Goal of the day: 1468 words. Written: 407.
When I met my friend and fellow writer Snieguolė at the Book Fair again, she immediately offered: "Let's go to a writing camp, Daniel! It will be in Nida. I'll pay for it!"
Writing?
In Nida?
Will they pay for me?
=D
Yes, I immediately agreed. My reflection lasted only about 12 seconds. And at the beginning of April, here I was.
Camp leader and teacher: Gabrielė Labanauskaitė-Diena. Gabrielė is a scriptwriter and theatre teacher, and is currently writing a book on the history of drama in Lithuania.
There were 11 of us.
The theme of the camp: dreams.
For three days we talked about dreams, about creativity, about writing. We also had writing exercises.
Personally, I was not interested in the writing exercises (which encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and finally write down what you feel, and once you've written it down, to put a full stop on it and read it aloud). Maybe it's because I don't find it difficult anymore to write and show my work, even if I realise that it's complete garbage when I write.
(Sometimes this dung becomes texts which, over time, become the basis for my other works. Fertiliser.)
The writing exercises, however, were of two types:
1) Encouraging you to write on new topics. Gabrielle would give us a topic, and we would write about it in a limited time (either a few minutes or half an hour). When we finished, we would read or not read if we didn't want to.
2) Encouraging us to talk about what we have written. However, a writer who doesn't show his work is not a creator - he's just a cowardly pimp who doesn't respect his own brain and his own time. So, at other times, Gabrielle urged us to read what is written. Even if it is bad. Not to keep the work and let it go, so that we can collect the dew of comments, criticism and compliments.
However, the most fun part of the camp was not the writing, but Snow White's meals. ...She should probably write her own recipe book... And of course, all the budding writers we met.
I remembered and liked Gabriele's writing camp.
And, in fact, when I go to her camp again in the future, this time I will pay the full price for the ticket and more.
Although the writing exercises didn't excite me, the people I met did. For example, when I met the novelist Aistė, I realised that novelists and poets are people too!
(Yes, I never understood poets before her. I mean, what kindergartener writes without being able to finish a sentence?)
Rating Clouds of Clouds:
- Rank: 10/10. Nida Artists' Colony.
- Price: 10/10. That 100 euros is not so much for what I got.
- Technique: 9/10. Something was missing, but Gabrielle has clearly done her job.
- Impact of technology on me, personally: 4/10. It's just that I'm already interested in other topics, not so much how to start, but how to polish.
- Atmosphere: 10/10. I don't know why, but the people were fantastic. I almost fell in love with some of them. Others I completely fell in love with. Others I still love on Facebook.
Thank you, Snowball! And thank you, Gabriele!
