Last weekend, a friend and I left our jobs behind on a Friday, said goodbye to our families, and ventured to [almost] east Texas — to a cabin at Cooper Lake State Park.
Our plan was simple: we would write, hike, chat, and write some more. While the hike never happened (we found ourselves content just sitting on some uncomfortable wooden chairs, at a small wooden table, and writing away), it was still a perfect weekend!
What We Hoped to Accomplish
When coming up with a writing retreat, it’s easy to think big. The mighty Mark Finn does an annual retreat much longer (and farther from home) than the one my friend Deacon and I did last weekend. Mark’s retreats are spent in the company of more than one writer, most of whom support themselves writing fiction. It’s something to aspire to, but in our case, it wasn’t important to go anywhere particularly special, far from home, or to stay very long. With both of us being at places in novels where things can go so many ways, it was all about being in a cabin with the person who gets the others’ writing better than anyone.
Traveling (And Writing) Light
Neither of us wanted to drag along a laptop or other gear, but we also didn’t want to write new stuff in notebooks and then have to transfer everything to our systems. Sure, there are pens that know what you’ve written, or we could have just tapped away at our iPhones with our clunky thumbs. In the end, we did write on our iPhones…using Anker Bluetooth keyboards!
A couple people have asked me about this setup. Deacon and I love the keyboards. Twenty bucks, so if something happens to it, it’s not a big financial blow — and they are solid and great to type on. (Disclaimer: I do all writing on laptops, so the feel and size of the Anker Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard feels like a laptop keyboard…just at a better angle.) Granted, the smaller screen of the iPhone doesn’t really allow moving large blocks of text around, so I can’t see editing with this setup, but I’m not sure there’s a better method for traveling light and writing a fresh draft of something for me.
Plotting
In addition to hours of writing, I plotted quite a bit. On good old fashioned note cards. I came to realize that I really do know the story I’m writing better than I thought I did. I have another four-day weekend coming up, and I look forward to spending quite a bit of it writing.
Friendship
It’s funny…I’ve known Deacon for over a decade. I consider him one of the best friends I’ve ever had. We email daily. But with the exception of one dinner together (to discuss a handful of chapters in the novel he’s working on), every time we’ve hung out, it’s been in the company of other friends. It was nice to hop in a car, drive out east for a couple hours, and spend a weekend chatting about anything and everything when we weren’t writing.
Epic Nap Time!
The beds in the cabin were surprisingly comfortable. So comfortable that Saturday after lunch, we both said, “I’m gonna go lie down.” The nap I had was one of the best naps I’ve ever taken. (Worthy enough for its own section in this entry!)
It was an even bigger treat for Deacon. The father of a four-year-old, a three-hour nap without interruption is a very rare thing.
Odds and Ends
When not writing, napping, or snacking, there was time spent sitting beside a fire, time wandering around down by the lake, time battling spiders, and time talking about how creepy the little light out front was at night.
Sunday morning, when I got up at 5:30 in the morning to free some processed beer, it sounded like there was an opossum in the bathtub. There wasn’t, though.
There were sounds in the attic.
There were sounds in the woods (that turned out to be an armadillo that was all like, “Hey, what are you guys doing? Is that beer you’re drinking? I like beer!” It freaked out when I turned a light on to see what it was. (Deacon guessed armadillo, while I thought it was a raccoon until the light went on.)
Great Minds Think Alike
A favorite moment from last weekend: dozing off Saturday night, after chatting about the creepy panel leading to the attic, Deacon mentioned how he’d end the novel I’m working on. He wasn’t going to tell me, but I had to know. It’s not like either of us to tell others how we’d write something that’s not ours, but it’s why Deacon is the only person I’d allow to even entertain how I should do something. After further insistence on my part, Deacon told me what he’d do at the end of the novel I’m writing.
I’m happy to say that it is exactly what I’ve already written!
I’m already looking forward to another retreat next year…
Neat retreat! That’s an impressive spider friend . .
Slenderman is real??
CMS: Yeah, there were a few of those spiders in the cabin, and many more outside. I also did battle with Guardian Bumblebee, which would have been a riot on video. Quick version: it would not let me head back up the hill to the cabin when I went down by the lake. I’d go right and it would go to its left, preventing me. I’d go the other way and it would, too. Finally, I stepped to the right and it went that way as I ran tot he left. I heard it chasing me and the hill…it was muddy. So my legs were going as fast as they could, but I was going up the hill in slow motion, since I was slipping so much. Still, I won. Unless I get stung between today and Sunday morning at 6:21 a.m., I’ll be able to say I lived 44 years without being stung. (I said I’d make this quick, and I didn’t.)
I guess I’d seen Slenderman stuff online, but Deacon chatted about Slenderman Friday night when he realized how creepy the little light out front was. So…I had to set up that photo for him 🙂
It was a great weekend!
It’s all true. Even the made up stuff!
Wow that sounds like it was a lot of fun! It’s nice to know that you don’t have to go too far from home to get inspired (I mean, strange noises in the attic? Creepy lamp posts in the distance? Who could ask for better story fodder!). I don’t know if I could write on a phone though, even with a portable keyboard. But hey, if it works for you thats all that matters. As always I’ve been enjoying your blog and I can’t wait to hear more about your WIP!
Portable keyboards. You are SO coddled.
(Of course, I have the old analog one myself, and I’m now looking at getting the Bluetooth one… so I suppose I wish to be just as coddled. :))
Sounds like a wacky, great time!
Sounds like a great getaway and something I hope you’ll do regularly. It’s been nice, hearing about it and now, reading about it.
Here’s hoping you can repeat the process soon.
But what was the aversion to using a laptop?
Laura: I couldn’t edit or do too much on my phone, but for an initial draft of a couple chapters, the method worked. If I had to move large blocks of text around or rewrite on my phone…it just wouldn’t happen!
Paul: I wanted to travel light on the trip. Also, not that I feared the cabin being broken into if we went for a long hike or anything, the thought of the possibility of having a laptop snagged while traveling came to mind. My phone is always with me, so all was safe. (I’ve known a few people who’ve had laptops stolen. Again, I don’t let that fear rule, but…in this instance, I wanted to travel light and not worry if we decided to leave the cabin unattended for several hours.)
Shawn: It’s all your fault that I even THOUGHT about writing on my iPhone!
Mary: It was a great little getaway; definitely something that will become an annual thing!
OK whenever somebody mentions a willful flying insect (such as your Guardian Bumblebee), I’m reminded of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies: http://movieclips.com/aR6S-phantasm-movie-giant-monster-fly/
Phantasm. The mere THOUGHT of the movie when I was younger terrified me. Right up there with Scanners. Just knowing the movies existed, and hearing all the hype, I had issues sleeping. When I finally saw them, I thought, “THIS is what scared me all that time?!” Phantasm is one of those movies I can still watch; it will always be fun for me, now. The fly scene…it’s one of the best hokey-fun scenes in a movie!