This is a wonderful blog post from Lorianne over at Hoarded Ordinaries about what a writing retreat, or any other kind for that matter, is all about. I liked the mental image I got:

At that August retreat, a handful of my Boston-area colleagues and I gathered in a windowless classroom in MIT’s Stata Center, the leader writing “BRAWN Writing Retreat” on the chalkboard at the front of the room. That was all it took to transform Just Another Day into a Day Devoted to Writing.

I could just imagine the leader walking up to the blackboard and writing “Just another Day”, waiting a couple moments, crossing it out and writing “Day Devoted to Writing.”

Sometimes that really how simple the process is. Not head-slamming, earthquake inducing, thunderbolt shedding, mind-blowing revelations and epiphanies. Sometimes it really is just about putting your seat in the seat or going into the room and just doing it for as long as it takes to actually do something. Make it happen by making it happen, one bit at a time.

tomte and nisse
farm dwellers in cold places
wight of first farmer.

a wight ancestral
brownie scandinavian
red hatted? maybe.

favorite earring
I mourned your singular loss;
found again today.

This earring’s a fav
I lost it once and again
and found it once more.

Last night I mourned it
the earring strayed from my ear
found outside on ground. 9 november 2012

I have a favorite pair of earrings. Not wildly expensive but I love them. They get a lot of compliments. I’ve lost one of them three times. Once found the next day at work. Once found kicking around the floor in this room.

Spent yesterday hoping to find it again. Shook out the covers. Nothing. Looked for stray shiny things on the floor, in the car, at work. Nothing. Last night I wondered if there was any chance at all of the card shop I’d found them in having another pair (that’s always pretty unlikely don’t you think?). Decided I might check, but had to let it go. So many sweaters and shirts and scarves pulled on and off, phone calls taken etc.

This morning I head out to work and there, on the path between the front door and the car – a shiny earring.

Thank you world.

First off, I remember this happening last year, but maybe not so badly: the more I try to write for NaNoWriMo, the less I blog. That’s sort of goofy, and I have goals I set for the end of the year here, so I need to return to my blogging ways.

Also feel bad that I’ve fallen off my haiku wagon. Bah. I can’t squeeze another 17 or 34 syllables out in a day? Bah.

Second, I’m so far behind in the NaNoWriMo scheme of things. I’m not obsessing about it or anything because this year’s goal is to really finish last year’s story. It sort of picks up what was the sorta-end of the 2011 version. Only that story had a lot of unfinished threads and needed to be not so scattered.

I started with all the best intentions and just couldn’t find a place to start. I’d write a paragraph and delete it. Very anti-nanowrimo, I know, but there wasn’t anything past those awkward starts. Finally I picked a point a few days (I think) past where it had left off and started focussing on the poor confused main male character Matt. This is working out all right but it’s just slow going and I lost a couple days at the beginning.

Hope to do a bit of catch up this weekend. Now sitting at desk with a minimum of room lighting so as to say: #amwriting.

That is all!