I’m back from my writing retreat at Niagara-on-the-Lake! It was a wonderful experience and pretty much what I would hope a writing retreat might be: full of quiet time to think and imagine, excellent conversation, good food, and fun.
I didn’t end up doing a lot of actual writing myself (though some of the other writers produced some staggering amounts of prose, or revised great chunks of their WIPs). I was still on a vacation from my current project, not ready to start revising and really trying deliberately NOT to think about it. Instead I spent my time brainstorming a shiny new story (Literally shiny. It’s about robots). But really the BEST part of the retreat was just being able to hang out, in person, with other writers.
And while in Toronto, I also managed to visit an important tourist destination:
If you don’t understand this reference and you must go watch the Degrassi series! So. Good. (I wanted to be Caitlin, the activist!)
So now I’m back home, missing my writer-friends but happy to be back with my boys. And now, finally, I’m plunging into revisions on my current project. I’ve gotten some fantastic feedback from beta readers, and I’m still really in love with the world and the story. This is a more ambitious book than anything else I’ve written, which is a good thing. But also a scary thing, because I might fail.
I’ve spent the past several days obsessing over my characters– turning them inside out and figuring out their motivations and how they fit together. On Sunday my brain was mush and I was completely overwhelmed.
That’s when Dove Chocolate came to my rescue. Not the chocolates themselves. (Though they are indeed quite tasty. Especially the caramel ones, if you freeze them first. Yum!) But the silly little messages on the wrappers.
Three chocolates in a row. Every one had the same message:
Be Fearless
Okay then. The chocolates have spoken. Look out revision, here I come!
(The even weirder thing? The last time I got a chocolate with that message was the day before the Diversity in YA Cambridge event, when I was terrified of saying something stupid and looking like a dork up on a stage next to the other fabulous authors on the panel.)
Tags: poison maid, revision
