Tag: writing retreat

Writing Reteat this Weekend

Wish me luck — I’m going on a writing (ok, editing) retreat at Mozingo Lake this weekend. It probably won’t snow much here this weekend. That’s where I need the luck.

 Mozingo Lake is the park some seven miles from us, owned by the city, with RV and cabin camping and a big fishing lake. We’ve secured one of the cabins for the weekend because I needed to get away to some place with a fireplace, a view out the window, and a minimum of distractions (and wi-fi, so we’re not completely roughing it.) The cabins possess a rustic living room area opening to a less rustic-looking kitchen with modern appliances, with a bedroom and sleeping loft. Oh yes, and indoor plumbing.

We’re supposed to get no more than 1-2 inches of snow Saturday night, and I expect that to hold. We’re going to bail if the forecast changes by Saturday afternoon. The key here is “if the forecast changes”, because sometimes we get more snow than was forecast. With a bit more snow, the roads at Mozingo will be an impassible winter wonderland until they plow. Here’s hoping we get the whole weekend there, and here’s hoping we don’t get snowed in — then again, if we bring extra food, getting snowed in could be fun …

My ideal writing spot

My husband asked me to write about my ideal writing spot. I told him that I already knew my ideal writing spot — a cabin at nearby Mozingo Lake. After all, I said, I could curl up on the couch next to a fireplace in a cozy nook, look out the window at the lake, and type.

I don’t have access to that spot more than once a year or so, which means I have to deal with less than ideal writing spots. Take, for example, my living room (my most common writing spot). I generally write sitting on the couch, with a lap desk securely holding my Surface Pro 3 (an older but serviceable tablet with detachable keyboard). We have a fireplace, sort of — one of those little plug-in electric heaters that if one pretends really well looks like a fireplace.  There’s tea here when Richard makes a pot. It’s not my favorite spot, though, because I can’t spread out and be cozy.

We have an office, a small room that was touted as a bedroom in the real estate ads for this house yet seems too small to put even a twin bed in. It’s overfull with bookshelves and a library table, and although its large monitor calls to me, the feeling of cluttered claustrophobia keeps me from taking the space seriously.

Going out to write, of course, gives me a fresh perspective on writing. Board Game Cafe in Maryville, MO (as I’ve mentioned before) has good coffeehouse ambience with just enough distraction to make writing easy. The Starbucks in the campus library (aka the best Starbucks in the US given its location and spacious seating area) works excellently. Both these places need a fireplace, though.

Going back to the Mozingo cabin, I think the reason it’s my favorite writing space is because it’s truly a retreat, a visible break from everyday routine. It’s something I can’t have all the time. Even if we put a real fireplace in my comfortable living room (impossible because of the need for ventilation) my living room would be someplace I would need to take a break from, to get a new view on my writing.

I’m still looking for how to make home more ideal, though.

I’m back

Sorry I went missing for so long — I was doing some heavy reading through Apocalypse and editing it — it probably needs another edit. I was very focused.

Also, we had a blizzard here Sunday, and that plus the snow day that followed got me off my writing.

I have to go back to work today (I think) but it was nice to have Thanksgiving break as a writing retreat!

Writing retreat time

I’m off to Nebraska City (a two-hour car ride from here) to Lied Lodge for a couple days of writing retreat. It will be challenging — I’m reviewing the beginning of Whose Hearts are Mountains, struck by how I could do the whole reveal of the US’s collapse better. And while I’m at it, how I could improve the flashbacks at the beginning, and …

Yes, it’s a really rough draft. But there’s something there worth salvaging.

For all my US friends, Happy Thanksgiving! For my readers overseas, find something to celebrate!

Miles to Go

Whose Hearts are Mountains is a mess.

As well it should be. After all, it’s a first draft. In the rush to get ideas on the page, things are going to be garbled. For example, I gave one object two different names, and two different characters shared the same name. There were a hundred subtle or less subtle things I corrected on the first pass.

And I’m not done yet. I now have to do a leisurely pass through for things like language (currently not the most poetic) and character (some of my secondary characters need development) and descriptions (too much telling, not enough showing) and that’s going to take a while.

Luckily I’m taking a writing retreat over Thanksgiving…

Struggling to write (Warning: rambling a bit)

Ok, folks, I’m struggling to write lately.

In the last week, I’ve only met my 1-hour writing goal once, for outlining my NaNo book. I wonder if I’m going to have the ideas and the fortitude to write it.

I don’t think I’m depressed, just a bit listless and pretty tired. And clumsy. I’m really clumsy. I banged my nose on my car while putting my computer inside. Word for today: proprioception. As in I have none. But that doesn’t have to do with my struggle to write unless I inadvertently gave myself a concussion (no evidence that I did).

I think I’m also having an identity crisis — I am trialing two developmental editors with two different books (as I mentioned earlier, Prodigies and Voyageurs), and I’m scared that they’re going to say that my queries are great, but my books are not going to sell. At least I will know if that’s the case. I tend to think if things come to that, I will go back to poetry and short stories that I don’t feel people have to read.

I don’t feel like a writer right now. That’s the problem.
I don’t know how to feel like a writer. A writing retreat would be good, but there’s no place locally to retreat (except a cabin at Mozingo, but they’re all occupied). I have to figure out how I can boost my feeling like a writer in lieu of an acceptance.

Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

Boy, Do I Need a Break!

I get off work at 1 PM today, and after that? Spring Break. Americans don’t get as much vacation as do people in many European countries, and when we do get vacation time, we frenetically spend our vacations going places — usually places in the southern portion of the country where it’s over 60 degrees.

That’s not what I intend to do with my spring break. We have such a paltry train system here that long-distance car driving is the only way to travel distances, and the scene from the interstate is less than enchanting. I’m also not fond of beaches and drunken crowds (which is what happens at Palm Beach, Tijuana, Fort Lauderdale and other southern beach properties.)

If I had the money to travel for spring break, I would travel to one of the following:

  • Thailand, to apprentice to a fine cook there and eat durian till I’m banned from public transportation;
  • Vancouver Canada, in the hopes I discover my next career there (not likely to happen)
  • The British Isles, hoping to secure a non-tourist tour that exposes me to real life.
  • Somewhere in Europe, but only if invited, and knowing my husband is coming with me.
In other words, I want slice of life, authentic food, and connections with real people.
What will I be doing for Spring Break?
  • On Saturday March 17, I will be watching the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade and eating traditional Irish faire at the Historical Society. Oh, yes, and celebrating my 11th wedding anniversary (in case you’ve wondered, I’m part Irish (and Welsh, German, Ojibwe, French, Polish, Dutch, Irish) so a St. Patrick’s wedding day makes sense. On the other hand, Richard (although his name is Leach-Steffens) is German and Chinese. 
Us, eleven years ago. We get better with age.
  • On Sunday March 18, we’ll take a trip to The Elms in Excelsior Springs again for a reasonably priced two-day writing retreat. I don’t know if Richard will write, but I plan to work on Whose Hearts are Mountains, the next installment in the Archetype books. (I’m saving finishing Prodigies, a YA novel, until Camp NaNo in April.)
  • From there, it will be garden work and finalizing my annual portfolio. Not much we can plant now except peas, lettuce, cabbages and maybe root vegetables.
Overall, not exciting. I’ll probably post during vacation (like I managed during Atlantic Hope, Missouri Hope, and New York Hope — nothing can stop me, not even depression) 
But here’s a new thought — if you want to, send digital postcards to lleachie@gmail.com. It’s the next best thing to having coffee with me.

Writer’s Mini-Retreat

I’ve been at a writer’s mini-retreat since last night, at The Elms in Excelsior Springs with my husband. The Elms is a pretty affordable hotel and spa, with ambience to spare.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner there, and that pretty much precluded any writing last night. We have no family nearby, we have no children, and it’s no fun cooking for two. We’re the people you see escaping to a hotel every year, because the alternative is the Hy-Vee cafeteria. Some years, we do eat at the Hy-Vee cafeteria.

Today, I’m writing for a while, starting with this blog, which I’m writing by the large stone fireplace. The lobby glows with small sconces on the brick Arts-and-Crafts pillars, and windows and woodwork carry on the simple, dark wood lines of the era. The tile floor bears a geometrically arranged motif of the Elms’ logo, a shield.

I confess I won’t get as much time writing as the name “writing retreat” deserves, because as a treat, I will be getting a massage and two hours’ time in the Grotto, which is a comfortable and comforting spa room with dim lights, lounging chairs, and the spa part — a hot tub, a steam sauna, a dry sauna, a hot and cold shower, mint face towels, salt scrubs, and — you get the idea.

Maybe it’s a retreat FROM writing?

Plans and plans

Barring a catastrophe — which I don’t expect, but who does? — I should be at the 50,000 mark by Friday.  I had a fabulous writing day yesterday, with 2000 more words than I thought I’d write. (I wrote a total of 4000 words.) Then I will have met my Big Audacious Goal and made up for my failure at NaNo last year, when I had a meltdown during Trump’s election as one of the millions of American women who wished we’d had been given a trigger warning.

I’ll finish writing this draft until I run out at about 90,000-100,000 words. For those of you who have never written a novel, that’s not as big as you think. The average science fiction book is about 100,000 words and other genres around that.

I fully expect that, on reread, this first draft will be pretty messy with plot holes, poor word choice, and lack of description. I still struggle with how much description to put into a book. The irony is that I love writing descriptive passages, but all I know about the terrain around Elko, NV (where my protagonist is currently at) is what I see on the Internet. I’ve hit the Internet quite a bit in this writing run, and I suspect I will some more.

I will probably put Whose Hearts are Mountains (this work-in-progress) into a hibernation when I’m done so I can look at it with fresh eyes later. My writing will probably alternate between finishing Prodigies and finding an editor for the ever important first three chapters to be sent to agents and publishers. Then I will go through another cycle of sending to agents, hoping that I will be lucky this time.

Thanks, all, for reading.