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    3 Keys to the Best Writer’s Retreat for You

     

    This month we welcome as our guest blogger TWA client Lia Mack, novelist and activist and recently co-host to a brand new writer’s retreat in beautiful western Maryland. Don’t forget to share with your friends to earn serious brownie points (with them and with us <wink>) and leave a comment with your thoughts—we want to know your opinion!

    When I started writing my first novel, I signed up for a local weekend writer’s retreat. Don’t ask me where I got the nerve, as I had been a “closet writer” up until that point. Yet there I was, out of my closet, sitting with other writers, writing with other writers, learning about the craft of writing with other writers. Even admitting to being a writer!

    It was a weekend of total writing immersion and a pivotal point in my writing career. I’m not sure where I’d be today if I hadn’t taken that first real step toward taking myself seriously as a writer. Still in my closet?

    Honestly, I’m glad I took the chance. Not only was I able to be finally myself – the writer I knew I always had been – I also got to meet and talk shop with other writers, which taught me a powerful truth: I wasn’t alone. We were all eager to write and learn, yet full of self-doubt. And yet, being grouped together for that writer’s retreat weekend with all that glorious writing time and comradery empowered me to not only keep writing but also to better my craft and eventually see my dreams of publication come true.

    If interested in going to a writer’s retreat, just do a quick Google search and you’ll find high-priced, far-off getaways, affordable yet unique local writing retreats, and everything in between. And each one’s offerings – from gourmet meals to yoga to hiking to polar bear plunges even – are just as varied as the writers who attend them. So here are three keys to making sure you choose the best writer’s retreat for you.

    1. Time to Write

    Time to write is the biggest reason writers attend writing retreats, and therefore it’s the main focus of almost every writer’s retreat out there. Life is hectic and most days it’s convenient to push your writing off until tomorrow. And tomorrow. And again, tomorrow… So it’s easy to see the lure of quantifiable writing time.

    Make sure the retreat has set aside enough time for you to actually write by looking closely at its schedule. Be sure it includes enough group or solo writing time to allow your creative juices to really start flowing! Consider the Rocky Mountain Writing Retreat in Colorado, which boasts 30 hours of writing time during its three-day retreat. Or The Genuine Writer’s Retreat in Maryland, which hosts both group write-ins as well as individual writing time in a unique tiny house village (full disclosure, I’m co-hosting this event, and I’d love to see you there!).

    2. Explore the Craft of Writing

    Although most writer’s retreats do focus on offering uninterrupted time to write, most host writing workshops, writing craft classes, and seminars as well. And while they are similar to what you may find at a writing conference, the ones at a writing retreat are much more intimate and geared toward participants’ needs. Some retreats even include one-on-one editorial sessions and work-in-progress critiques! Having the opportunity to have someone in-the-know read your writing and offer constructive feedback is crucial to discovering ways to better your craft.

    And there are writing workshop types aplenty. For example, maybe you’re interested in plot, dialogue, character development and all that jazz. You’d want to look for a retreat that’s specifically geared toward fiction writers. Or maybe you’re interested in the publication process and how to build your author platform. You’d then want to find a retreat that will help you learn all the ins and outs of social media, websites, and the how to’s of getting published.

    Or maybe you’re wondering just how other writers find the time to write? That’s why I developed the “KISSing Isn’t Just For Romance Writers” workshop for The Genuine Writer’s Retreat in May. Although I love kissing and romance, this one’s all about “KISS” – as in Keep It Simple Silly – and includes writer-friendly ways in which participants fine-tune their motivation and discover how they can fit in time to write well after the retreat has ended.

    3. Meet Other Writers

    True, some writers would rather hide in a cabin alone in the woods and write all day. I count myself among them most days, as that’s the best way I know how to write – without interruption. However, if you’ve ever spent time with other writers, as I did at my first writer’s retreat, you quickly discover just how empowering and inspiring it can be to meet with like-minded people in this solitary endeavor.

    Meeting other writers, sharing in the experience and life of a writer can feel like coming home to people who, like me, have been a “closet writer” for years. If you ask me, meeting other writers face to face, not just on the Internet, is THE BEST part of any writer’s retreat. You’ll feel like part of a community. And you have the potential of making life-long writing friends!

    Create Your Own Writer’s Retreat

    If you’re interested in creating your own writer’s retreat, I’ve included some useful tips below.

    • When choosing the location and accommodations for your writing retreat, keep in mind the vibe and value you want to bring to your attendees. Some retreat centers are all-inclusive, which makes planning easy! But all-inclusive could easily equate to pricey, so be sure to stay aware of the overall price you’ll be asking of your attendees if your aim is to keep it affordable.
    • When deciding on your writing retreat’s schedule of events, keep in mind the overall writing value you want to give attendees. Is the point of your event to have writers meet other writers and build their confidence? Or are you having a retreat so people can meet well-known authors and have a chance to ask them all about their writing process? There are a great many ways to bring value to your attendees, so be sure to hone in on the exact advantage you want to deliver.
    • Don’t forget the wise words from Stephen King’s The Shining… “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” Attendees need to eat to fuel their writing sessions, and they need a chance to blow off steam and commiserate with their fellow writer attendees. So don’t forget the food and fun! That’s what getting together is all about.
    • So whether you’re near the beach or up in the mountains, think of ways to use the natural beauty and amenities of your location to tie into your retreat. Hiking trails on the property. Yoga in the morning. A beautiful breakfast spread in the community house. And ensure the weather is conducive to outside treks as well unless you’re planning a skier’s writing retreat (and if that’s the case, sign me up!)

    When deciding on the right retreat for you, it’s easy to get caught up in the wonder and excitement of it all. And you should be excited. You’re officially thinking of yourself and your writing as being worth the investment, which is key to further developing your craft.

    Good for you, writer!

    Whatever your desire and dream, I hope this article will help you make it happen. And if you’re tiny house-obsessed and can’t wait to get in some valuable writing time, strengthen your skills and sit around a warm campfire to talk about writing stuff, please join us at The Genuine Writer’s Retreat! As a bonus, if you register before the Early Bird discount ends on March 15th, my co-host or I will read and critique up to 10 pages of your current work in progress! I know how valuable it was to me as a new writer to be able to not only share my work with other writers, but also to get useful, constructive feedback on ways to better my craft. Therefore, I want to extend the same opportunity to you! Learn more here.

    Whatever you choose, I hope the writer’s retreat you decide to invest your time and money in is all you hope and need it to be.

    In addition to Lia Mack’s debut novel Waiting for Paint to Dry, her creative non-fiction has been seen in such publications as The Washington Post, Nickelodeon Jr. Magazine, Advances in Bereavement Magazine and Nesting Magazine. She is also a guest blogger at Award-Winning Writer/Director Angela Shelton’s Survivor Manual, a blog dedicated to inspiring and empowering sexual abuse survivors. A born and raised military brat – Go Air Force! – Lia was born in Kansas grew up in many places such as Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Italy, and Maryland. She currently resides in Maryland with her husband, two children, and three American Rat Terriers.

    Harrison Working Hard at Chessiecon 2016

    It’s that time of year again–time for ghosts and goblins and Chessiecon 2016! We’re so thrilled to announce that Harrison has been invited back as a panelist and workshop leader.

    Chessiecon is hosted by the Thanksgiving Science Fiction Society, a non-profit organization for people who are interested in science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, and related genres in all forms.

    On Friday, 25th of November at 3pm, Harrison joins fellow authors Carl Cipra and Pam Smith on a panel entitled  Autism, Asperger’s, and Fandom.

    At 5:30pm the same day, he will be joined by fellow authors Carl Cipra, Jessica Moran, Meg Nicholas and Pam Smith for How to Handle Domestic Abuse in Fiction.

    At 10:30pm, Carl Cipra, Mary Fan, Meg Nicholas and Don Sakers will join Harrison for LGBTQ Content: Plot or Set Dressing?

    On Saturday, 26th of November at 1:45pm, Harrison will be participating on Turkey Awards Panel with Lee Budar-Danoff, Steve Kozeniewski, Don Sakers and Elizabeth Schechter. (Don’t miss this one–it’s a highlight of the weekend and one of Harrison’s favorite events!)

    At 5:30pm, Harrison will do a workshop on Building a World: The Genre Fiction Workshop. (If you’ve been wondering what it’s like to work with a pro editor, or you’re just looking for a little help with your draft, this is an excellent opportunity!)

    There will be readings, games, concerts, book signing and a lot more. To see the full schedule, check it out here.

    Chessiecon will be in Radisson North Baltimore Hotel,(formerly North Baltimore Plaza Hotel) on November 25-27, 2016.

    For more info and for registration, you may visit their site, or contact Jo Hogan at jo@chessiecon.org.

    harrison-demchick-book-editorHarrison Demchick came up in the world of small press publishing, working along the way on more than two dozen published novels and memoirs, several of which have been optioned for film. He is an award-winning, twice-optioned screenwriter, and the author of literary horror novel The Listeners. He’s part of The Writer’s Ally team as a developmental editor of fiction and memoir, for which he’s currently accepting new clients.

    Cliches Kill Your Writing – “Please Stop Winking” on Romance University

    We all have our tendencies as writers, but when do those tendencies become distractions to readers? Do our tendencies come at the expense of strong characterization? Can a simple gesture like winking be a cliché? How important is avoiding clichés in your writing?

    TWA’s Harrison Demchick explores the consequences of shorthand in fiction in his new guest post at Romance University. Shorthand gestures like winking, Harrison explains, are too easy—universal, but obvious. In that respect they’re not much different than clichés like “a chill ran down his spine.” Readers understand what they mean, but only because they’ve been used a million times by other authors.

    “Easy, it turns out,” says Harrison, “lives right across the street from lazy. When you utilize clichés and tropes and stereotypes instead of crafting your own language and characters, you’re not really creating original work, and that’s demonstrative of lazy writing.”

    For more helpful advice on avoiding shorthand actions and gestures, head over to Harrison’s guest post at Romance University!

    harrison-demchick-book-editorHarrison Demchick came up in the world of small press publishing, working along the way on more than two dozen published novels and memoirs, several of which have been optioned for film. He is an award-winning, twice-optioned screenwriter, and the author of literary horror novel The Listeners. He’s part of The Writer’s Ally team as a developmental editor of fiction and memoir, for which he’s currently accepting new clients.

    3 Secrets to Writing Success from NaNoWriMo

    Beginning and even intermediate writers often struggle with the writing lifestyle. I mean things like keeping a disciplined writing schedule, finding and enjoying a community of similarly ambitious creatives, and meeting self-imposed deadlines to keep producing new work (also known as the “I’m Writing a Book—Yes, the Same Book I’ve Been Writing for Years” syndrome).

    There are dozens if not hundreds of goal-setting and motivational programs for everyone from business owners to fitness geeks. So where’s the program for writers?

    Enter National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. In their own words, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit that believes your story matters—“valuing enthusiasm, determining, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.”

    As a big fan of NaNoWriMo who has participated several times (and won a couple, too!), I try to encourage more writers to give it a try each fall. Fact is, NaNoWriMo is an excellent opportunity to strengthen some key writerly muscles and pick up some great new habits for goal-setting and motivation. And even if you aren’t writing fiction, you can make a similar structure work for you. Here’s how.

    Setting a Goal and Sticking to It

    People in the business world talk a lot about goal-setting, but it isn’t a topic that comes up too often among creative sets. That’s too bad, because all humans can benefit from a structured approach to achieving specific goals—it’s the main way we get anything important done!

    When you’ve committed to SMART goals, it follows that you need to set up a plan for accomplishing your milestones along the way to success. In the case of writing a book, this usually means you’ve set a deadline for a word count, but it could also mean you have an outline for chapters and subtopics that you want to flesh out. Or maybe you’re revising and you have a list of issues you need to address.

    With NaNoWriMo, the goal is simple: Write a novel of at least 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. Period. It doesn’t have to be—and rarely is—excellent prose or even make a lot of sense. You just have to write it. Some Wrimos divide their overall target word count into big weekend-oriented bursts, while others doggedly churn out a couple thousand words each day (1,667 to be exact for a 30-day, 50,000-word count goal). Figure out your own goals and then break them down into micro goals—bite-sized goals that, when accumulated, will get you to your main goal.

    It might seem romantic to talk about Muses and writer’s block, but the fact is if you don’t finish writing your book, and if you don’t finish revising your draft, you will never publish it.

    Surrounding Yourself with the Right People

    There’s an old saying that “it’s difficult to soar with the eagles when you’re scratching with the turkeys.” If you want to be a successful writer, you need to hang out with other motivated, smart, dedicated writers.

    Spending time in a critique group where people are more intent on belittling each other than helping each other improve won’t get you anywhere. Going to local writers’ club meetings where everyone whines about how hard it is to get published or how no one will buy their books will just depress you. You can’t learn from people who don’t know what they’re doing wrong and you can’t improve your experiences based on the advice of people who haven’t had any.

    NaNoWriMo offers a ton of online community-building through very active forums, Twitter hashtag conversations, even a Facebook Group. Offline, their website features an extensive list of volunteer coordinators who organize events locally for people to come together and write, commiserate, and at the end of November to celebrate their successes. Imagine sitting in a room of ambitious writers with fingers poised above their keyboards as they prepare to start a word sprint, especially when there are prizes involved—these local write-ins are a lot of fun!

    So take stock of who you’re surrounding yourself with these days and consider this: Some say you are a composite of the five people you spend the most time with. So where does that leave you? If you spend a lot of time alone, seek out a group whose goals match yours. If your current group isn’t regularly inspiring you and motivating you, find a new one, stat.

    Building a Routine for Regular Results

    Try reading a few interviews with your favorite authors and you’ll notice none of them talk about waiting for inspiration to strike. I have yet to meet a successful author who does not have a writing routine; even the most experienced writers who don’t need the discipline of butt-in-chair each day to get their creative juices flowing still used routines in the earlier part of their career. This was one of my personal favorite experiences from doing NaNoWriMo—having the structure of the event forced me to commit to writing daily, and more importantly, to set aside time to work on my novel (as opposed to the million other things I write each day).

    One theory is that the very act of sitting down in the same place at the same time each day preps your brain for writing and makes it easier for the work to flow. We humans often rely on cues to shift our mindset and even our behavior. Just think about how it is when you’re preparing to go to a party, or for an important meeting. So it makes sense that having a writing routine would help shift you into a more creative and productive space.

    If you want to see regular results, you simply must have a regular routine for working. Consider how your goals break down into mini goals. Then, create the routine you’ll need to knock down each one in a timely manner. You’ll never find the time to write if you don’t make it first.

    Have you tried NaNoWriMo before? What did you learn from your experiences? Tell us in the Comments section below! I also invite you to join our public Facebook Group, The Writer’s Allies, to connect with other ambitious authors who are attempting NaNoWriMo this year.

    Ally Machate Book EditorFounder of The Writer’s Ally, Ally E. Machate is a bestselling book collaborator, award-winning editor, and expert publishing consultant who loves using her insider knowledge and experience with the publishing industry to lead serious authors toward success. She and her team live to help make great books happen, whether that means showing a writer how to improve a manuscript, get an agent, or self-publish; or coaching an author on growing her platform to sell more books. Since 1999, she has supported hundreds of authors on their publishing journey and takes pride in serving as their books’ best ally.

    The Two Types of Scared Writers (and How to Overcome Your Fear of Publishing)

    If you are looking for advice on how to rise above the fear of publishing, or have your own advice to share with your fellow writers, check out Harrison’s latest guest post on Positive Writer.

    TWA’s Harrison Demchick had the pleasure of writing a guest blog post on Bryan Hutchinson’s Positive Writer, an encouraging and motivating blog that aims to help writers overcome Writer’s Doubt. In his post, “Two Kinds of Scared Writers (and How to Overcome the Fear),” Harrison reminds us that we all, even those of us who have worked in publishing, are at least a little scared of the publishing process.

    Harrison explains that he’s experienced two different scared writers: the writer who doesn’t finish and the writer who finishes and never pushes on through the publishing process. Both let fear get in the way of their success.

    Of course, Harrison doesn’t leave it there—his valuable perspective from both sides of the publishing world allows Harrison to give readers some great advice on overcoming the fear of publishing.

    Of course, a huge thanks to Bryan Hutchinson, author of Writer’s Doubt, for inviting Harrison to be your guest!

    harrison-demchick-book-editorHarrison Demchick came up in the world of small press publishing, working along the way on more than two dozen published novels and memoirs, several of which have been optioned for film. He is an award-winning, twice-optioned screenwriter, and the author of literary horror novel The Listeners. He’s part of The Writer’s Ally team as a developmental editor of fiction and memoir, for which he’s currently accepting new clients.

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