Happy Anniversary: Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I was perusing the blog today, I noticed that it's been a year since we got this craziness going!  Our official anniversary was the 13th of this month, but we'll celebrate it a few days later because I definitely feel it's worth celebrating.  Firstly I want to congratulate everyone who has been a part of this blog, the admin, the writers, the editor, and the readers.  I know that for me, Detangled Writers has been a source of pride, enjoyment, and education.  Taking a look at our contributor profiles, I see a group of people who I hold in high esteem.  These women have taken time out of their lives to share their thoughts and knowledge with the writing community.  Some of the goals we wrote in our profiles might be a bit outdated by now - some things might be all done and checked off, some things may have been set aside, while others may be in progress.  I invite the contributors to create fresh goals lists and provide an update.  Tell us about your writing; what projects do you have going on, is writer's block bugging you, are you having trouble finding time for your craft?   Also, let's talk about what goals we have for the blog in general and how we can become an even better support network for each other.  

 

Old Goals for Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora)! 

1. Time Management 
2. Keeping the Creative Juices Flowing
3. Finishing what I start...
4. Grad School and everything to do with it!
5. Characters - working on characterizations

I accomplished part of number four by applying to and being accepted to an MFA program.  I am currently working toward completing my masters in creative writing at Pine Manor College.  Number five can be removed because, for me, the writing itself is what generates character and plot and trying to work on those independently is possible but not really a goal.  As far as the first three goals, I would keep one and three on my list!  Number two is less of a goal for me and more a goal for the blog.  My new list, a much more specific list, would look like this:

New Goals!

1. Time Management
2. Finish Death Man (my current novel in progress)
3. Work on short stories for Workshops
4. Read craft books and fiction novels
5. Attend an AWP conference (Seattle 2014)

Some goals for the blog would be to see some more blogs on hot topics such as fanfiction writing, romance versus erotica, elements of craft, literary definitions and analyses, and even book reviews and discussions.  I would love to see more vocab words!  Everyone is encouraged to post vocab builders and word exercises.  If people have personal blogs where they share writing pieces, I would like to see entries detailing the process, successes, and failures they had with the project and then a link so we can read your work.

I hope that everyone who is part of this blog is as proud of it as I am.  This post brings our total to 148 published blogs for Detangled Writers.  Here's hoping that by this time next year we have upwards of 300!  Thank you to our contributors and readers.

Retreat! Retreat!

I've only ever been on one 'official' retreat in my life.  It was back when I was just barely a teenager.  The youth chapter of my church decided we needed to go out on a youth retreat to help us find ourselves and find God.   I remember a few things from the retreat: firstly, we were out in the middle of no where and the stars were amazing!  Secondly, when one of the popular boys fell asleep, the others wrote all over him in marker and taped a naked 'Little Red Riding Hood' doll to his hand.  It was charming.  But back to the stars.  The environment was very peaceful and exhilarating.  There was an even amount of physical exertion (hikes during the day and during the night) interspersed with quiet times (hours set aside for meditation and prayer) that it became like a nice tonic to one's sense of self.  The creative soul needs these things as well.

I want to spend a moment talking about the importance of a retreat where the only expectations put on you are the ones you've put upon yourself.  Your goals are all that matter and it is up to you to complete something, polish something, begin something new, or write a million drabbles that make you feel like a complete human being.  A writer's retreat is a place where you don't have to worry about dishes or about vacuuming or about who's coming over to dinner tonight or how your hair looks.  It's a place where you focus on your writing and on the things that awaken creativity.  An ideal retreat, in my opinion, would begin with everyone coming together for some sort of physical exercise (a swim in a nearby lake, playing the human knot game until you finally untangle, red-light/green-light, or even just a nice long hike in the outdoors).  Then we would move into something soothing like meditation (guided or personal) and go through a series of long stretches.  No matter the person's artistic preference, it is through our hands, our minds, our senses, our bodies that we receive and interpret and create and it is good to keep these things fine tuned.

We would break off then to get to work.  It would be for the individual after all.  We would make our own schedules and keep them accordingly.  I would have meal times listed - that or we would rough it and each fend for ourselves - and we could come together for fellowship and re-invigoration.  It would not be a test, competition, or race.  Everyone should come with their own goals and work toward them and revise them as they see fit.  There may be a communal activity once or twice a day (most likely something physical again and then something more mental).  At the end of how ever many days (hours) that we hold the retreat, I think there should be an opportunity to showcase a piece of what we worked so hard on.  We could have a reading or we could pass out a packet to look over.  This retreat would not have to be limited to writing, though I would suggest special emphasis in this area.

We've had a few ideas thrown around on this site for workshopping and other communal efforts to encourage ourselves and each other to continue working on our goals.  I propose a small writer's retreat as a way to generate lots of new material without the distractions of the everyday world.  There could even be a workshopping segment of the retreat to help authors who want to polish up their material.  What are some thoughts on this?  Of course  cost is something to keep in mind, but if this were to be something we could do in the summer months, it would be feasible to do a sort of camp out.  There are places that have rec rooms with electricity for us to use.  Or we could even do a two day retreat and rent out public park spaces such as the one at Kiwanis park where electricity is available.  You don't need a large group to have a retreat - it is more than practical to have a retreat of just one.  If you can't meet up with fellow writers, you can always pick up some goodies and lock yourself away in a hotel somewhere for the night.

The most important thing of all in these retreats however, is that you have privacy and can remain relatively untouched by the troubles of the real world.  This is definitely something I want to look into having.  For further information on some already established retreats visit here and here!  Or check out this guidebook: here.  These are just a few things about retreats, the internet is full of them and with such boundless reference material at our fingertips, it seems a darn shame not to take advantage of having a retreat all our own.  Or at least all on one's one.


Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora)

Online, long distance workshop idea.

One of my goals is to set up a workshop for writing. For myself as well as my writing friends, I hope to create and build a strong support group where we can bring our stories and ideas to the table. A place where we can relax, be at ease, set aside our egos and help each other with constructive feedback, creative brainstorming, and that pesky thing called grammar. 

  

My proposal is to start small and simple. Each of us picks a short story we want to work the kinks out of or need some help with. We send it to all members of the group by a certain date and we look over each story over the course of a month or four weeks. After the four weeks/month has passed e-mail our edits back to the story owners and we agree to a date and time to join each other on a Google Hangout, one I will set up, where we can discuss each story. After the session we can add new stories to be looked at while we make edits on the discussed stories and so forth you get the idea and I am really flexible so long as we keep some structure. 

Reason for Goggle Hangout. Not all of us are in the geographical location and using this service will allow us to get together without having to shell out money to meet. Also, I've used it before to chat with family and I've seen where you can add multiple people. 

The reason for meeting once a month: We all have other things in our lives that demand our attention aside from writing. I feel a month gives us enough time, without rushing us, to really looks at each other's work without scrambling to get it done along with everything else we have to do. With this I am also flexible. If someone needs to turn in a story or submit a story, we can bring it up with each other or we can also postpone the monthly meetings to give us more time. 

If this idea is something any of you are interested in, please comment below and we'll get something set up A.S.A.P.