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.

Winterfire

I made it home from the retreat yesterday, although it was a close thing. There was a brutal wind, with snow on top of it, making the driving treacherous. One of the major highways was closed both ways due to accidents, and I only narrowly avoided being stuck waiting for an accident to be cleared away from the route I took. A second accident I was able to turn around from and take an alternate route.

But enough about that. Let’s talk about the retreat itself. The Winterfire Writing Retreat was held at the Loretto Maryholm Spirituality Centre, which is owned and administered by the Loretto Sisters of The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This probably accounted for the single beds with their super firm mattresses.

My friend and I got to the retreat on Friday with enough time to settle in, unpack, and relax a bit. Supper was a light buffet of seriously healthy food like avocado, shredded carrots, diced cucumber, couscous, chick peas – you get the idea – that you could combine in any way you saw fit. This was followed by the first workshop.

When I think of workshops, I think of everyone working at a single task. The Winterfire workshops were a little different in that we worked at several different things. For instance, there was a tiny card at each place with a single word written on it. We were to begin with the phrase, “I want to have” and write a short piece incorporating that word. The writing was timed, and after we were done we shared what we’d written before moving on to the next task. We’d usually do three or four of these little prompts (all different) before the workshop was done.

Saturday we did a prompt workshop as a group, then broke into two groups for more prompt writing. But it was after lunch that things got really interesting. We did something called “silent writing” for something like three hours. Now silent writing doesn’t just mean writing quietly, it means you don’t smile at anyone, don’t talk, don’t even acknowledge another person – not even to offer them a cup of coffee.

I was kind of skeptical of what this would accomplish, but I gotta tell you. I went into the silent writing time feeling tired and dragged out, but by the time it was done I felt rejuvenated. It was really weird, and really productive.

I got a lot of writing done at the retreat, most of it from prompts. And I completed two short stories. The other participants were a varied group, ranging from a young screen writer to a research doctor who was working on her memoir, with several different genres in between.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were divided into teams to make lunches and dinners and the purpose was two-fold. The first was to provide delicious, home-cooked meals, which were not included in booking the house, and the other was to allow us to get to know each other better through a shared task. Remember, there were 15 of us and we’d never met each other before.

Would I do it again? Definitely. Being unplugged for the weekend was in no way a hardship. I got a lot of writing done and met some very interesting women – everyone seemed to have a story.

But next time I’m getting a room to myself.

Retreat! Retreat!

It happened like this. When I signed up for latest Writing Speculative Fiction course, I talked an old friend who’d just moved back to the area into taking it with me. We may not have written a great deal of deathless prose, but we had a lot of fun.

Now this friend and I happen to share a birthday. We used to get together to celebrate, but hadn’t done so in years. So this year we thought we should do something fun. At first I suggested going to Fallsview Casino in Niagara for the weekend. But then we thought, if we’re going someplace to gamble, why not go some place warm instead? So we thought about going to Vegas.

Shortly after this I got something in my email from this writing group I saw when I was at Word on the Street in the fall – I had signed up for a bunch of newsletters and theirs was one of them. Anyway, it talked about this writing retreat they were having in February called Winterfire. It sounded really interesting – I’ve always wanted to go on a writing retreat – and I jokingly suggested to my friend that we should do that instead of going to Vegas.

Much to my surprise, she jumped right on board with the idea. The political landscape being what it is in the U.S. right now, it seemed like a better way to celebrate. Plus there was the whole bright lights, people, and noise of Vegas as opposed to the quiet serenity of a small group of writers in the countryside.

Having never attended a writing retreat, we only had a vague notion of what it entailed. We had visions of a country inn, with room service and free wifi. We’d meet with other writers for workshops and exchange ideas. Then we’d sip hot toddies by the fire while sharing our work and discussing the finer points of great literature.

So we put down our non-refundable deposits and then found out what was in store for us.

The retreat is being held in a big old manor house that’s owned by a group of nuns up on Lake Simcoe. There is no wifi. There are no showers. Breakfast is provided, but we’ve been broken into five groups of three to take care of lunches and suppers – bringing the ingredients with us – and there is a whole list of food sensitivities and allergies to keep in mind when creating your meal plan.

Yikes! What have we gotten ourselves into?

Guess we’ll soon find out!