A Writers retreat recap
I wake up around 6:30am and grab my 7 x 9 navy notebook and a pen. I head to the living room, choosing an oversized black leather chair to sit in and start writing. I skim the pages and realize I’ve written a total of 8 days in a row.
Like anything, it’s important to stay consistent, which is a goal of mine. I’m also trying not to be too hard on myself if I skip here and there because its a new morning practice after all. A brand new habit, which we all know can take time, effort and motivation to make stick.
Writing three pages daily, anything that comes to mind, within the first 45 minutes of waking, is an exercise called Morning Pages. It’s a concept made readily known by international best-selling author Julia Cameron in her book “The Artists Way - A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.” The chapters of the book are broken up into Weeks 1 thru 12, each with tasks and a check-in at the end. It begins with a creative contract with yourself and is littered with quotes, lists and exercises. Essentially its a course in discovering and recovering your creative self through daily, non-negotiable, stream of consciousness writing, as well as taking solo trips to places like a museum or a nature walk, otherwise known as Artists Dates to find inspiration.
I have owned this book for about 20 years now. I remember starting and stopping many a journal and many a morning page. I remember promising myself I’d finish the book in its entirety and never did. Just as creative inspiration can come and go, so can personal goals like completing this book. However if you are a highly creative person, a person lit up by art, design, writing, creation of any kind, then you know it’s only a matter of time for it (that spark, creative muse, an idea) to find you once again.
Cut to mid-August, when an email popped in my inbox. I believe it originated from a Bay Area bookstore called the Book Passage, a haven for authors, writers and avid readers. I must be on the email list from seeing a few book readings/signings in the past. The serendipitous email featured authors Anne Lammott (Bird by Bird), Julia Cameron (The Artists Way) and a few other speakers headlining an upcoming 3-day weekend writing retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As I read further, it said you can also attend virtually and lucky for me, they were still offering discounted early bird pricing on tickets. I glanced at my calendar, and decided rather spontaneously that I could make that weekend work and proceeded to purchase the virtual ticket.
I truly don’t think its a coincidence when opportunities like this cross your path. I hadn’t stumbled upon, or opened a book passage email in months, if not years. I’m a strong believer that if we stay a bit more present in our lives and pay closer attention to the things around us, we can better see the Universe divinely orchestrating things in our favor. Nudging us to try this, see that, or think about this. A realignment to one’s path, purpose and passion.
The biggest reason I chose to attend the writers retreat was to witness Julia Cameron on stage. Being a big fan, owning her book and in a way, seeing her as my creative mentor, made it a no-brainer to attend. I had never been to something like this before. Work-related conferences sure, but not a writers retreat so I didn’t know what to expect.
And boy was I in for some pen-to-paper action. This was not an average writers retreat where you sit there listening to speaker after speaker on stage, lecturing you while you daydream halfway through. No, this actually entailed REAL writing!
In fact, the retreat facilitators and founders had strict rules around this, wanting participants to have at least 50% of each session focused on writing time. They gave us writing prompts, asked thought-provoking questions and in one Saturday session called “Pinning the Butterfly,” she allowed over 20 minutes to write about that dream project on your heart and mind, to just start writing and see what comes of it. It was centered on the crucial point of going from dreaming about a project to actually taking action on it.
Thankfully we had already been warmed up by Anne Lammott’s Friday night session. There was an excerpt from her talk that stuck with me. She said,
“Writing is a sacred calling. You have the skill, the desire, the gift and the dream. You’re here right?!…we didn’t make you come. (audience laughs) You are a writer. You gotta take that seriously. Most normal people don’t want to write. (audience laughs again) In fact, if you could get out of it, you would have.”
And I imagine that’s true, because writing is hard. Putting your thoughts and your truth out there is hard. Being vulnerable is hard. Editors, publishers, readers of your work will judge, criticize and have strong opinions regarding your written word. They will redline it, dismember it and make it unrecognizable.
Anne Lammott’s son Sam was one of three founders who not only put this event together, but spent a year building a new app that created a space and community for writers called A Writing Room Collective. Retreat attendees like me were able to test out the app over the weekend. It provided a very active chat feed to communicate and commiserate over writing, share thoughts and interact during the retreat with everyone involved. If you pay for a monthly membership ($50), the app also allows you to take courses, give feedback to others who can in turn, do the same for you and also provides writing prompts to keep those creative juices flowing.
Speaking of writing prompts, I never knew how powerful they truly could be. I ended up creating a whole two-page story off of something as simplistic as:
There was a tree….
Other writing prompts I loved:
Tell me something you fear.
I am my best self when…
What do you want? What is the cost? Am I willing to pay it?
By Sunday, I found myself vibrating from all the other like-minded, creative writers who experienced this intense, transformative 3-day journey alongside me. To hear others read their work and share their personal stories so openly, made me want to find my voice and tell my story. To see other writers like me get excited again and support one another, it was truly special.
Watching Author Julia Cameron live on stage.
The biggest highlight should come as no surprise to anyone - witnessing Julia Cameron on stage, the so-called godmother of creativity. She said morning pages were like taking a whisk broom to all corners of your house, all corners of your life. Sweeping all your dusty thoughts and words into the center of your room so you can deal with it.
“Morning Pages nudge you forward. They are a potent form of meditation. They are a radical, co-dependency withdrawal.”
What she means by morning pages being a radical, co-dependency withdrawal, is that you find yourself over time, not going along with other peoples agendas anymore. You choose to act on your own behalf. You withdraw from going along with other peoples ideas of what you should be doing. Morning pages give you a voice and a backbone. You find yourself standing up for yourself more.
It’s profound insights like these that will play in my head next time I consider skipping morning pages again. It’s simply not an option anymore. It’s up to me to hold myself accountable. Know my worth, know that its up to me to create and commit to my craft.
For I am a writer.
One of the other writing retreat attendees drew this in honor of a closing session about putting your crown on. Creative coach, Aimee Mine asked us who are we waiting for permission from. Commit to your writing and coronate yourself as a writer.