I love posting over at the award-winning blog, Writers in the Storm. They have a plethora of wonderful resources for writers on writing craft and more, and they allowed me to talk about one of my favorite things: Creative Well-Being and Author Writing Retreats.
I recently watched a talk about the drive to survive; how every organism (including us) on the planet has this most basic force driving all decision-making. It is always on the lookout for danger AND always assessing how to meet its most basic needs—food, shelter, procreation, etc.
Applied to our writing, that explains quite a bit.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to observe writers in various situations as the hostess of Cruising Writers. It’s an odd role I play. I’m a writer myself, but on my retreats, I’m less a writer and more an event wrangler. Slipping out of my author-self and into a different role when I’m in a room full of writers can be a bit disjointing at times. But also, it has been very revealing how we as writers react to different ideas, new people, and unexpected situations.