Comments on: Retreat Notes

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:47:00 +0000

Colleen, congrats! Yeah, I can pout about not having dedicated writing times/places or I can address it directly… I really wish I had my own little writing place and a couple of nights per week for Me. But dedicating a few days for my writing is a marvelously luxuriant thing to be able to do.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:52:44 +0000

Very nice! I am inspired to actually take a chunk of time for personal writing instead of bitching how I have no time/place to write. I also thought about you yesterday randomly when I sent out my very first CNF essay. Huzzah for all the work you got done!

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:30:33 +0000

Nice comments, all. Rachel, my writing philosophy is “reduce, reuse, recycle.” (It’s also to always have a notebook with me and to take as many notes as possible.) My point was really about where to spend the bulk of a very limited bundle of time.

By: Rachel Resnick

Rachel Resnick — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:56:48 +0000

“I am reminded that I only have writing time for essays I deep-down-trulio believe I have a chance of pulling forward into ‘wonderful.’”
But sometimes you have something less wonderful in your head, and it keeps coming back to you in your subconscious, and your mind keeps coming back to it and that keeps you from getting to the “wonderful” stuff. Sometimes you can’t get around something without going straight through it, so don’t dismiss the things that aren’t truly wonderful; they have their place in your subconscious. Someday, you might turn them into something wonderful. Jot down the “not wonderful” in a notebook and look at it from time to time–you might consider it differently later.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:28:35 +0000

To be honest, these are my favorite posts of yours–where you get self-reflective about your writing. It’s such a brave thing, to lay your passion out for the world to see and (eep!) judge. I have not yet gotten to the place where I write about my inner world on my blog, but you’ve definitely inspired me to consider it. Most of those thoughts don’t make it past my lips, much less onto paper/screen. Thanks for sharing this with us. It has made my life richer.

By: J. T. Glover

J. T. Glover — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:58:50 +0000

Because I’ve moved past them. They were my good friends, and they aren’t terrible. They just aren’t wonderful, and they never will be.

Sounds familiar. This weekend I got a rejection on a story that sat at a market for the better part of two years. I reread and enjoyed it, but at this point salvage would be like trying to build a Prius on a Pinto frame. Yeah, it could be done, but better to do hard work on something current.

Congrats on the successful writing retreat!