Things I Learned at the Retreat, Part One

I am still learning.
— Michelangelo, age 87

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
― Mahatma Gandhi

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
— Henry Ford

I once did some editing work for an author who learned the art of novel writing through a correspondence course. Now there’s nothing wrong with learning through correspondence, there are many, many terrific courses out there, but she figured that once she finished the course, she knew it all – there was no need to learn anything else.

I beg to differ. I think there’s always something new to learn, especially as a writer. You learn, you grow, and your writing can’t help but improve. Like I said last week, I learned a lot at the retreat, a surprising amount as a matter of fact. So I thought over the next couple of Sunday posts I’d share what I learned.

The first thing we learned was to use a daisy. First, you set yourself a goal, then you take that goal and break it down into manageable bits. Next you draw a daisy, and don’t be stingy, make it big enough to write in. Write down your goal in the center of the flower and write down the actions you need to take to achieve it in the petals. You can have fun with it by colouring in each petal as you complete each action.

Then we learned about YET. We often get in the habit of seeing obstacles to our writing, that keep us from moving forward. But all we need to do to change that is to add the word yet to the end. “This novel isn’t going anywhere . . . yet.” Or, “This poem doesn’t make sense . . . yet.” You get the idea. Pretty easy, isn’t it? And effective, too.

And to round out the first evening, we did something they called “Freefalling.” We started with a guided meditation, and once we were relaxed and our minds were open, we were shown a picture of a fern frond with a curled end and told to write about it. Here’s what I came up with (unedited, of course):

Deep in the heart of the misty forest, past where the ginseng and ferns vie for the light, grows the rarest of flowers, the faery’s bells. Th air is soft, filled with the scent of the earthy woods. The delicate bells, strung along the stem like beads on a string, ring only once, for the birth of the fairy held in its curl, and then they fall to the ground, forever silent. The faery bud is the spiral at the end of the stalk. The delicate green of its colour belies the strength of the bud itself. The fairy lies inside, dormant, growing like a caterpillar in a chrysalis, and then suddenly it bursts the confines of its shell to fly free.

The meditation/relaxation before the prompt really helped get me into a creative mindset. I haven’t tried it on my own, but it’s on my list of things to do now that I’m home again.

I’m not sure what I did this past week instead of writing, but I know for sure I didn’t make my goal of writing every day. Is anyone really surprised by this? I think I’m deep in my annual pre-NaNoWriMo slump. I go through this every October – my creativity just seems to dry up until November 1 when it bursts free again. But at least I’ve got my NaNo choices narrowed down a bit – I’m still thinking about a flash anthology, and I have two ideas for SciFi novels, one of which might be a SciFi Romance.

Reading wise, I finished The Green Man, by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and I have moved on to The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman.

The Week Ahead . . .

I made a list of spices last week, just to see how many I have left. There aren’t a lot because I’m discounting the ones that don’t come powdered. Since I’m leaving salt and pepper for last, I think this week’s spice will be saffron.

I really need to get on that “writing every day” thing, especially with NaNo just around the corner. It would be nice to get into some kind of daily routine – it might even be back to the lists for me for some semblance of organization.

I’ve definitely abandoned the idea of a Kiranthus book for NaNo. He doesn’t really need his own story, does he? Meh, maybe he does, but that’ll be a NaNo for another year. I’m pretty sure it’s going to come down to between the two SciFi novels, I just have to decide which one.

Here’s to hoping for a busy week writing wise.