Confession Sunday.. Mini Writing Retreat
It has been a couple weeks since my last confession. In fact, I'm behind on blogging in general, also, life in general, chores in general, and ________________ fill in anything else I missed.
But in between the craziness, I found time to write.
Note: If you are not schedule time to write on your calendar, please do so. Dedicated days (or even a morning) can make a huge difference in both your writing life and your mental/emotional life.
My friend Ronda came over at 1 pm on Friday and we wrote until 11 pm at night. Since it was so late, she spent the night and we woke up, had coffee, and wrote 3 poems in the morning.
There's a magic to these "mini-retreats" where I sit with a friend and write all day.
Maybe it's the energy of focus, of two people each writing poems.
Or maybe it's just intent--we intend to write poems, and we do.
Sometimes we do prompts, or sometimes we just find a line in a book of poems and use that as our jumping out spot. There are so many ways to begin a poem.
What you need to do your own writing retreat at home?
-- a laptop or journal
--books of poems (for inspiration)
--snacks
--time and a semi-quiet house
Optional:
--A friend can be helpful, especially if you find yourself not making the best use of your time.
I have found the times I've done these retreats (or even writing dates) with other poets, I end up with a lot stronger work than if I just hang out by my own. I think sometimes the interaction, the listening to poems, the talking with another poet can get my mind working in unusual ways. It's the back and forth that is helpful to me.
Sorry to have been so out of touch these last months. I feel as if there is just too much going on (in my life, in the world, in my head), so I've pulled back a bit until I can feel as if no longer running in place (a quick visual of my life since January (I'm George, not the pets... "Jane, stop this crazy thing...)
Hope to show up here more... and wishing you a relaxing Sunday.
~ Kells
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www.agodon.com
www.twosylviaspress.com
Yes! <3 We all need mini retreats~ Thank you, Kelli!
ReplyDeleteI love that you did this! My writing group tries to take a mini-retreat every 1-2 years. We've finally just scheduled one for ourselves this September, but it's unfortunately been 3 years! (Life has been rough on us for awhile.) But we do exactly what you did. Friends, food, and some quiet. We rent a cabin a few hours away from home (we change it up every time) for some different scenery and to remove our heads from the "I should be doing..." mindset we all have at home. We always find it a huge boost to our mental health as writers and often our work too!
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