Thank you again for contributing to my guest blogger month and helping me find the time to write a little poetry of my own. It is important to find ways to concentrate on the writing you value most, no matter what that form of writing is.

Great ideas for creating your own poetry retreat! Your point that even when we seemingly make little progress in our attempts to craft a poem, we still advance our abilities as poets is a good one. None of our creative effort is ever wasted. It all goes into the repository of talent, technique, experience, and experimentation that combine to create the poet that each of us is now and yet, at the same time, is also in the process of becoming.

Great piece!
Jeanne

Marie Ann, I feel strongly that writers need positive ways to cope with times when the writing doesn’t go so well. Because we all know that sometimes the writing doesn’t go well.

Leigh, It sounds like you are a master of the homegrown retreat!

SM (and everyone), you should check out Tayari Jone’s blog, where she talks about Ribe Tuchus: or Bottom on Chair: http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/archives/2008/06/ribe_tuchus.html. She went to a coffeeshop, sat down (after buying a nice latte), and would not leave until she wrote something, anything.

Thanks, all, for your comments.

Seriously, I enjoyed your post full of good ideas. I would second your recommendation for Natalie Goldberg’s book. We just used it in a graduate writing class that was geared for dissertations, theses, and research papers. It was very helpful.

Morgans last blog post..Singing, Shrimp, and Summer: Sifting for Sustainability Ideas

I really appreciate your emphasis on the positive, that even if your muse isn’t in the mood, the effort and the time you take to write will pay off later.

Great ideas here–that could be applied in so many facets of life. If you carpool or take a subway, you can take a notebook along for ideas (not a “retreat” situation per se, but what the heck); if you travel by car with the family, you can get some writing done there, too, while your partner drives. Yes, it would be great, as Ellen mentions, to be able to go to a Yaddo, Breadloaf, etc., but if you try hard enough, you can carve out the time, solitude, or whatever works for you to get your writing (or brainstorming) done, even if you can’t take a full month away from work or family (or mom or dad) life.

Leighs last blog post..The Music of Words and Other Matters

You’re completely right. All artists (and other folks too!) benefit from taking time out and working on their art. A Motel 6 may not be pretty, but at least you have no distractions!