I spent this past weekend at the Vermont College retreat with a couple dozen other writers. I signed up for this retreat back in November — back when it was still my goal to finish a first draft of my middle grade fantasy novel by New Year’s. Well, that didn’t happen. In fact, I’d gotten pretty frustrated with my fiction in general. I had to force myself to work on it, and when I did — it felt like work. Where was the magic? The awe? The wonder that inspired me to want to write books in the first place?
When retreat weekend came around, I almost didn’t want to go, at least not to work on my novel. I have three nonfiction projects going on right now, and thought I’d maybe just work on those.
But everything turned around with the very first talk at the retreat – given by the amazing Julie Berry. Julie talked about discovering the words “Write faster” spray-painted on a wall across from her writing room. She asked what we needed spray-painted on the wall – what did we need to hear to improve our writing lives?
My words: “Have fun writing.”
I got up at 6:30 am the next morning, snuck out of my room with my laptop still wearing my pijamas, and wrote. I found fun again in my words, my characters, and my world.
It was that easy.
Since I got back, I’ve worked on that fantasy novel every single day. You can read the writing prompt that planted the seed of the idea for the story in my head here: Glass for Seeing
Let’s hope I can keep it up. Oh, and somehow get those nonfiction projects finished, too…
Books recommended by writers at the 2013 VCFA retreat