Reflections on a writing retreat at the Extended Stay in Tumwater

lizshine74by lizshine74

In A Room Of Your Own.

That’s how broken our practice had become. We squeezed $90 out of our measly budgets to stay at a dive hotel a mile or two from our houses. We started writing Friday night and kept at it through Saturday night.

In spite of the guy in the parking lot zooming his RC car around for–not kidding–hours, the smell of old smoke in the air (oops, a smoking room!), and a neighbor who kept knocking on our door, we managed to get a lot of writing done.

In spite of our own doubt and distractions, we kept writing our goals out on post-it notes and sticking them to the mirror. When we finished up one goal, we wrote another. To some extent we succeeded because we had to stay honest to each other and we had to make our $90 worth it. My buddy Carrie did a better job of sitting still than I did. I can’t write for hours without stopping. I need breaks. So, during those breaks I either read, wrote letters, or tried to think about how I was going to make writing happen when I re-entered my life.

On this blog, I try to make it simple, write about one thing at a time that helps me stay in the room. But we all know it is not simple. The reasons we don’t make time to write are complex and deeply rooted in our behavior and relationships. So, now that I’m home what are the nuggets I’ve emerged with?

Reduce distractions.

Stay fit and practice yoga/meditation.

Quit Facebook. While some of you might be able to use it wisely, I get on there and scroll. Also the connections there are somewhat illusory. I want more coffee dates, more letters, more writing retreats!

Write slow. There is so much focus on word count with writers that when I finally sit down to write I track my progress by the volume of words written. This leads to huge gaps in the narrative because in order to progress I will rush through the parts where I should slow down and write line by line.

Make time.

Buy my books here.

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
Find free resources and information here.
Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.