Dear Essay Campers,
Welcome to this rather impromptu session of Essay Camp for November 2025! It has certainly been too long. The fifth semi-annual Essay Camp is set to begin this Saturday, November 15th. If you plan to participate, you might want to begin preparing, mentally and logistically, over the next few days.
As I mentioned before, since I’m still not technically back to teaching, we’re going to be repeating material, but my hope is that the container we create here with our intentions, and the energy shared among writers, will be enough to make the endeavor worthwhile.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Yourself
In order to attend Essay Camp, you will need to show up. All versions of yourself—the talented and untalented, the sure and unsure, prepared or woefully unprepared—are all invited and encouraged to attend.
Essay Camp is virtual, and happens wherever you are—in a hut in the forest, a hotel room in Paris, your bed, your office after hours, your car in the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts at 7am, the locked bathroom of your one-bedroom apartment while an angry toddler bangs on the door—whatever you can manage.
Essay Camp must happen wherever you are mentally, as well. Over the next few days, see if you can locate yourself. Get out a bullhorn and announce to yourself as loudly as you can that you’ll be doing some creative writing over the course of five days, from Saturday through Wednesday, and that it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to happen. Bang on some pots and pans to get your own attention if you must. Let the part of you that writes things, or wants to write things, know that it is time to wake up and report for duty.
Time
In order to attend Essay Camp, you will need to set aside some time every day for five days in a row. Ideally, this should include some time spent actively writing, but also some additional time spent thinking, daydreaming, reading, walking, or all of the above.
The instruction emails will give suggested assignments for reading and writing, and will propose some strategies for revision towards the end. How much time you spend on any of these activities is up to you.
If you plan to participate, you may want to take some time now to come up with a tentative schedule. For example, do you tend to write best first thing in the morning, or right before bed? Can you set your alarm a little earlier, take a longer lunch break, stay up later, or vow to forgo watching TV or scrolling social media for five days and spend that time on Essay Camp instead? Think about times when you can write, but also when you might be able to read, sit quietly, take a walk, or otherwise give space for yourself.
How much time you spend on Essay Camp can and will vary greatly. Some of you might be able to spare two whole hours between work and dinner to go for a walk or a hike, and then devote an hour to writing afterwards. Others might plan for a fifteen minute walk around the neighborhood first thing in the morning, followed by another fifteen minutes spent scribbling at the kitchen table. Maybe you can arrive twenty minutes early to work, spend ten minutes reading a book, then write for another ten, at your desk, in a stairwell, or in your car.
It doesn’t have to be the same time every day, or the same amount of time, but do try to get a sense of when or how you plan to fit some writing into your schedule. Remember, this is not a word count-based writing challenge, so even if you just write five sentences every day (more on this option later) the goal is to strengthen and enrich your writing practice as a whole.
Tools
In order to write, you will need something to write with. Whether it’s a special notebook, a typewriter, a laptop, your phone, or a public computer at the library, it doesn’t really matter, just as long as it serves you.
Some writers like to use special materials to honor the process, while others find that low-cost or low-stakes supplies keep the pressure off. If you don’t know what you prefer, try a few things out and see how they feel. If you have the time and can afford it, go to the supermarket or a stationery store and pick up some new pens and notebooks that inspire you, or play around with some writing apps on your computer and see what feel best to you.
Space
In order to attend Essay Camp, you must physically exist in the world. This is difficult at times, but unavoidable.
Where do you plan to write? You may prefer writing at a desk or table, in private, or at a busy restaurant or café. Even if you plan to do most of your writing in public—at work, the library, in a parked car, whatever—try to set aside a little corner for yourself at home that is dedicated solely to your writing.
If you do not possess a special desk at home, commandeer the coffee table, or cordon off a little corner of the dining room, bedroom, or kitchen, if you can. If you can manage it, try to designate a space that is devoted to Essay Camp, even if it isn’t where your writing actually happens. It can serve as a reminder that your commitment to this is real.
If you already have such a space, clean it up. See if there is anything you can do to make things feel special. You might spring for a bouquet of flowers, a new candle, or a pretty bowl of fruit. As I wrote in my post about how to create a DIY writing residency, sometimes it helps to create a sense of abundance and a “container” for your writing—to pamper yourself and your space a little bit first.
Now that you know what you will need, here is what you will NOT need:
Ideas
There is no need to come to Essay Camp already knowing what you plan to write about. If you do have some general ideas, that’s completely fine, but do not feel like you have to have anything mapped out beforehand. While we are doing this during NaNoWriMo again, with its talk of “pantsers” and “planners,” this isn’t that.
Confidence
There is no need to be confident or even to believe in yourself. This is an exercise, not a performance. You never have to show anyone what you write during Essay Camp, not ever. If you decide that you want to do this, the only wrong way to be is absent.
Talent
I said this higher up in the post, but it’s worth repeating: you do not have to be good at writing to attend Essay Camp. As James Baldwin once said: “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.”
That’s it!
So, in summary: if you can gather together a little time, a little space, something to write with, and some version of yourself—no matter how bedraggled—you should be all set.
Instruction emails will go out each morning at 6am, Central European Time. If you’re already a free subscriber to A Writer’s Notebook, then you’re all set. If not, you can subscribe below:
Unfortunately I will not be as available as I have been in previous sessions, but I will still do my best to check in with the comments each day. Please keep the tone positive, and be encouraging to one another. Some people like to report their activities in the comments of each post, and this is encouraged, but remember that it’s not a competition. Whatever you can manage is a victory in itself!
Essay Camp is free, but your subscriptions keep the lights on, so if you’re in a position to become a paying subscriber, please do.
It is not necessary to subscribe in order to participate—Essay Camp is free and open to all—but I very much appreciate those who do, since they make it possible for everyone else. So, if you do subscribe already, thank you!!
See you soon!
xo
Summer
And there I was looking for name tags to sew onto my socks and trying to score some marshmallows for nights around the campfire. I was thinking Summer camp…
Really looking forward to this!