I spent last week writing in one of my favorite places with one of my oldest friends. As middle-schoolers, we sat in each other’s bedrooms and wrote together. Now, over 20 years later, we meet at my family’s beach bungalow for multi-day writing retreats. This is our time to get away from the stresses of everyday life: parenthood and adjuncting and submitting to journals and mediating family conflicts. While most of our writing work necessarily gets done in the real world, our writing retreats recenter us and remind us how much we can accomplish.
Of course, this is also our time to catch up as friends and do what we do best: eat and talk. Last week helped me rebalance after the first crazy weeks of summer.
Writing retreat goals.
I went into this retreat with a lot of irons in the fire. Usually I escape to the beach when I have a big project, like writing or editing a book, that needs to get done.
This time, I wanted to make progress on every piece of my writing life. I committed to tracking and quantifying my work in the following areas over the course of the retreat:
3 blogs: The ADHD Homestead, this blog, and my weekly column for Inkitt.
- Outline a collaborative post I’ve been wanting to do for a while
- Write my next ADHD Homestead post
- Work ahead two weeks on Inkitt
- Finish a post for this blog
A new fiction project, codename Cabin Fever.
I won’t say too much, except that it’s a novel-length collection of connected short stories.
- Revise one short story, Seasonal Ownership, into next major draft
- Finish rough draft of at least one new story
Guest posts on other blogs to promote Order from Chaos.
- Choose topics for two planned posts and outline content
2 short stories currently getting form rejections from literary magazines.
- Revise one of them into the next major version
Ooops…one more goal.
I also realized, shortly before packing to leave for this retreat, that my mental health hadn’t been at its best. My social anxiety was taking over. I was feeling the effects of summer vacation’s unpredictability and lack of quiet work time. My house was a little messier as a result, and being there didn’t feel super relaxing. Lots of family travel/visiting left my introvert energy drained.
In short, I needed a vacation, too. A time to do some intense recuperation and meditation. I’m not good at this. My normal state is one fixated on productivity and constant motion. But I needed several days away, with the ocean and my best friend beside me. Sometimes our self-care has to be its own goal, its own end. Otherwise our writing will suffer as much as our mental health.
How’d I do?
The list above shows a pared-down version of my original goals. For once, I acknowledged my over-ambitious nature and tried to set reasonable expectations. Those “reasonable” expectations were still too high: I didn’t finish everything. But I did touch everything, and I did write over 4000 words over the course of three days.
Of my big list of goals, here’s what I did:
Regular blogs:
- Outline collaborative post: NO
- Write next ADHD Homestead post: YES
- Work ahead two weeks on Inkitt: KINDA
I only wrote ahead one week, but due to guest post schedules I’m actually two weeks ahead. - Draft a new post for this blog: KINDA
I outlined this post and wrote the introduction
Cabin Fever:
- Revise Seasonal Ownership: YES
- Complete new story draft: NO
Book publicity guest posts:
- Choose topics for two planned posts and outline: KINDA
I did a complete outline for one post but didn’t even start the other
Other short story revisions:
- Revise one story: YES
I need to review my story revisions one more time before I submit anything to my critique group, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. Also, despite not accomplishing everything I set out to do, I made a big dent in six of my eight goals. I only abandoned two of them. Considering I set eight goals for three days, I’m calling that a win.
Did I rest?
No matter where I am, I feel driven to use my time 100 percent efficiently. I want a critical mass of progress to show for myself at the end of each day. Even though I knew I needed to rest, I struggled to let go of that desire for productivity.
This writing retreat gave me an excellent opportunity to practice slowing down and honoring rest as an appropriate and necessary activity. I had to make peace with not checking off every goal on my list. Part of that meant identifying priorities instead of pushing myself to do it all. I asked myself what I would truly regret not getting done, and what I wouldn’t mind working on after I got home.
I wasn’t my usual self, and that’s okay.
I’m proud of the writing I did, but I’m even more proud of the time I spent resting and getting ready for my next adventure. Last week had a rare balance: I eliminated my work backlog even though I let go of my need to overachieve. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
Most important, though, I spent a lot of time being quiet. And that may have been the most valuable thing I did for my writing all week.
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