Avoiding Blunders…

Posted on by Tamara Mercer

It is almost here…  One last sleep before I depart for my yearly week-long writers retreat.  You may recall my blog in early March when I expressed my trepidation about this same retreat.  Now, I am happy to report that I have a rejuvenated spirit and I am excited to arrive, burrow into my room, and start a routine of sustained, productive writing.  Why the shift?  Well, in-part, and this may sound weird to some folks, the entire week is forecasted to be rain-filled and miserable.  How does this translate into a positive retreat experience you might ask?  Well, because my ‘day job’ involves working with horses outdoors, I find focusing on writing particularly challenging when the weather is nice, So much so that I am constantly having to drown out that little voice in my head, “you should be outside riding your horses”.  Now, that I know with some degree of certainty that I won’t be missing out on beautiful spring riding weather, I can concentrate on my writing.

The other reason for my attitude shift is one of my good friends, who is an accomplished author, suggested I start a new, fun, light writing project for this retreat.  The intention being, it just might get my creative juices flowing again.  And it has!  For these past few days leading up to the retreat, I’ve been working on character development and having lots of fun and success with this creative process.

So here I am, feeling more confident and armed with a renewed sense of ‘what’ I want to accomplish.  This should help me avoid obvious rookie blunder #1 – ‘turning up for a writing retreat with no plan for what I want to accomplish’.  Having a clear plan will therefore allow me to avoid rookie blunder #2 – ‘wasting the first half of the retreat deciding on how to best maximize my week’.

There’s one rookie blunder I have never made though, and that is ‘under-packing’.  And this applies to everything in my life!   Yes, I confess, I tend to over-pack.  A personal rule that I seemed to have developed over my lifetime is ‘you can never have enough’.  I not only apply this rule to clothes shopping (insert laughter here), but also to the number of reference books I should pack for a writers retreat.  The more experienced writers would probably suggest that I bring only a few key books.  I struggle defining which books are key and instead want to bring them all.  I am currently staring at my book bag filled to capacity and realize, ‘I may have over-packed’.  Tomorrow I will pair it back.

Another blunder I want to avoid is failing to mix in a few valued breaks from writing throughout the week.  I have come to learn that a few intentional and varied ‘retreats’ from my retreat really help with my writing.  So, I’ve loaded my Kindle with some leisurely reading, which of course, includes some horse related stories.  This year the retreat includes a few educational workshops from various presenters too.  And, I have volunteered each morning to lead a twenty-minute light cardio and stretch class; this should help keep us fit and productive.  Overall I am feeling very positive about the upcoming retreat and I look forward to telling you all about it next week.

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”
–William Faulkner

Have a great week!

Tamara

Published by Tamara Mercer

Okay, off the top I want to declare I was once a ‘corporate cog in the wheel’; in fact, I was that cog for over 27 years, and miserable for most of the time. In 2006, my entire department was outsourced. Happy to have been kicked to the curb, I turned my attention to what I was going to do next. Not surprising, I entered the world of self-employment that lead to several mediocre, haphazard positions; including a home renovation business, several direct marketing forays into the health and wellness world and finally two failed attempts at selling horse related products. In between, I had to take jobs at the local box stores to make ends meet. I was tired of following the beat of society’s drum. Feeling defeated and dejected, I stepped back to look at my life and asked myself, “what do I truly want?” I decided I needed the ‘free spirit’ inside of me to flourish. Of course, I also needed to make some money. After all life is not free. About this same time, a good friend was starting to experience some success as a writer. She and I had always spoken about writing, and she had taken the daring leap to becoming a full-time writer a few years earlier. As the author of a successful series, her success was now inspiring me to consider a dream I’d always had, but kept quiet inside me. With her encouragement, I decided to find more time for writing. The answer had surfaced, “I want to be an writer!” That was a few years ago. Where am I now? Well, I’m not a best selling author – yet. I spend as much time as I can writing when I’m not busy at home or working. My husband and I own a small ranch that’s also home to horses, dogs and a feisty barn cat. We don’t have children, of the traditional variety, so we give all our love to the four-legged kids. Horses are a big part of my life. They are the calm that keep me centered on this earth. Fortunately, I’ve managed to develop a small business working with horses so, while I eventually want to write full-time, at least I’m much happier at work now versus those unrewarding days as a cog. As far as developing as a writer, I’ve written a few horse-related articles, and a short essay, about one of my own horses, was published in an anthology. Currently, I have three books in the works. While my writing doesn’t revolve around horses, there’s always one or more horses layered into my stories. I get a lot of writing ideas and tips by listening to podcasts. I think I might actually be a podcast junkie! I am fascinated by the entire writing industry and how it is evolving.

3 thoughts on “Avoiding Blunders…”

  1. What a wonderful way to spend a week. It’s awesome to have time to just ponder and create without distractions. Have fun and leave the “shoulds” and “have to’s” at home 😊📚. Can’t wait to hear all about the workshop.

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  2. I’m looking forward to a productive week as well. I love your comments about ‘over-packing’ – I do the same thing as well. I think it has something to do with the abundance concept. If I’m surrounded by things, books etc. that I love then I feel more relaxed.

    I have a very concrete goal this year. So I will be ‘heads down’ all the way!

    Enjoy your stay!.

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    1. You are so right Jodie, having my things that are familiar and comfortable make the retreat experience so much better. Good for you for ‘head down’ I will try to do the same!

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