Elinor Robin, Ph.D., my friend, baby step believer, and Wise Well Woman, is a prolific writer. She writes for Huffington Post, authored her first book in 2014, “The Professional Woman’s Guide to Conflict Management”, and is published regularly in myriads of mediation and training publications.
Yet, somehow finishing the proposal for the second book she’s dreamed about is not coming easy to her. So, she’s decided to hold a writer’s retreat and she’s invited me to join her, along with Lisa McCourt, writing coach and author of “Juicy Joy”, to provide a little extra support.
Why does she need a writer’s retreat? And, how might this serve you, too?
She needs a writer’s retreat because she just isn’t getting that book proposal finished, no matter how much she talks about it. And it’s been far too long that she’s been talking about it.
Does that sound familiar? Do you have a stalled writer’s project that you really want to get done?
What I’ve learned is that your writing project — your book, blog, memoir, marketing material or Ph.D. thesis– needs time, attention and support to be nurtured to completion. Despite your deepest desires to create, these projects won’t happen by magic.
No amount of thinking about them, or talking about them, will manifest them in their complete form. You have to do the work.
The best way I know how to get your writing project done is committing to its completion by taking deliberate action. To do this, you’ll want to attend a writing retreat designed specifically to make sure you have space, the clarity and the motivation you need.
Writer’s retreats, the ones that give you lots of time to actually work on your project, not the book-publishing/marketing kind, work for writer’s like you because:
#1: You need a long, concentrated block of time to work.
Writing projects take time — big chunks of time. To move any writing project forward you have to set aside committed time to do it. Hours are required, not minutes. Unless you’re a very disciplined writer, and well-practiced, you probably aren’t making time to write toward your project goal every day (even though you know you should.)
Morning pages and daily journaling aside, what I’m talking about here is project writing every day– chapters of a book, pages of a memoir, or sections of your outline. When you’re not writing every day, you’re not making progress.
Life gets in the way. Something else is always a priority.
And let’s face it, as time passes, given the chance to put off this long overdue project you will, because, by now, it’s feeling really difficult and not much fun. Even when you finally do sit down to write, you find yourself easily distracted in your usual day-to-day environment.
So, the next reason you need to attend a writer’s retreat is …
#2: You need to work in a “no-interruption” zone.
Creative thinkers are easily distracted, and I imagine this applies to you, too. My guess is that your writing space is full of all kinds of other things that are calling for your attention. Given the chance to seek inspiration while you’re at home, you will most likely get sucked down the rabbit hole of the one-thousand other ideas you’ve had for super-cool projects.
Even if you prevent yourself from losing focus when was the last time you could be certain that your pets, your family and your friends would stay out of your way? Getting them to honor your desire to be 100% sequestered is almost impossible when you are at home.
Furthermore, your resistance to giving in to their desire for attention is often met next with an attitude that says “What’s so important about this writing project anyway?”, or “Why can’t you do it some other time?” and “You’ve been talking about this forever, what makes you think you’re really going to get it done now?”.
That kind of conversation is not helpful. Even though they mean well, your family and friends are often saying and doing things that are undermining your success.
Which brings us to reason #3…
#3. You need support from other writer’s.
Other writers understand where you are. They’ve experienced all the challenges that come with birthing, evolving and completing a creative writing project. Without having to share a spoken word, you know that they “get it”.
Shared meal-times and breaks during retreats become the perfect opportunity to bond with like-minded people, and if you’re lucky, one of those new friends might even become a long-time writing buddy. Lifelong friendships are often formed at retreats like these.
The support of the community is powerful. The energy of the collective is inspiring.
As an added bonus, there’s almost always additional optional support available with creativity and writing coaches like Lisa and myself.
I don’t know if you’ve got a writing project sitting on the shelf, or not, but if you do, I strongly encourage you to consider joining Elinor, Lisa and myself in Boca Raton, June 18 – 20th. Beginning Thursday evening, you’ll be sequestered at the hotel, all meals provided, through Saturday afternoon. We’ll come together for meals and periodically for breaks, but mostly, you’ll be quietly working on your project. Sharing progress will happen in small groups for those who desire that interaction. And one-on-one coaching will be available as an add-on if you want it.
If you’re interested, please speak up quickly. There will be a maximum of 12 participants.
Email Elinor at elinorobin@aol.com or call her at 954.415.5645 to ask any questions and to reserve your spot.
The event is also posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/492930024195634/.
Hope to see you there!
P.S. If you’re interested in learning move about how creativity coaching will support you to birth, evolve or complete your next project, you’ll find more information here: https://www.wisewellwomen.com/creativity_coaching