A Private Writing Retreat

Last weekend my friend Virginia and I  spent two days, without husbands, kids, grandkids or friends, at my house in the Berkshires, writing, sharing each others morning production, walking, talking, dreaming.  The weather contributed.  It rained on and off all weekend, reducing the temptation to spend all our time outdoors, where the trees were showing off their fall foliage.

We both got a huge amount done.  Somehow, knowing Virginia was in another room writing away, was an incentive for me to stick to my computer and produce new pages.  I also spread out my "map" of family, dates and stories, and revised it, updating with new information, cutting out characters, changing a few names.

My novel in linked short stories now has a more complete story arc. I identified three gaps in the arc and began to work on the first story to fill it.  I have renewed energy and excitement for my project and I am moving forward with it.

And Virginia and I have "penciled in" our next writing retreat.