Mindy Carlson

Last week I was in Canada hosting my own little solo writing retreat. I didn’t go to Canada only for that. The kiddos went to curling skills camp in Ontario. And then instead of driving 8 or 9 hours back to Maryland and then making this return journey 5 days later, I decided to carpe the diem and get some intensive writing done.

I drove north to The Blue Mountain Resort right next to Lake Huron. It’s a planned vacation village centered around a man-made lake. It’s very popular in the winter as a ski resort, but Blue Mountain was also surprisingly busy hosting young families out for summer holidays that included hiking and pool-time.

This is the second year I’ve given myself this concentrated time away from my normal concerns and commitments. It reduces my guilt about focusing solely on my writing. No family. No friends. No errands. No problems. Just my work and me.

And it was worth it. I not only finished the rough draft of a brand-new manuscript I’m insanely in love with, but I also finished the draft of a fun short story I’m now polishing and getting ready to submit to an anthology or a magazine.

My retreats are the embodiment of the “little cabin in the woods” fantasy all writers have. I don’t know a single writer who hasn’t thought, “If I could just disappear into a little cabin in the woods, I could write my novel.”

Is this a fantasy? Yes and no.

You can’t disappear into the woods and expect a book to simply appear on your computer without goals and a plan on how to get there.

My new author friend Jesse Q. Sutanto (author of Dial A for Aunties and the forthcoming I’m Not Done With You Yet) is famous for checking into a hotel for 3 days and pounding out the majority of a novel, but she puts in a ton of time outlining and pre-writing. “Have an outline!” she told me in a recent Insta-chat. “It’s so much easier to speed write if you know where the story is going.”

Another tip: “Get as much support as you can from anyone in the community. For example, I like doing it with my friend Laurie Flynn. She does it in Canada and I do it in Jakarta and we just chat virtually and do writing sprints together and it helps so much.”

For my retreats, I make sure I have A Goal that’s realistically achievable. Then I break it down into daily goals. Word counts. Page counts. Outlining sign posts. Characters invented/developed. It all depends on where I am in the writing process.

I even make myself a chart. There’s nothing more satisfying that checking off boxes. (Or applying adorable stickers or stamping with cute ink stamps.)

Having small goals keeps my head in the game. I’m less likely to feel overwhelmed by the enormous number of words I’m responsible for creating and drift away into Netflix where it’s safer and I have no responsibilities.

So here were my goals for last week:

• Produce 8k-10k words on manuscript or until finished
  • 2k words each day
• Finish short story
  • About 500 words
• Read The Crow Trap, by Anne Cleeves

I got all of it done! Mission Accomplished! And I’m already excited for next year.

What I’ve Been Reading

Black Sheep, by Rachel Harrison

A fun horror novel about a young woman lured back to the cult she escaped to attend the wedding of her best friend to her ex-boyfriend. I interviewed Rachel for The Big Thrill. The interview will be coming out around September 19^th, which is Rachel’s release date.

Love and Other Crimes, by Sara Paretsky

A fun collection of short stories Sara’s written over the years. Many of them feature her famous private detective V.I. Warshawski. The stories are long enough to be satisfying, but short enough that you can dip in and out at your leisure. Perfect for your last hurrah at the pool.

Cheers!
Mindy

You can order my book at Swamp Fox Books, an independent, family-owned  book store! Or Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any of your local bookstores.