Retreat!

This morning, I am heading up to Pinchot State Park for my critique group's spring writing retreat. It's an event I look forward to, even when the weather promises to keep us all inside the cabins instead of out looking for inspiration among the trees.

For the first time in a long time, though, I have only one project that I am working on, and I'm finding myself a little intimidated by the large block of time that will be available to me. As a wife and mother with a full time job, I've become accustomed to working in small chunks of time, and I find myself wondering if I'll be able to repave the neural pathways that allow me to concentrate on one thing for hours at a time.

And then my blog rode in to the rescue. Since I took a blog workshop from Sarah Reinhard at the online Catholic Writers Conference a few weeks ago, I've found that my stream of blog topics has widened, and that ideas pop into my head on a more regular basis. When I rememembered that I have a blog to fall back on as "break" so that I don't waste the rare and precious gift of extended time to write, I suddenly felt less anxious, and more sure that my fellow writers wouldn't rally to kick me out of the cabin because I wouldn't stop talking when they were trying to write.

Wishing you a sunny writing day inside despite the weather outside. I know I'm looking forward to mine.