Heart and Scroll Writer's Retreat
June 12, 2004
Bloomington, IL

I belong to the national organization, Romance Writer's of America (RWA) and through that group, I became involved in a local chapter called Heart and Scroll.  We meet every month and go over chapter business, and then spend the majority of our time reading members' pages, and offering critiques or suggestions for improvement.  We also do some "career counseling" as needed for writers who are having troubles either breaking in, or breaking out of a rut.  There is a wide variety of writing styles, and experience levels represented.  Several of our writers are full-time, published authors.  Others, like me, are newer to the publishing world and are working on advancing through the ranks of the publishing hierarchy.  And others are unpublished, and working diligently toward that first "yes" from an editor.

On June 12, we met for a creativity retreat and it was a day very well-spent.  Several themes kept arising throughout the day and so we christened these phrases as our official mottos for the retreat:

"Be Careful What You Wish For"
"Embrace Your Inner Bitch"
and
"To Thine Own Niche Be True"

We spent part of the morning going around the table and each writer had to answer these questions:

What is the one problem that's stopping you from achieving your writing goals?
and
What does a successful writing career look like, to you?

It was very enlightening to think about those things in relation to yourself, and equally interesting to hear those answers from my fellow chapter members.  As you'd probably guess, few writers had the same answers.  For me, I'd say the one problem that's stopping me from achieving my writing goals, is that I'm not sure I've found my "niche" yet.  I know what I like to write about -- families thrown into jeopardy in everyday life situations, and how they rise above it to eventually succeed, after some degree of trauma and heartache --  and I seem to have some degree of talent in this area.  But who do I market that to?  I consistently break the rules of category romance.  Single title is a possibility, yet it is just so difficult to break into!  So do I try to adjust what I write to fit into what the category publishers are looking for?  Or do I continue down the path of what I like to write, do it as best I can, and keep improving with each book -- knowing full well that small press may be the only home for the books I write?  (I think the answer to that question, discussed by the members on my behalf, is found in Motto #3.)

And the answer to the second question, for me, was:  a body of work that I can be proud of.  Nothing more, nothing less.  After really thinking about it, it is NOT my goal to be published by a major NYC publisher.  Sure, I'll keep trying to gain their attention -- and if lightning happens to strike, so be it, and thank you, God!  But that doesn't have to happen for me to consider my writing career successful.  Heck, my writing career is already successful, with two published books!  I think it was this discussion that gave birth to our first motto -- Be Careful What You Wish For.  Sure, it sounds like a great life to be a full-time writer, never having to get up and go into an office job -- just sitting at the computer all day, happily creating the fiction that you're dying to create, occasionally addressing your adoring fans on a book tour, etc.  WAKE UP, folks!  It's not like that.  It's all about deadlines, and pushing a book out that may not meet your "personal best" standards, but because it's good enough to go to press.  It's about compromises -- and maybe writing a book that doesn't particularly interest you, because that's the topic the editor needed to fill that particular slot.  I'm not saying it's horrible -- but it's definitely not the dream existence that all of us who think we want to be full-time authors -- think it is!

Anyway, we moved on to the next exercise of the day -- reading five pages of "something old" -- a piece of writing from a previous work which identifies what is typical for you -- a representation of your style.  Then we all discussed what everyone thought your strengths were, as a writer.  Since we focused on strengths this was a very uplifting experience!  :)  Then we read five pages of "something new" -- a piece of writing we brought that was a departure from what we normally do -- intended to open up the floodgates of creativity and remove the barriers we've put up for ourselves.

After lunch, we did a writing exercise:  with our own WIPs (works in progress) in mind, we answered the following questions, first for the hero of our story, then for the heroine, then for ourselves individually:

What is one thing this person wants to get rid of, but hasn't?
What is one thing this person needs to get rid of, but won't?
and
What is one thing this person would fight tooth and nail to keep?

It was an interesting exercise that enabled me to get to know my new hero and heroine, Josh and Regan, better. 

At that point in the day, I had to leave, but I left knowing that I was going to miss a very valuable exercise, where I would've learned a lot  -- "Blurbability."  The art of condensing your plot down to a short paragraph which you can pitch to an agent or editor and make it sound sell-able.  Hopefully I'll be able to pick that one up at a conference in October that's already on the schedule.

It was a great day and I'm really glad I went!