Hi friends,
Happy Wednesday! I can’t believe it’s nearly Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend ahead. Last weekend, I hosted a writing retreat for aspiring and newly published writers. It was so much fun.
I knew three of the participants ahead of time, but everyone else was new to me, and most were new to each other. When you have a brand-new group, most who don’t know anyone, you never know how everyone will get along. I worry about anyone feeling left out or people not making friends, but yet again, the entire group meshed amazingly. They even made a Facebook group to stay in touch afterward. Why? I think because we all share the love and frustrations of the writing life.
There’s just something about being with other writers. They understand characters that won’t cooperate and stories that live in our heads and our hearts. Seeing how passionate they are about the stories God has called them to write is so inspiring. I can’t wait until my Spring retreat. I have one spot open, and I’m praying God will send just the right person to join us. I’m so thankful God orchestrates the groups that come. How He knows just who to send. It’s such a blessing see new friendships form, watching ladies stay up late brainstorming and hearing them laugh a lot. Several shared deep wounds during our fellowship time, and I watched God working in their lives. I was so humbled and blessed to be able to spend time with them and encourage them on their writing journey.
I love writing conferences too, but the two are very different from retreats. Conferences are larger with a decent number of faculty. They offer editor and agent appointments, and they provide a great chance to see old friends and make new ones. A writing retreat, on the other hand, typically only has one or two teachers, they are smaller, and there’s a lot of time for learning, laughing and small-group fellowship. Both are wonderful, but they have different purposes.
Another type of retreat are reader retreats. I attended the Fiction Reader Summit in Michigan in May, and it is run to perfection. The speakers were fantastic, and it was such a blessing to attend. Next July, I’ll be one of the authors at the Mississippi River Readers Retreat in Minnesota, and I can’t wait!
It’ll be my first time attending, and I’m so excited. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about it. If you’ve never attended a reader retreat, I highly recommend them. Nowhere else can you find a group of people so passionate about stories. It brings readers and authors (who are avid readers too) together. There are panels and lots of time for everyone to interact at meals. I always leave with a full heart.
Reader Question: Have you ever attended a writer’s or reader’s retreat? If so, what did you enjoy best about it? If you haven’t, would you like to someday?
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Dani
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