Retreat

Today, I leave for my annual writer's retreat. I am so looking forward to this, as are my friends who are also going. Four days of nothing but writing, talking, writing, eating, writing, playing, writing...

The place we go is a lovely campground that also happens to have a conference hotel on site. We stay in the hotel, not the cabins. Our meals are prepared for us and there is coffee and/or tea 24 hours plus a small kitchenette for those times between meals when we have snack attacks. What the place doesn't have are TVs, radios, or other distractions. It is a time for us to concentrate on our writing, not on TV. We set goals for ourselves for the weekend and really get down to work.

And yet, we leave plenty of room for socialization and fun.

It's a wonderful weekend and I am sooooo looking forward to it. But at the same time, I will miss my husband not being next to me and my cat waking me up at 6:00 to tell me it's time to feed her.

Ah well. :)

For those of you who don't have the opportunity to do something like this, can you do a mini-retreat? You don't even have to go anywhere. Get your family in on it. Tell them you want one full day - or even just a few hours - with no interruptions, no emergencies (yes, real ones do arise and you deal as necessary, but not being able to find a matching sock or iPod or a pestering sibling does not constitute an emergency), no "where's my..." or "I'm hungry." - fix yourself some snacks and drinks so everything is prepared, close yourself off in a room and write.

Even writers need nurturing and this is necessary for your craft. Try it. It may take some planning, but I'll bet it works.
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Birthdays: Dorothy Richardson, Gary Paulsen, Eloise Greenfield

Tips and Teasers: Someone has vandalized your neighborhood. All the neighbors are talking about it. Since you fashion yourself as an amateur sleuth, you set out to see who's doing it. When you find out, you are shocked. So who is it? And why is s/he doing the damage?

Thought for the day: "Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don’t we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes." – G.C. Lichtenberg