Since I’ve sent my third novel to the publisher,
I’ve had some time to reflect on what I’ve learned about disciplining
myself to get a writing project done. One of the things I’ve noticed is that
there are at least two times during the writing of a book that I tend to get
“bogged down” and need to find a way to move forward. One of them is in the
middle of the first draft, when it seems I’ve done so much and still have so
far to go, and the other is when I’ve received feedback from my Beta Reader and
feel that I’ll have to rewrite the whole thing before it’s ready for the
publisher! For both these times, I have learned that some form of writing
retreat is what I need. I want to tell you about three ways I have created an
effective retreat for myself.
The first few times I did this I took a friend with
me to an island off the coast of North Carolina, where my daughter owns a
house. Both my friend and I needed time to write, so we created a little
routine each day where we would get up in the morning, have our breakfast, and write
a few hours. Then we’d have lunch and sometimes get on our golf cart and go riding
around the island for a bit before another work session. In the evenings we’d
have dinner and then another work session before bedtime. It was amazing how
much work we both got done in about three days. She was working on short
fiction and I was working on a novel. Sometimes we’d share a little of what we
were doing during our writing sessions, but for the most part the house was
quiet during those times. We took food with us for most of our meals and ate
out a few times. We had both sandwich meals (peanut butter, deli meat and
cheese, etc.) and easy-fix meals (spaghetti & salad).
A year or so ago I needed some writing time, but my
friend could not go with me, so I decided to find a location closer to home.
That time I found a small bed and breakfast fifteen miles from home. I checked
in Monday afternoon and left on Wednesday morning at 11:00 (check out time).
Again, I worked out a routine for myself where I had a morning, afternoon, and
evening session of work. Since only breakfast was served, initially I was a little concerned because there
were no restaurants close by. I had brought a few energy bars/crackers/etc.,
and I ate some of those for dinner Monday evening. It turned out that the
breakfast included enough fruit that I managed lunch on Tuesday from
left-overs, and the owner volunteered to make me a salad for dinner. It worked
out fine and I got a lot of writing done.
When I got my Beta Reader’s suggestions back this
spring, I decided to look for a location that would have a restaurant on site.
I found a state park lodge about an hour and a half away from my home. I took
along several snack bars, crackers, and a few pieces of fruit so that I would
not have to eat at the restaurant every meal. It was perfect. I checked in on
Monday afternoon and checked out on Thursday morning. It was very quiet; I had
a luxurious room; and I had the option of eating any meal at the restaurant
downstairs. I had full days both Tuesday and Wednesday, and a little work time
Monday afternoon and Thursday morning. My goal was to get most of my revisions
made. Instead, I got ALL of them done!
In case you decide to create a similar retreat for
yourself, you’ll have to decide where, when, and how long you’ll
need to “retreat,” but I have a few simple suggestions.
1. Decide how much money you are
willing to spend on it. My general rule is that I am
willing to spend as much as I would typically spend on a weekend writing
conference.
2. If you decide to take a friend, be
sure that she has a writing goal too, and that you know each other well enough to feel
comfortable spending that time together. The writer I
took with me was one with whom I had gone to several writing conferences. I
knew that we could work together well. I would never take a casual acquaintance to go with me, even if she said she wanted to get some writing done too; and I would
certainly never take a friend or relative who promised to “not bother me.”
3. Have a specific goal for what you want to complete at your retreat. It will help you stay on track
when distractions tempt you to wander off.
4. Take breaks.
I learned at my last retreat that I needed to take a 10-15 minute break at
least every two hours. I planned four-hour work sessions for the morning and
afternoons and a two-hour session at night. After about two hours in the
morning, I would go downstairs and out of the building and walk around briskly
for about ten minutes, and then I was ready to get back to work.
I hope that these ideas may give you an incentive to
get that book project finished!
My
social media pages and email are listed below:
Author Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/1HHkUXf
Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6525216.Merrill_J_Davies
Web Site: http://www.merrilldavies.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MERRILLDAVIES
Amazon Author Page http://amazon.com/author/merrilljdavies
MY Email: Merrill@merrilldavies.com