ENACTED: State Policy of Literary Isolation
If you follow me on the interwebs, you may have noticed a certain downtick in activity on my part. That downtick is about to collapse into a total silence, because I am heading out to do something very exciting...and it doesn’t involve anything online.
What? It’s true. I am going to embark on a solo writing retreat for three weeks. Some dear friends have kindly offered me the use of their rural home/vineyard, located in an undisclosed location in southern Wisconsin, where deer leap, rivers run, and the internet is nowhere to be found.
That means an excuse-free writing environment. No people, no web, no job to go to, no reasons to procrastinate. Terrifying, really. But also an amazing opportunity. This isn’t a vacation, it’s a productivity incubator.
I have set some goals for myself—probably overambitious ones. There are two short stories that I want to hack into first drafts (they are currently sitting at the “glorified notes” stage). I also plan to make considerable progress on a novel, though even I’m not so foolish to expect to finish it on the retreat. If I get to halfway to a first draft on that, I’ll be satisfied. I am not planning on editing anything right now; the goal is get words out on the page.
The minimum goal is 2000 words per day, but I hope to get much further. After all, I’ve hit 2000 on a lot of days at my usual writing lair, which is chock full of distractions and excuse-makers. What can I accomplish on retreat? That, friends, is what I’m about to find out. 4000 words a day? 6000? A whole new story, conceived and executed entirely at “The Farm”? We’ll see.
To make it scientific, I will be keeping a record of my daily word count and whatever insights I glean from this experience. Those notes will get posted right here in early July. With luck, it will be useful to other writerly types who wonder if such a retreat could work for them...or it may even turn into some kind of gonzo journaling project that will shock the world (depending on what happens to me after three weeks of hermit-like conditions). Stay tuned, friends. And feel free to tweet or email me if you have things to say. I’ll get the message eventually...I hope.
The projects:
Short Story #1 is code named “Little Birdie”. It’s set in a new fantasy world, and features a female protagonist on the run from a political clusterfvck.
Short Story #2 is code named “Trash”. This one is soft sci-fi involving time travel, corporations, baseball, and a hack reporter. Clearly, nothing can go wrong with that combination.
The novel is one I’ve mentioned before (and one that some folks have beta read a couple chapters from). The code name is “Silver”. If you like medieval fantasy settings, but wish there were more threats from zombies, I’ve got a tale for you.