{"id":5883,"date":"2015-04-17T12:03:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T17:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=5883"},"modified":"2015-04-17T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T17:16:14","slug":"a-week-from-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2015\/04\/17\/a-week-from-today\/","title":{"rendered":"A Week from Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cooper<\/a>A week from today, I will be writing. Rewriting, actually. (Rewriting a novel and hanging out with a friend on our annual writing retreat.)<\/p>\n

I’ve talked about the retreats here<\/a> and here<\/a> (and other times on this blog). I won’t talk about all the things I like about the annual writing retreat again, but its importance is not lost on me.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Without the annual retreat, I would still write next weekend. During any given weekend, I can dedicate more time than usual to writing and get as much done as I will next weekend. When you think about it, a Friday afternoon, a full Saturday, and a Sunday morning is not enough time to really make a lot of progress on something as slow-going as a novel.<\/p>\n

What matters about next weekend is simply making the time — saying that writing is important enough that I’ll dedicate a weekend to going someplace else to do it. Having one weekend a year where a friend and I allow each other to talk about writing matters. (The usual rule is shut up and write because once you talk too much about a story, why bother writing it?)<\/p>\n

Keeping It Simple<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When talking about the retreat with friends at work and other places, people say, “Man, that sounds nice…” And they’re right: it is. What they seem to really be saying is this:<\/p>\n

I’d like to do something like that. I’d like to go away with some friends for a weekend and record music. I’d like to go away with some friends for a weekend and write, make a game, or sit around on a deck carving things out of wood all day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They talk about it as though a retreat is out of reach.<\/p>\n

We pick a cabin in a state park each year because it’s affordable and free of distractions. About a hundred bucks for lodging, 3 – 6 hours of gas money, food we’d be eating anyway, and…it’s a retreat!<\/p>\n

Whatever your thing is, there are few things better than grabbing a friend (or five) and making that thing you love important enough that you make getting away to do it an annual thing…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week from today, I will be writing. Rewriting, actually. (Rewriting a novel and hanging out with a friend on our annual writing retreat.) I’ve talked about the retreats here and here (and other times on this blog). I won’t talk about all the things I like about the annual writing retreat again, but its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883\/revisions\/5889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}