A Walk Down Memory Lane

You’d think, this being winter and all, I’d find the view from my office window less distracting. Unfortunately, it seems it doesn’t take much to distract me. Sometimes it’s the squirrels frolicking in the trees at the back of the yard or along the top of the fence, sometimes it’s the birds fluttering about; today it’s the light snow falling. Maybe it’s the movement that catches my eye, causing me to stare mindless out the window. . .

Around this time last year I was gearing up for my very first writing retreat, Winterfire. I went with a friend and though excited we were also a little nervous – we had no idea what to expect. When all was said and done it was both good and not so good.

The good was getting away for a weekend to a big old farmhouse on Lake Simcoe. I didn’t even mind being unplugged for the weekend (no phone, television, or internet), in fact it was kind of liberating. We were given some fun prompts to work with and I learned not to take myself so seriously – that all writing didn’t have to be part of a bigger something, it could just be for the fun of it.

The not so good were the narrow, insanely hard beds for sleeping on, and the food which we took turns preparing ourselves. Most of the other writers were writing family histories or memoirs – my genres are fantasy, science fiction, horror and romance. They didn’t really get my kind of writing.

By September the negative aspects of our first retreat faded and my friend and I went to our second one, the Kingston Writersfest. It was more like what you’d expect from a retreat. For one thing it was in an actual hotel with all the amenities. The workshops were filled with a variety of writers, and even if the moderator was from a totally different discipline there was always something to learn.

The only downside to this one was that the friendship did not survive the weekend. To this day I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I’m willing to take at least half the blame. My friend started giving me the silent treatment and I gave it right back. Kind of stupid when you think of it, but it is what it is.

Anyway, the reason for this trip down memory lane is there is a retreat coming up in April that I’m considering going to. I can go for 3, 5, or 7 days – seeing as I don’t know what to expect from it I’ll probably just go for the three days. It’s a little closer to home, which is nice, but not too close. It’s a little more like Winterfire, in that it’s run by a pair of writers, but with better accommodations.

I’m still planning on going back to Writersfest this fall, for the entire festival this time, but maybe this will tide me over until I do.

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Wordage Report

Not much to report as yet.

I’ve been doing a lot of organizing and shuffling around, not a whole lot of writing save for blog posts and a weird little short short written from a prompt.

I’d like to do at least one prompt piece a week without the pressure of a time limit or word count. And just to make it a little more fun, I think I’m going to start posting the prompt itself in the sidebar, changing it when I move on to a new prompt. What do you think?

It just might be *gasp!* fun.