blank actually you could come back to the proposal but you don't have to um about that resilience Barbara you chose uh chose the subject why well um resilience is the official theme of shard 2017 maybe not all of you have known that but now you know and um that's why um this workshop is also called let's hack words because we want to um use the shard topic um and um our words um and get creative with resilience but it's just a suggestion and you can write whatever you uh want which means you can like write lyrics you can write a short story you can just start writing a story you can um write a poem poem you can write whatever comes up to you and you can just write what what you experienced here so far like in terms of um we are all here at this um workshop camp camp and a few days and uh we all um got different things to see and hear and maybe this has inspired us so far and you we can um kind of um write that down what inspired us so far yes but i ask why resilience Barbara that not not only because it's the subject of shard but what do you understand from resilience what is what is your understanding of resilience so maybe for all of us so to get into the topic no one oh come on one one one sec for me uh from my understanding of resilience is just being able to keep going it's being like bloody minded about things like even when things get tough you you keep going because you've got you want to keep going but it's sensible for you okay but it can be difficult sometimes anyone else yes it's about uh keeping on track uh with your goals uh as you go right and you get distracted by many things so uh but first of all you need to have a goal so if you're goalless yeah i think you're all over the place but i think that is ultimately what it comes down to not the one yeah maybe i'm just imagining an a pillow with feathers instead of what is it called the air mattress i'm sleeping on now so that's waiting for me at home and um yes i was really impressed by what he said because i'm also working on a project right now which has its difficulties and also always i feel also when it's very difficult with this project that my enthusiasm about the subject and the essence of the project is what keeps it going even when it's really really tough so okay that there was the word drive for for the people in the stream um anyone else oh i see i see already uh faces thinking faces so um i think they are already keen to start actually yeah want to start again okay we'll do that for let's say uh 15 minutes that's fine for you three times as much as you did the first time okay you had five minutes the first time for the free writing now you've got 15 and if you want we can tell you when it's uh five minutes before um the end yes five minutes warning for everyone okay people on the stream um we will start a timer for 15 minutes and this is also for you to write yes you are writing too yeah and if you've got questions you can twitter us to shroombub uh sh r double o m b a b shroombub at shroombub on twitter and just um get in with your questions and we will answer them too um okay for that timer it's 16 13 now and go and if you need some more papers just raise your hands please people on the stream you will have to grab grasp around you for some more paper or maybe switch to your keyboard this is the five minute warning five minutes to go congratulations you just wrote a first draft here you go yes it's a first draft what you produced in the last 15 minutes it's a first draft of a text that could become a short story a novel a poem something you can win the pool it's a prize for and i see people throwing their the pens already did you switch to the stream already okay hi people in the stream welcome back i hope you've written something wonderful too but actually first drafts are seldomly wonderful in in the first go first drafts are meant to be shitty that doesn't mean that your text is shitty no but uh if you have the feeling like oh god i did 15 minutes of writing just something and nobody in the whole world will want to read that ever in a whole lifetime in a whole history of human beings or whatever that's totally okay that's normal for first drafts i have that every time i write a text it's like nobody wants to read that well um i have the opposite feeling when i finish a text i always think oh it's so great it's so great and when i read it again then i get this feeling for me it's mostly okay uh this is so bad and then i read it again like two or three weeks or months later and then i think oh it wasn't that bad okay we can work on it so uh normally you produce a whole lot of text and then you carve the real creative text from it so you have to have more text in the beginning to have something to work on so uh and all all that let uh free writing that first drafts this is what you do for for start and then you can actually work on it and and form the actual text you want to to make it is it a book or a poem or whatever so uh usually you make yeah the first draft you make the big stone the rock and then you can work on it and fine tune but no no fine tuning without any text so this is what you always have to do let's ask them how did it go did you ask them how did it go you're having this microphone to go around yes and ask them i see hands and i'm coming yeah so what i notice normally when i'm writing is that my perfectionism kicks in so i start dismissing my own words even while i'm writing and this techniques helps me to just completely shut that part of my brain off and just continue writing i also noticed i'm not scratching in my book i'm just continue writing writing writing and i think it was really helpful that's fine i like that fine uh anyone else i see you nodding no one want to talk okay yes you want it relaxes my brain for a bit but not my hands so i was typing yeah it felt good felt good is good i think anyone else yes i do see the added value of a pen and paper now because it's too easy on the keyboard to go and erase some things but but you see it even though you typed on your keyboard oh sorry smart so yeah i do notice i try to keep writing and it works kind of definitely but sometimes i did notice like four or five times i go back and say like ah this is not correct or i should like change this a little bit and it's just too easy on the keyboard that inner sensor is a is a beast and it actually is anyone else yes yeah normally i i really hate writing i have to say that like i'm not a writer at all um i also hate reading i'm a photographer uh but uh yeah that's why i went here because i want to push myself to also learn other things that than i usually do and uh yeah it's it's it's interesting it's interesting to see that i'm actually able to to write almost two pages now that's good first two pages of your whole new novel that's good that's totally good anyone else yes no people from the stream Barbara did we get any no we didn't get any feedback on the stream because they're all writing yes hopefully they didn't stop well that's good go on um okay uh we we already said that inner sensor who are who knows that that inner sensor the the inner person who's trying to hold you back who's always correcting you saying no you can't write that like that or no you misspelled that word or whatever who knows that yes these are a few more hands nearly nearly everybody here knows the inner sensor i hate him well that's why we that's why we draw him she does that i can't draw anything i should go to a creative drawing workshop next no no no we we drawing can be as easy as writing like everybody can write so everybody can draw this is ways from being perfect but it's really helpful when you're having a writing blockade to draw your inner sensor in the moment it looks like so this is how it looked like for me at the moment tomorrow it might look totally different it is ways from perfect it's just the inner sensor that hit me uh right now here today and why i was drawing it because it's the best feeling ever if you can destroy him and i guess we're not allowed to set that thing on fire are we no we are not allowed to do it here but you can you can do it at home or you can just throw it in the trash bin and it really frees you up i mean it really empties you and it really helps to um go it away and this is also kind of technique we want to um let you at least know about if you want you can try it now but we actually running a bit out of time but just remember to draw it and throw it away yes and uh another thing you can do uh except from uh drawing your inner sensor uh you could also give him a name like i don't know mr smith or something and then you can shout at him or write him a bad letter with all your writing mistakes you can ever think of yes the inner sensor might be a woman or a cat a vomiting cat or so yeah um another thing you can do and this is something you come across if you if you write creative writing books or you read creative writing books this is something most of the people recommend are morning pages yes yes morning pages that's actually um i'm not a morning person so for me it is not that helpful but but for everybody who is really awake uh the brain awakens when you wake up and you are really um getting out of the bed drink the first coffee and then you're um fully motivated to start your day um um well i i never was it can be um a good choice to sit down for five minutes and do what we did before like with the first exercise with the free writing um when you do that every day in the morning for five minutes after one month it um you notice a difference in the um in the feeling um you're you can start your day more clear and yeah and it doesn't only help you for writing but it helps you for writing as well um actually i'm not a morning person either i have no freaking idea how i got through my school time um but um if you if you just get out of band even if you're still dizzy and everything just write down either five minutes or three pages or whatever you take as your goal just do it i try that myself uh i somehow lost lost track of it doing it again but i shall start again soon um maybe not maybe not at camp but maybe at camp maybe even at camp at camp yes you too uh no um it's like uh you you just get out of bed and you write down um parts of your dreams parts of what's going on in your mind parts of things that happened through the last days and then you just write it all down like we did the first time and as Barbara said you're getting more clear after after two three weeks uh i had the the feeling that my my my thoughts are getting clearer much clearer and i could get into that writing mode much faster not not only in the morning but you are able to to write in the afternoon or in the evening when you already did some writing in the morning this worked for me but you you are just invited to try it for your own just try it it's it's just an an offer but uh i realized even if i'm not a morning person that it actually works um and then we can already say thank you for being here fellow writers you already wrote some pages you already made a start maybe or you kept going and we invite you to just go on just try it again and um yeah if you like that here um i hope we see each other at some other point yes i see i see another hand coming yes thank you so so the question i currently have is how do you get from this mumbling to an article or something you actually want to publish what's the next step um for me it just switched mode so if you keep on going or for me it worked if you just keep on writing and writing and writing at some point you realize you're already writing that article or you're actually writing that topic or the next scene of your short story or book and you when everything that's disturbing you is going out then suddenly you just switch to to the to the other thing you really want to write sometimes if there's maybe going on lots in your life it takes longer and sometimes you need only two or three sentences and then you're already in in the story it's just at that point in your in your brain it just click yes one second another another tip for that is maybe to cluster things what you wrote down now to make a cluster of it and see what belongs to each other like where which you know what a cluster is i don't have to explain that and then why when you are finished with clustering um you you better see how you're going to start and where the start is and where the end is so to make at least that helps for blog articles yeah about that so i can share my strategy i personally works for me um so you talked about morning pages uh that's what i'm doing as well um okay i know a lot of people are skeptical about this and think like i can't do it i can't you know i can't wake up and write i am not this kind of person but honestly um just try it and what i did is went after a while after you do this for every single day for like a month you start to see repetitive patterns you see like you're always complaining about the same stuff you're complaining about i can't write or i i really want to start writing a novel but i'm still i still haven't started damn and after a while it starts to annoy you that you have to keep on writing the same stuff so you think hey okay wait i need to do something about this at one point your mind starts to think that i need to do something about it and then i recommend you to actually go take your agenda take your planner and plan in time plan in one hour plan in 10 minutes plan in as little time or as much time as you can get away with in your busy life we all have busy lives plan it and then do it commit to it planning time for yourself is commitment and commitment will get you to your goal yes yes what he said right okay um so thank you very much uh i think we're finished nearly on time just two minutes thank you very much for for letting us have that two minutes it was thank you for your contribution um thank you and we hope you had some fun while writing yes uh we hope all the people in the stream had fun writing um whoever wants to come back to us having questions just having a beer or something at chung and talking further about it anytime you can find us online and on twitter which is also online but um and uh yeah for me you see two twitter names which uh the one with the real name is the my author self and the others my my nerd self the author self is also uh followed by my boss so don't uh yeah expect too much nerdy stuff there but you find my author self there thank you thank you people from from the technics the technical guys and uh yeah see you bye thank you for coming to our workshop i am and um please you can keep all you wrote um but it would be very nice if you would return the pens thank you