Hiya, squiders! How are you? The last week of school is kicking my butt here, even though I thought I put enough reminders everywhere to not forget things (I forgot a camping meeting with the smaller, mobile one’s troop leader–which was a one-on-one–and just got a text from a parent putting together a video for the bigger, mobile one’s teacher that I also completely forgot about, wheeee).
Yesterday I did a video interview for SPFBO, hosted by the lovely Katherine D. Graham. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any sort of video anything (I think the last one was when I moderated a virtual editing panel for MileHiCon in…2020?) and I succumbed to my nerves more than I would have liked. Ah well.
My writing retreat starts next Thursday! My spouse promises me all the logistics of the mobile ones are taken care of, so I’m trying not to stress out too badly about that. The retreat should be fun. There’s some optional seminar type of classes throughout the day, some of which sound useful, and yoga every morning (the older I get the more I appreciate yoga), and plenty of writing time (especially if you don’t go to all the classes).
But I find myself with a conundrum. What do I work on while I’m there?
The retreat is four-ish days, with several writing or class blocks throughout. (Thursday has seven-ish writing hours, Friday has nine-ish but also potentially the most useful classes, Saturday has nine-ish as well as a brainstorming session, and Sunday has about one and a half)
That’s a lot of writing time! I could potentially get so much done.
Basically, it comes down to three options:
- I continue to work on the Book One revision. I’m on Chapter 27 right now, and I might get it and the brand new Chapter 28 done before the retreat, which leaves Chapters 29-32 still needing to be finished to complete the revision. On one hand, this would be a good way to buckle down and get the revision finished. On the other hand, it’s not very creative, if you know what I mean. I know what happens and am unlikely to deviate from the established story. Also, I get squirrelly as I approach The End and I worry I might waste my time instead of focusing.
- I spend my time going through my idea documents and outlining a variety of other stories. I have a bunch of ideas floating around, and I could probably come up with a good dozen outlines. And then I would have plenty of stories to work on in the near future, and feel like I’m making progress on my idea document, which is not a real thing you can accomplish but still.
- I spend some time before the retreat outlining a new idea (or a couple, if they’re shorter), and then I work on the new idea(s) during the retreat.
I suppose I could also maybe do a combination, where I work on my revision part of the time and do something else the rest of the time. Hm, decisions, decisions.
I just want to make sure that I’m using this time the best I can. I don’t often get a chance to just buckle down and write, and who knows when the next opportunity will come along.
What do you think, squiders? What would you do?
