I attended my very first writing day at the Mustard Seed Retreat July 26. When I first got there, I wasn’t quite sure what to
expect.
The retreat and yard surrounding it are lovely. It’s an old
farmhouse with beautiful flowerbeds around it. Lots of cats and kittens roam
around and really like to get attention. A red barn is outside and Miss Pam
(the lady in charge) said that she holds classes out there.
Inside the retreat is just as nice as the outside. There is
a small kitchen, where candy, fruit and drinks are kept for the writers. Miss
Pam has three different rooms set aside for writing. One it a library and has a
shelf of books and a whiteboard. Emily and I had a good time doing some
character development on the whiteboard near the end of the day.
I arrived at 10 AM. Miss Pam greeted me at the door and
showed me around the house. Reagan had already arrived and Emily
texted me to say she was on her way. I met two of the other writers who were
there that day and settled myself on the couch in the library. It was such a
quiet environment that it was actually a little hard for me to concentrate the
first 15 minutes or so. I’m used to being at home with my siblings running
around and playing, so it was definitely a switch.
Before lunch (around 2 PM) I managed to get about 1,000
words written using my new idea for ‘Freedoms Bonds’ (look for a post on that
in the near future). During lunch, the 6 writers sat around and chatted.
Reagan and I got some brainstorming done for a futuristic,
dystopian, sci-fi idea we had. I’m not going to say too much about the idea
though. I decided, for now at least, that all of you who read my blog (all 8 of
you :P) will be kept in suspense.
A huge storm blew in around 3:00 and we got a little
distracted. At least, the four females who were there did. One girl left after
lunch, so there were only five of us at that point. It was raining so hard that
sheets of water were pouring down the windows. The internet access went out,
followed shortly by the electric. The electric only stayed out for 5 minutes. I
don’t know about the internet.
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| No,this isn't the storm. I just thought this was an interesting picture. |
Starting around 4:45, I started to lose any ability to
focus. I think that’s when the coffee kicked in. It was either the coffee or
the tiredness from the fair week. Either way,
Emily and I were struggling to find any semblance of focus. So what do
writers do when having focusing issues? Character development, of course!
We used Emily’s medieval character and my futuristic
character and started it on the whiteboard. For some reason, my character was a
grouch. Maybe it was just because I don’t know a whole lot about her yet. The
two of us had quite a lot of fun, since some of the things my character
(Alexis) mentioned, were things that Emily’s character (Kesiah) had never heard
of before. Take nail polish for example. Alexis was complaining that her nail
polish chipped and Kesiah couldn’t figure out what she was talking about and
why her nails were an unnatural color.
Overall, I absolutely loved being able to go somewhere and
just write for a day. I wrote 2500+ words, edited and read both Em and Reagan’s
chapters, brainstormed with Reagan and character developed with Emily. I’m
anticipating the next writing day very much.
