Writing

Style and Voice

by sarahenni on February 11, 2013

I admire people who have a distinctive look, a personal style. For years I worked to find that same effortless thing for myself, trying and failing, always ending up trying too hard to force something inauthentic. It was only when I found what felt right and worked with it that I started to feel like I had any style of my own.

There’s a very apt writing tie-in to this (I promise!), and it’s the elusive quality that, though every agent and editor says they’re looking for it, is so hard to define: voice. It seems like every interview with a publishing gatekeeper includes the term, and they all put it way, way up there on lists that will push one writer’s work from rejection to request, from sub to sale.

Just like style, voice is something innate that isn’t so much discovered as nurtured. And in light of New York Fashion Week this week, I thought it might be helpful to provide some examples of YA authors out there right now who have some of the most distinctive voices around, and ask the most stylish person I know, fashion blogger and certified bestie Megan (a.k.a. Step Brightly), to help me relate those voices to the world of fashion1.

Voice/Style example 1

Smart and thoughtful. Doesn’t back away from intense, philosophical considerations, but careful to also include levity in some wit, winks, and nods. Definitely an established mainstream name, but has a hugely dedicated cult following.
I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.
— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Megan’s style association: Elizabeth & James. 
JohnGreenOlsenTwins
Owned by the extremely popular, yet ever quirky Olsen twins, Elizabeth & James is a clothing line loved by everyone from pop icons to indie rock stars. Mary Kate and Ashley have created a high end sports-wear line that makes basics look fancy. Their website is ridiculously cool and somewhat intimidating, but Elizabeth & James will also pop up at mainstream stores like Madewell from time to time.   The thing I like best about the pint-sized duo’s line is that the clothing is mature and made for a sophisticated woman.

Voice/Style example 2

Poetic, focused on beautiful, intricate details. Something out of a fairytale, but the nuanced, sad, complex original Hans Christen Andersen kind, not the Disney kind. Takes traditional ideas and makes something beautiful and refreshingly new from them.

“That’s how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you’d have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.”

— Catherynne Valente, Deathless

 

Megan association: The Character Sweater

 DeathlessSweater

You have seen them everywhere at this point, am I right? From bulldogs on cashmere to owls on wool, the ‘Pictionary sweater’ is making its mark on year – end fashions.  The fact of the mater is none of these characters are cutesy and many of them are quite the opposite. The melodramatic themes and romantic undertones come across in this crazy lady and this French bulldog.

Voice/Style example 3

Playful but clean. Relatable for the average girl, but brighter, sharper, more whimsical. Unique; an instant classic. Something you want to give as a gift to everyone.
Just because something isn’t practical doesn’t mean it’s not worth creating. Sometimes beauty and real-life magic are enough.”
—Stephanie Perkins, Lola and the Boy Next Door
Megan association: Kate Spade. 
LolaKateSpade
To me, this line of bags, clothes, shoes and accessories is the definition of happiness. Every girl who opens her Kate Spade bag to find an inspiring quote from Kate  feels special. It makes complete sense that Zooey Deschanel is spotted in the line time after time. Whether it be 50s glam, 60s art deco or 70s pops of color, Kate Spade’s classic trends are bigger and brighter than average. This circle of friends exclusively gifts Kate Spade to one another.

Asking, “How do I develop voice?” is almost exactly the same as the question I’ve been asking my closet mirror forever: “How do I develop style?” You study the great ones, the icons, and try everything on until something feels comfortable.

What do you think?? Is style, or voice, as elusive for you as it is/was for me? What other great YA voices deserve a shout out?

  1. descriptions of the voices are mine ↩

Tagged as: Bestie Megan, faaaaaaaaashion!, Step Brightly, Style, voice, Writing

{ 9 comments }

Next Big Thing

by sarahenni on January 4, 2013

Now that I’ve managed to cobble together a draft of the WiP I feel pretty proud of, I finally feel confident enough to answer questions about it! I was tagged for this forever ago, by the lovely Caroline, who borrowed them from Miss Snark!

(Also! I’m blogging about fun accessories to kick off a year of glorious reads at Bestie Megan’s lovely style blog today! Check it out if you dig reading and pretty things.)

Q&A

What’s the working title for your book? Uuuuugh I don’t know! The title I’ve been working with for more than a year is simply terrible. I need to work on the title and the query next… blerg! (Right now the working title on the draft is HATERS TO THE LEFT. I may stand by that.)

What is the one sentence synopsis for your book? A girl who can see auras uses her ability to start a matchmaking business at her high school, and in the process gains—and loses—more than she ever expected.

What genre does your book fall under? Contemporary YA

What other books would you compare your story to in your genre? This is sort of a nerve-wracking question! I’d say that books I emulated in tone or setting would be The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.

Where did the idea come from for your book? I was thinking of myth retellings, and I wondered how a modern-day Cupid would fare in love. The idea of a high-schooler who could tell what people were compatible raised all kinds of questions: What would they think about fate? How would they deal with the fact that incompatible people fall in love all the time? I took the idea from there and ran with it.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Ooh! Fun question. Creepily enough, I based my mental image of my main character Anya on these photobooth pics of Zooey Deschanel from high school—but Anya wears big glasses, like Zooey does now. However, until time machine casting becomes a very real and amazing thing, I’d have to say my favorite is always Kaya Scoledario, a.k.a. Effy from the BBC’s Skins.

For the love interest, Paul, casting would be a little tricky. Paul is half-Japanese, half-Italian. There aren’t a ton of actors I know of who fit that description (and I just got sucked into a rather dangerous NSFW internet wormhole searching for one). I have a friend who matches the description (but I’m not putting his picture here because awkward) and there are some similarities, strangely, to the not-Asian-at-all Garret Hedlund in that one specific picture–mostly Garrett’s fantastic hair. Paul definitely has the hair. If anyone has casting suggestions, please share!

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I plan on seeking agent representation for this book in the (very near) future, so my hope is to go that way. But never say never, right?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro? FOR-EV-ER. But really, about a year and a half. I had what I consider a “zero draft” (technically a complete manuscript, but so poor that it had to be completely rewritten) after about six months. The rest of that time was spent rewriting and revising my heart out.

As for an intro, here’s the first paragraph as it stands now (these things are always, always revised or scrapped completely but hey):

       There are a couple dozen ways I’d prefer to heartbrokenly wallow after being dumped by world-class douchenozzle Shane Curran. They all involve eating Marianne’s horchata ice cream with my best friend Rainer. None, not a one, has me driving two hours inland to California’s Central Valley to help my mother arm a bunch of computer engineers with Segways and heavy polo mallets in the name of fledgling romance. And yet, here I am.

What else about your book might pique a reader’s interest? If you like stories about keeping Santa Cruz weird, high school rock bands, female friendships,  dreamily witty nerd boys, or orange Vespas, (see also: this Pinterest board) I think you might enjoy my book!

And I’d love to pass the torch, so I’ll tag my ladies Kate Hart, Jessica Love, Jessica BS, and Linsdey Culli!

Tagged as: Haters To The Left: MS Title, Haters to the Left: MS Title or Life Motto?, me me me, WiP chat, Writing

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Alec Baldwin and Self Improvement

by sarahenni on December 10, 2012

I’ve spent a good amount of my time lately thinking about what “growing up” has been and/or meant to me, post-college. Once those training wheels of organized education were gone, I gained perspective on how I really learn best: trial and error. And failure. When I try, fail, and get ready to try again, I tend to prepare myself better. Preparation includes research and observation.

I was reading Tina Fey’s memoir a few weeks ago and the glowing praise Fey gave her 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin caught my attention:

Anything I learned about Real Acting I learned from watching Alec Baldwin. … Alec knows how to let the camera come to him. He can convey a lot with a small movement of his eyes. He speaks so quietly sometimes I can barely hear him when I’m standing next to him, but when you watch the film back, it’s all there. It may not have made me a better actor, but at least now I know why what I’m doing is terrible.

Tina Fey, Bossypants p. 188

Tina Fey may not feel as though noticing what made Alec Baldwin great helped her improve, but she knew, in specific, what he was doing that was different. Making that observation was her first step to improvement. It’s hard to try to be better without identifying what “better” is.

What art form besides writing is as amenable to trying, failing, and editing to improve? First drafts simply don’t get published. I have a special shelf filled with books that gave me those “Alec Baldwin” moments, so I can go back to reference them later. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins when I want to get inspired about voice. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor when I want to study how to pull a reader into a setting. Where She Went by Gayle Forman for pacing and male POV and so many other things.

What about you? What books or authors give you Alec Baldwin moments? How have those books helped your writing process?

Tagged as: Alec Baldwin, Reading, Writing

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RTW: A Time To Write, A Time To Revise

by sarahenni on December 5, 2012

Welcome to Road Trip Wednesday day, a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway posts a weekly writing- or reading-related question and anyone can answer it on their own blogs. Check out the original post for links to other Road Trippers’ answers!

This week’s topic is: How do you approach editing/revising? Any tips or tricks or resources you can share?

Funny that this should be this week’s topic; I recently sent my manuscript off to beta readers, and I started asking myself this very question. How do I revise? I felt the need to have a system, so I read some wise words from Veronica Roth, and this week’s post by Kristin Cashore, with interest. Eventually, though, revisions boiled down to something quite simple. In flipping through the scenes and individual notes my readers left me, I realized I hadn’t read my book in a while. That sounds dumb, because I’m rereading scenes constantly. But not in order, and rarely more than one or two at a time. My book was, in my mind, a bunch of jagged pieces. I had to find the way to fit them together.

So I printed my book out and read it all the way through. It was painful (so painful), but I forced myself through the flimsy, poorly-written sections knowing I’d subjected my beta readers to it, so I had to be brave. (Eeep!) Then I went back and started a new outline, from scratch, based on my notes and my beta notes. It’s the fourth major overhaul to this WiP’s outline, and somehow I doubt it’ll be the last. So what I’m doing now is tossing the scenes I don’t need (15,000 words, phew!), rewriting the entire beginning (blerg), and revising every single sentence.

It’s time-consuming and can be mentally exhausting (creating a revision goal requires a lot of concentration and extended careful thought), but I can say with only the slightest eye twitch that revisions are definitely my favorite part of writing. Every sentence I tweak, all the words I toss aside, and the plot changes and twists that come about in this stage improve the book exponentially.

What about you?? Any tips or tricks for making revisions work (please)??

Tagged as: revising, revision, Road Trip Wednesday, Writing

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Before You Write, Visualize

by sarahenni on December 3, 2012

When I first started writing, I was a pantser all the way. Not that I knew what ‘pantsing’ was—I just wrote what I wanted to, when I wanted to. As all you pantsers know, that’s really super fun until about 75 percent of the way through a project. Then you get to transition scenes that are boring as all get-out, and finally the hellacious task of fitting all the scenes in the right order, like the most frustrating and unknowable jigsaw puzzle ever.

Then I read Rachel Aaron’s very epiphanic break-down of how she increased word-count by streamlining her writing process. One thing in particular stuck out to me: Aaron’s advice to “know what you’re writing, before you write it.” Seems simple enough. But uh, I was so not doing that. Each day I’d open up my Work In Progress and think: “What happens now?” Reorienting myself to my book was sucking up precious time during each writing session.

The first thing I adjusted was my initial approach the the story: I outlined. I hate endings (they are scarier to me than a pit of snakes in the dark) but getting a general idea of what I was writing toward helped my brainstorming sessions become more specific and productive. On a scene-by-scene basis, Aaron says she would write down what happened in each scene before she wrote it. That was helpful, too; I now have bullet points for each scene that remind me where the many interweaving plot points are in their arc during every scene. But I have another suggestion that has helped me get motivation to crank out scenes.

Before You Write: Visualize

Australian psychologist Alan Richardson performed an experiment with performance and visualization using free throws. You can read more about the details of the experiment here, but the end result was that a group of participants who practiced free throw shooting over a period of days and a group who had minimal physical practice but spent time each day visualizing shooting free throws showed similar levels of improvement in free throw shooting. Simply by imagining the free throw shots—the sound of the ball bouncing on the hardwood, the look of the ball rotating in a rainbow arc—a group of people improved actual performance.

Before I start writing a scene, I pause a moment and visualize the action. What is the setting, who are the characters present, and how will their interaction create tension, arrest reader interest, and further the plot? Sometimes I arrive at a scene I’ve had planned for weeks, only to realize during that short visualization period that what I thought had to happen doesn’t actually make sense. When the original plan simply won’t work, visualization becomes problem solving. What can be tweaked to make the scene work? I try to “see” how the scene changes with each tweak, and usually after a few minutes I find a solution that I have a clear image of. That gets me excited to start writing and get the scene down on paper.

I know not everyone is highly visual, but I recommend trying to run a scene through your mind once or twice before beginning to write and realizing halfway through that the original plan isn’t working. Using the power of visualization, you can work out many of those problems beforehand and have a stronger scene before any words even hit the page.

What do you think? Do you visualize the scenes in your WiP? What about while you’re reading? Do you always know what will happen in a scene before you start to write it?

Tagged as: original photography, pants on fire, sports metaphors, visualization, Writing

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Be the John Clayton of Your Book

by sarahenni on November 19, 2012

Oh, hi there! Let me dust this thing off… Ahem. I’ve been gone a while, but it’s been productive! There’s something about fall, and specifically football season, that gets me more motivated. Something about the sense of teamwork, the emphasis on hard work paired with passion, and of course the raucous family tail gates, just energizes me.

Watching all that SportsCenter has more perks than just highly-entertaining Princess Bride quote wars. The other day while watching “The Professor,” an NFL reporter named John Clayton, I started to think about niche expertise.

Clayton isn’t an athlete; he never played a down of professional (or college or high school) football. But he’s in the NFL Hall of Fame because he knows everything about the league, backwards and forwards.

Similarly, as an author you may not know first-hand what it’s like to be a medieval nun-assassin, but you can bet your fanny pack that R.L. LaFevers researched the hellfire out of 15th century France. And it shows in the product—Grave Mercy oozes authenticity of time and place. Similarly, Kristin Cashore knew the details of her most recent book, Bitterblue, so well that she could recognize the handwriting of a minor character. And when my fellow YA Highwayer Phoebe North was asked about the generation ship setting for her forthcoming book, Starglass, she sent her publishing team a hand-drawn layout of the entire vessel.

When you know your story and its characters to such a minute degree, it shows. The story is richer and truly draws the reader in to its fully dimensional world. So I suggest you be the John Clayton of your book.

But how do you gain this level of knowledge? Do you need to research until your eyes bleed and fill out 50-age character sheets for every speaking member of your WiP cast? No, not necessarily. Over time, as you draft and revise (and revise and revise), the details have a way of revealing themselves. But keep it in mind, and every time you wonder, “Why would Character X do that?” or “What makes Love Interest react this way?” spend some time solidifying an answer. That could mean research, or brainstorming, or who knows, it could mean rewriting a huge portion of your work. But no matter what, it will always benefit the end manuscript.

(And if you’re interested in witnessing how awesome John Clayton is, check out the video below!)

Tagged as: research, Writing

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How NOT to Incorporate Setting, Courtesy of Top Chef

by sarahenni on September 24, 2012

I’ve been watching Top Chef for years, and for years I’ve been grumbling that they need to host a competition in Seattle. So I was super psyched when Bravo announced that the show’s 10th season will be set in the Emerald City!

But I started reading up on the local press coverage of filming. And was, let’s say, troubled by what I read. From Seattle Weekly’s Hanna Raskin:

[T]he show’s producers are notoriously uninterested in the true culinary character of the cities they feature, and even less interested in engaging the people who live in those places. Top Chef treats its shooting locales like motel rooms serviceable for a one-night stand.

And

Although Texas ponied up $400,000 for the privilege of serving as a Top Chef host, the state which viewers saw was a goofy caricature that was unlikely to lure anyone to the Lone Star State. The impression created by Top Chef was that Texans ride horses and eat beef in unbearable heat. … “No one in Houston really cared about the show,” Kathaine Shilcutt, my counterpart at the Houston Press, e-mails. “In fact, most people I know actively boycotted watching it because they were so furious at being overlooked.”

I remember thinking much the same about the episodes filmed in Texas. Though the show went to great lengths to film in several different cities (hitting Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas), the take-away from any on-the-spot filming was that Texans were rednecks with big hats who wouldn’t hesitate to scream, “Texas chili doesn’t have beans!”

Dr H reminded me, too, of when Top Chef returned to New York for a previous season. For all the local dining or exploring the cast did, it might have been filmed in New Jersey.

Why would Top Chef bother traveling to film on location if it never intended to engage the local community, or branch out beyond stale stereotypes of whatever corner of the country bucks up the dough to host?

This reminded me of setting, and how important it is to get right. To use the city or region in which your story is set as more than a shabby, two-dimensional backdrop built with lazy preconceptions and a condescending lack of attention to detail. Have you ever watched a movie or read a book set in your hometown, and either delighted or cringed over how it was portrayed? If you set your novel in a real place, many readers will have that experience.

You really don’t want to get that wrong.

The good news? You don’t have to splurge on plane tickets to get the feel of a place.The answer is the same every time: research, research, research.

Have a Twitter account? I guarantee there are some people on there who live in your setting, and would love to chat about it! 1

If you want to get the exact point of view that your character has, walking their streets, try to find images in the Google Street View Gallery.

No matter how large or small the community, you can be there is some kind of newspaper, or community newsletter, or blog that focuses on the issues important to those citizens (Google is your friend!). Take a day or two to peruse and get an up-to-date refresher on what concerns that community.

The long and short of it is, if your characters exist in a world made of trite stereotypes and cliched tourist traps, they’re more likely to fall into similar tropes themselves. Don’t sell yourself, or your characters, short!

What about you?? Have you ever had a major gripe with how your hometown was portrayed? Where have you set your WiP? What kind of resources have you discovered to get a better sense of setting?

  1. I once asked a question about Texan homecoming traditions on a Sunday night… and got something like 5o responses! ↩

Tagged as: google is your friend, instagram pics, research, seattle, setting, top chef, what NOT to do, Writing

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Swear More…Creatively

by sarahenni on September 17, 2012

I have an unusual suggestion for how to bring reality to the world of you book: swear more.

That isn’t advice you’ll hear very often from a YA writer. But let’s face it, the rhythm of normal speech (for teens and adults) is sprinkled with the occasional curse word for emphasis. For most people, swearing is part of normal conversation within our closest relationships. And what are books about besides close relationships? A book devoid of any kind of swearing can feel sanitary, unreal.

Even so, I’ve found myself avoiding those words, even if they feel right, worried that at some point it may cause an agent, an editor, a parent, or even a teen to take offense or be turned off to my work.

But there’s a way to incorporate casually foul language in a way that can actually work to enhance the world of the book: create your own.

The most simple version of this I’ve seen is in Battlestar Galactica. The show’s writers faced a dilemma: how to accurately portray the profane world of a military crew  without incurring the wrath of television censors? The show simply substituted “frak” for… well, you know. Simple? Yes. Hilarious? Often. But the word ensures that the show’s writers can keep the dialogue of their hardened pilots and mechanics appropriately gritty and is one of the most persistent reminders that the crew is not just a few dozen years in the future—they’re so removed from us that everything from their belief system to their swear words are different.

I’m reading The Twelve, the sequel to Justin Cronin’s The Passage. In Cronin’s post-apocalyptic vampire/zombie attack world, the word “flyer” is used to describe the post-humanoid creatures that the protagonists run from. It’s slang based on how the creatures can move—quickly, jumping high and far—and it makes sense that a colloquial term for the vampires would segue quickly to become an exclamation, an expression of frustration, anger, pain. The vampire creatures dictate every moment of the survivors’ lives. Using the term derisively gives Cronin’s characters the chance to exert some small control over the situation. It isn’t much, but it’s almost all they have.

A great YA example of this is of this in YA is Kierstin White’s Paranormalcy series where the the main character Evie uses the term “bleep” in place of swearing1. What could come across as cheesy, White uses to endearing humorous effect, showing off Evie’s goofy personality at the same time.

Though those examples are all from the world of science fiction and/or paranormal, I think this approach could work for contemporary writers, too. Briefly while drafting I planned to look up old-fashioned insults that are not commonly used for a character who is obsessed with historical documentaries2. Ultimately the character changed and it wasn’t necessary anymore, but those word choices would have shown a lot of her personality, and added some silly (if obscure) humor.

Down the road if you find yourself pausing where you might normally insert a swear word into normal conversation, think deeply about what your character would use in that situation. What represents frustration to them? To the people of their world? What is the most angering or insulting thing to that person or to their society? It’s a great way to think about the world your characters live in, and a good alternative if more run-of-the-mill profanity makes you nervous.

What do you think? Do you have any other examples of movies, books, or TV shows that use their own uniquely obscene language? Have you worried over using swear words in your books?

  1. White talks about her decision to do that here ↩
  2. And I know all you Whedon fans are hunting for your Loki .gifs now. I didn’t end up using any antiquated swear words in my WiP, but thanks to The Avengers I did get to use a certain olde English word in a winning bout of Scrabble. See if you can find it…! ↩

Tagged as: Battlestar Galactica, Justin Cronin, Kiersten White, swearing, Whedon, world building, Writing

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Not That It’s a Big Deal or Anything

by sarahenni on August 20, 2012

Not too long ago I blogged about taking time to celebrate milestones—even the smaller ones—to stay motivated, to recognize hard work, and to recharge. Well I’m taking my own advice and partying like it’s the freaking weekend today because FINALLY, after working on this work-in-eternal-progress for more than a year,

I have a completed first draft that makes me happy.

A year ago I was querying, planning a wedding, and trying to find something to take my mind off of real life. This idea came along and I was all…

Then I shut down the query process because I had gotten tons of incredible, consistent feedback that I knew could be applied to make this project stronger. So I *gasp* outlined. It was hard.

And technically I finished a draft. But it was just… not… right.

So I went back to the proverbial drawing board (Scrivener!) and did a bunch of writing exercises that helped expand the possibilities for my characters.

The plot was about ten times better, but hot damn did all that make for a lot more work to be done.

Right after I got started on the new and improved outline (basically a re-write), a couple months of Everything In Life Happening came up. Weddings, graduations, vacations, work trips… you name it, it happened, and I was pretty useless when it came to writing.

Then after the lifesplosion ended, I was sort of just lazy. Unmotivated. Really pretty out of it, to be honest.

Then! I was lucky enough to spend five days surrounded by some of the most amazing writers I know, and hands-down the best, silliest, most genuine motivators ever.

IT WAS ON.

Then last week my laptop was stolen. Long story.

BUT I PERSEVERED and last night at around 11:00 p.m. (way past my bedtime let me tell you) I typed the sentence that I knew was the absolute most wonderful perfect last sentence 1 and I realized…

I AM DONE 2. DONE!

So now, WE CELEBRATE!

Hammer might not have been the most willing participant in that particular moment of celebration. But don’t worry, he’s got a can of tuna with his name on it for later.

What about you?? What have you achieved lately? What are you working toward? Anyone else jumping head-first into revisions??

  1. which means it will totally be edited out at some point but hey, haters to the left pls ↩
  2. with the first draft. ↩

Tagged as: celebration, first draft, Gifs, Hammer, process, silliness generally, Writing

{ 24 comments }

Retreat! (A How To)

by sarahenni on August 6, 2012

I’ve been waiting all year for late July, because it meant a trip to Colorado with many other YA Highway members for a writing retreat! Last week was really special, because I got to see some of my favorite girls in the world AND I managed to add about 10,000 good words to my WiP. We had a great time, and managed to be crazy productive, so I thought I’d share how we set up the retreat, and what we did there to keep ourselves motivated, in case you are planning or attending a retreat in the near future (which I totally recommend).

The Supplies

Be sure to bring:

  • Chargers for everything electronic
  • The writer’s uniform (yoga pants, comfy T-shirts)
  • A plan for who will cook what meals, on what days (doesn’t have to be a rigid schedule, just something to get an idea of what grocery shopping should be done and what dietary restrictions might come into play with your group)
  • Headphones
  • Any books you want to share

The Space

We used VRBO.com to find a fantastic cabin in Colorado, a central location for everyone. We organized everyone’s arrival and departure times by using a shared Google Doc, and that way we only had to rent one car for the week. (Rental cars are expensive, yo.)

We planned it from Friday to Wednesday to take advantage of a weekend, but definitely ate into some vacation time. It was well worth it, though, because at least one full day was spent catching up with one another, and admiring the truly bizarre lodge art that filled our rental space. Evidence:

I took to calling him “The Statesman.”

DISCO DUCK (.gif pending)

The Writing

The first morning, after we made ourselves breakfast with lots and lots of coffee, we all gathered around to write. To make sure we resisted the urge to chat, we set a timer for dedicated writing time. Most of the time we set aside hour-long chunks. (I downloaded Howler Timer for my Mac, which makes [as you might've guessed] a wolf howling sound instead of a buzzer. I took much enjoyment from it and recommend it highly.)

Moose hat optional, but encouraged.

We took breaks for lunch, but most of the late morning and afternoon was spent working individually. Eventually we spread all over the house, with people writing anywhere they felt inspired.

The Goofing Off

Toward the end of the day, most of us were a little creatively spent. We gathered around to make dinner, and to unwind for the day and chat. At times, chatting long into the night… or early morning1. Talking, drawing, getting silly, playing the Twilight Commentary Drinking Game2—all of these things recharged our creative batteries, and were just basically a blast.

Photo taken by Kate Hart

The Exploring

It can be tempting to stay inside like, the entire time. Especially when the words are flowing. But if you’ve gone to a destination retreat, you’re missing out on a big part of the reason you traveled somewhere outside your living room. I don’t regret the handful of hours spent exploring the small town nearby, hiking, or just sitting on the porch appreciating the wonderful view. Evidence:

Photo taken by Kate Hart.

So that’s my advice! But what about you?? Have you done a writer’s retreat before? Anything I missed? Anyplace in particular you’d recommend to reach maximum word count? Are you planning on going to a retreat anytime in the future? Do you have a moose hat to bring??

  1. Note: staying up until 5:30 a.m. chatting with a friend as awesome as Kate Hart is worth any lost productivity the next day. ↩
  2. With modifications because good lord people, we’re not indestructible ↩

Tagged as: retreats, very strange lodge decor, Writing, YA Highway

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