A quiet cabin hidden in
the Poconos
Luscious meals prepared
by a five star chef
No cell phones
Great writing coaches
An eclectic group of
talented and generous writers
These are the ingredients I remember from Room to Create, a
writers retreat in 2011 put on by the Highlights Foundation. This fall a reunion retreat was planned for
this group. Sandy Asher and Linda Oatman High were once again the facilitators.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this year.
Disappointed that I couldn't attend and realizing that my
writing life needed a jump-start, I decided I would give myself a personal
retreat. I took a day off work, and
committed it to writing. I did not leave
the house or clean the house. My house definitely needed cleaning and there were tons
of errands I needed to run, but I was giving myself the gift of a writing
day.
After breakfast, I sipped my coffee and sat down in front of
my computer. What should I work on? I opened one of my picture book manuscripts. I closed it.
I opened one of my non-fiction projects.
I closed it too. I decided to
spend the day organizing my writing life.
I reviewed each manuscript to determine its status. Some of my manuscripts are at publishing houses
waiting for feedback; some need massive revisions, while others are in their
final stages. Then there are the projects
that are little more than research notes and beginning ideas.
I am someone who always has many
writing projects in the hopper. I know
some writers start a writing project, dig in their teeth, and keep at the one
project until it’s done. That’s just not
me. I dig in, chew and gnaw at my
manuscript, but then I need to put it down, let it ferment while I work on
another project. In order to keep track of
my many projects, I use a mind mapping program called freeplane. So, on this personal retreat day, after I reviewed
each manuscript, I updated it on my mindmap.
Here’s the outline of my map for my children’s writing without the specific
projects.
I didn't get a ton of writing done during my personal
retreat, but I did reset my focus and determine where to put my writing
energy. Instead of feeling overwhelmed,
by what I need to get done, I felt empowered by what I had accomplished.
If you’re feeling like your writing life needs a reboot,
consider a personal retreat.
Mary Jo Guglielmo is writer and
intuitive life strategist. For more information check out:
http://facebook.com/DoNorth.biz
11 comments:
Mary Jo, some good thoughts here. I think for this to work for me, I'd have to set one goal for the day, say "Promotion" and spend the day doing that. Otherwise I'd still be hopping from one project to the other by the end of the time. Super idea though!
Just what I needed right now Mary Jo. This is my day and I'm still pottering around my emails. Off to get going--
That is what I tend to do. That's why I needed to spend the time reviewing what I had done and resetting my priorities.
Happy writing!
Love the idea! It's been a long while since I took a writers day. Thanks for the reminder of what it can do.
Oh, that looks so tranquil. I'd love to go to a writing retreat. I do my meditation and listen to my vision statement every morning to try and keep on track. I like the idea of the mind-map. First though, I have to work on my vision board.
A personal retreat is a great idea. I like your mind map too.
Vision boards are great. Have you ever tried a vision board for a specific manuscript?
The best thing about a personal retreat is it is totally on your own terms.
Hope you take one soon.
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