Retreat to Advance

The last couple of weeks have been rough on my health (only a winter cold, but a nasty one that's lingered on for nine days, a cold that my wife is now deep in the throes of while I'm finally starting to recover from), rough at my 'real' job (busier than usual with 2011 planning), and rough in Boston's January weather (the foot and a half of snow from a few days ago, first preserved in single digit wind chill temperatures, now becoming six inches of slush following an afternoon and evening of not-quite-freezing rain).

Which means (you know where I'm going, you've heard the excuses before) my writing has suffered.

Or at least it did, up until yesterday.

Yesterday, during the Martin Luther King holiday, the writing group that I belong to, the Bay State Scribblers, got together far enough away from everyone's homes, jobs, and family, to spend five hours writing. Writing physically together in one room but otherwise separately. That was pretty much it, writing. (Coffee and doughnuts and cheese consumption notwithstanding.)

Everyone produced writing. We wrote. That was the goal, and the goal was achieved.

I myself ended up with the first draft of one complete flash fiction story, a half-dozen page beginning of a longer short story (one that's probably going nowhere as it is, but has some great characters and good descriptions to be mined for other stories), and a killer first page of a new story that I'm excited to return to. Not a ton of words, but a lot more than I've produced any other day this month.

Certainly the day was a success for me, and it sounded like it was for the rest of the group as well.

What made it work?

1. No distractions. No reaching for that novel you like to read 'for inspiration,' no random surfing the internet, no children or spouses jousting for your attention, no pets to play with (cute as they are).

2. Peer pressure. Just sitting there staring at the screen while Andi or Mike is pounding away at the keyboard isn't going to cut it.

3. One big block of time. Yes, you (and by you, of course I mean I) need to be putting in your half hour stretches as many nights a week as possible, but working through one false start alone often takes longer than thirty minutes. Given literally hours to work with, you find you are able to push past the usual start-up, flailing about, phase and get into the meat of a project, whether new or old.

4. And finally, I would have to say, the novelty of it all, particularly of the camaraderie. Some members of our group write more or less full time, but they don't write in the presence of other writers. It's cool -- you're working independently, but you can look up anytime and see you're not alone.

Get a group, get a room, and try it some time.

Retreat to advance.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen