It’s July and I’m taking most of the month off from my regular routine of classes and workshops. It’s time for my annual writing retreat. This time I’m staying home rather than packing it up and going off somewhere as I’ve done for several years. Instead of settling into a different and dedicated retreat space, I’ll still sleep in the same bed as every other night, I’ll still look at my same self in the same morning mirror. It will be the same view out the window, same chair, same writing table, coffee cup, notebook, computer.
Will I be able to drop into the place of solitude and stillness that have nurtured so much productivity as my time at the cabin in Idyllwild, or when I housesat for a friend in Santa Fe, or borrowed another friend’s condo in Pagosa Springs? How will I make my days retreating at home different than my usual days at home?
I know I’m the one who said:
Consider that a writing retreat is not necessarily a place, but a concept.
Consider the word retreat not as a noun but a verb.
Consider time not as a measure in length, but in depth.
Consider the idea of being alone not as being distant from people but as not allowing others to intrude upon your solitude.
I have begun by creating a daily calendar with priorities and time blocks (thank you, Dan Blank). I certainly have a work-in-progress that has been in progress for a long time. I’m setting time goals to begin with—working for x hours each day on transcribing the handwritten pages of my notebook draft into Scrivener. Once I determine how quickly (or slowly) that work goes, I can then set goals of what I intend to get done during my month away. I have a plan to check in with my friend, Steve, and to be accountable with him for my goals, my progress, my commitment-keeping.
So during the month of July I may not be as visible as I usually am. May not respond to emails quickly, if at all. Probably not another blog post until I surface again. Not sure about any kind of a newsletter going out this month, though I do have a couple of upcoming workshops I’d like to tell you about.*
Tomorrow I’ll lay in some supplies. Work a bit more on the daily calendar of time blocks and commitments and submerge myself into the work.
Do you have plans for any kind of a retreat to focus on your creative work? Let’s support each other in this.
*Summer Writing Retreat, Saturday, July 21, Private Ranch in San Diego’s Backcountry
*Full Moon Writing Workshop, Friday, July 27, Private Home, Casa de Oro/Mt. Helix
I do hope the time goes well for you Judy – peaceful but productive…
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I remember reading once about the Prison Ashram Project which tries to teach prisoners the art of meditation so as to manage their time better whilst incarcerated. Rather than seeing the cell as a prison the perception can switch to see it as a place of contemplation and renewal. What a wonderful way to view it!
Likewise your everyday home Judy can be transformed into a shrine – one dedicated to the creative art of writing.
“ Your cell will teach you everything. “
Abba Moses
Namaste
Michael
Thank you, Michael. I have rearranged a few things, brought a new candle to my new space, a cleared off table in my “office”that looks out a different window. Every day, when I light that candle, I dedicate myself to the work and, in the words of Gail Sher, “Offer up the effort and the fruit of this effort so it no longer belongs to you.”
What planner is that and where did you get it? I am in North San Diego.
Hi Diane, I found this planner online somewhere, I don’t even know where and downloaded it. I print out copies myself, two-sided. If I find the original that might have the site listed, I’ll let you know.
I love to do pajama day-retreats at home alone. It’s amazing how much I can get accomplished.
Plus you look so cute in your pajamas, especially when you wear you silver shoes with them. (ha) Thanks, Jill.
Doing the same at my lakefront summer Place on Lake Michigan for the whole month of July. Going to get at those tough Memoir chapters that have been dangling in a chapter summary. They look lonely next to the full bodied scenes surrounding them. Thanks for not making me feel so solitary in my battle to plug on with the work in progress.
Thanks for writing Julie. Bet your summer Place is inspiring. I did a lake once, many summers ago. And good luck with those tough Memoir chapters. (Me, too!) And why does the story keep changing focus?
Yes, let’s do this together. Thanks for being there, too.
I didn’t answer your question, sorry. Well I decided since you are the leader then I should do same and so it is that I decided on four things per day. NoteBook heard all about it and sighed. I told him to shut up. Okay: story of the day (I have been remiss), sketch or painting, memoir work (holly schmockers I repeat myself in handwritten notes), and quotidian. Oh yes morning pages. Every day.
Besides walking, exercises, and yoga.
Every day. I have spoken.
Cheers!
There you go, then. Glad to have pals along the way, doing it too.
Dear Judy,
Sounds like you will have a productive and enjoyable July even though you are staying at home. Good luck with your transcribing work.
Thanks, Arlene. I’ll keep posting if my fingers still work at the end of the notebook transcribing & editing. Happy Summer.
OF COURSE you can do it at home. I do it all the time. After all I have windows to see layers and layers of green and a heritage building across the street, and inside more green all over the place. Plants. Artwork. Oh yes, peace and quiet (now that I scared the upstairs into keeping their bed springs to themselves). My home is made for me. All the things I love. Just like yours is for you.
I learned not to set goals because that is like someone telling me what to do which of course is not allowed. Just like I learned this morning not to sketch a painting when what I really want is blurred suggestion and not realism (grrrrrr). For some reason I have to be perfectionistic which I hate.
Fear of putting paint on a clean white page is akin to fear of messing up the notebook. I had to talk to myself and let myself know that there are more watercolour papers and Hilroy notebooks in the store, Linda. Honest. No world shortage.
And yes I work better alone where I can’t be the one talking the most — except to correct myself every fourteen minutes.
You will love it. Make sure you have around you the things you love to see and don’t forget the Lindt chili chocolate bar. One a week.
Have a wonderful and happy refresher of a month at home. I love it.
Thanks for all the advice, Linda. Especially the chocolate. And congrats on getting the upstairs neighbors to cool it. Let’s just keep doing this.