#NaNoWriMo Alternatives: Retreating to a Retreat 2

In Retreating to a Retreat 1 Jex Collyer and Alan Wilkinson shared their reasons for escaping their normal writing spaces. In this concluding part they explain what they get from the experience.

Focus

Yes, it really is that simple.

Writing has been Alan Wilkinson’s day job for the past 20 years, and when he’s writing fiction he schedules for 1,000 words a day five days a week. ‘That way I know how long a project will take me to draft.’

We both know novelists who can complete that in an hour, and some days he’s not far behind. Other days... ‘I may be at my desk by 7am and reach lunch with only the first sentence down, then I know it’s going to be a graft day.’ Graft days can sprawl across sixteen hours, but he’s philosophical. ‘Regardless of whether it is by 10am or midnight, those 1,000 words get written. It’s my job and my partner accepts it.’

Jex Collyer has been writing consistently since 2008 and her schedule is more akin to the normal life of most people. She has a full-time job, a partner and “a healthy social life”. She uses the walk to her day job to ponder plot points, and emails these to herself from her phone so she can work on them during evening stints at her keyboard. She also believes in having a pad handy to scribble notes while she's cooking, but accepts that the bitty aspect of fitting writing around other work is not ideal.

‘It would be easy to decide I didn’t have time to write, which is the very reason I book myself into a retreat, so I have dedicated time to concentrate on my drafts.’  Being disciplined about distractions is the key.

'Even if I'm only in a cafe for a morning or afternoon's stint, the wifi is switched off and the phone set to silent. I'll check for calls when it suits the writing, not stop the writing to take the call.' And other people's noise? 'I always write to music. At home it's on surround sound, everywhere else it's on headphones.'

It's the same routine when she stays in a retreat, be it a residential library or a small hotel, with the addition that there's no sweating the small stuff, like do I need to buy potatoes? or knowing the washing-up is waiting; meals come all-in. 'Retreats are ideal for full immersion into your fictional world. It's one of my favourite sorts of holiday.'

Alan relishes his breaks when he's on a residency in America as driving into a small mid-west town, or calling into a diner for a meal, can throw up some wonderful copy. 'I'm usually there to concentrate on a specific work, but I'm also very aware that the act of being in unusual surroundings can stimulate new ideas, or provoke responses to the place that no amount of previous book or internet research can provide.' And don't get him started on the people he meets. 'They'd only be believed in the sort of travel-writing I do; never in a fictional novel.'

What Alan and Jex completely agree on is the need to focus. 'Just do it. This is your work, your career, your calling. Demand that it be taken seriously, by others as well as yourself.' 

And if you need to separate your writing time from your home-life time, even if it's just to prove a point to yourself, what better way than to find your own writing retreat. 

I thank my guests for their input over these two posts. Do leave a comment if you've found them useful, or add in how and where you found your personal bolt-hole.

For how Alan and Jex choose a retreat to suit their different needs go to Retreating to a Retreat 1.

Alan Wilkinson has just completed Chasing Black Gold (The History Press, July 2015). His account of a six-month retreat on a western cattle ranch, The Red House on the Niobrara, is available as an extensively illustrated e-book, or paperback. Toad's Road-Kill Cafe, his sharply observed trip up the 100th meridian from Mexico to Canada, is available as an ebook.

Visit his website or catch his ruminating blog

J.S. Collyer is a Science Fiction novelist from Lancaster, England. She likes narratives that are larger than life. Her first book Zero: An Orbit Novel (Dagda Publishing) is now available internationally in paperback and for Kindle, and she's working on a sequel.  
Follow her on Twitter: @JexShinigami
'Like' her on Facebook or drop into her writing blog 

#NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Retreating to a Retreat 1

Like most writers, I started with a pad and pen on the kitchen table after my toddler was in bed and my spouse on his shift. From there it escalated to a grocery box into which reference books, portable typewriter, paper, etc, could be stored when we were eating. A house move allowed me a small desk in the corner of a bedroom to site a desktop computer. Our current house allows me an entire room, and my “office” has grown accordingly. What hasn’t grown in tandem is my writing output. Should I retreat to a Retreat?

I first came across Writing Sheds while tutoring a course at one of the UK Arvon Foundation’s centres. Dotted in the extensive grounds, they were 6x4ft with a window and the bare minimum of folding chair and writing shelf. A few novelists I know now have larger, more plush versions in their gardens ...where the household jobs aren’t glaring at me. I can certainly see the advantage of that, but do I want to cross a muddy lawn in the pouring rain to a cold shed?

Jex Collyer writes speculative fiction and her debut novel, Zero, was launched this summer. ‘In my experience, a novel demands a lot from you. To keep all the threads of your plot together, to get all the events down, to build a proper pace and keep your characters and style consistent, you need to dedicate a large amount of time to work and in big chunks when you can.’

Too often she caught herself trying to slot writing around domestic and employment responsibilities which was when she first decided to look into using residential libraries and study centres. It worked; the words flowed.

‘I find these offer the best environment as usually they provide an inspirational place to work as well as accommodation.’ And these can prove surprisingly inexpensive. ‘One of the libraries I go to is only £60 a night and this includes breakfast and dinner.’ Country retreats offered by religious foundations such as the Quakers, also prove excellent value.

Alan Wilkinson, a ghost-writer and long-time writer of fiction and non-fiction, needed a creative retreat when he had to complete a book in seven days. ‘It was a lovely old house, and there was a painter and a musician staying, too. Food was all in, and all responsibility of domesticity was removed.’ Even better, it was situated in his original home town, not visited for years. ‘Once the words were flowing I could take time to walk down memory lane. For me, the retreat has to be an adventure in itself.’ 

And these adventures have taken him to the USA. ‘One was in Florida and related to a writer whose work had long fascinated me – being the former home of Jack Kerouac. A second was in Nebraska, close by the home-place of a writer, Mari Sandoz, whose work was the subject of my writing at the time. This winter I’m taking one in northern New Mexico, a place I have lived in, enjoy, and am fascinated by.’

With his writing credentials, Alan has often been able to apply for bursaries, even if they don’t always come his way. ‘This started one dire day when the words wouldn’t come. As displacement I searched “writer’s residencies” and kept following links. It’s amazing the opportunities out there if you are willing to hunt them down.’

Bursaries – financial help towards fees and/or travelling expenses – aren’t just for those writers with an extensive back-list. Check the small print of your chosen centre to see if your circumstances fall within its guidelines.

For Jex Collyer it isn’t the wider surroundings that’s the priority. One of her most productive stints was undertaken in a B&B half an hour’s train journey from home. ‘I’m not a fan of writing where I sleep so I look for somewhere either with a residents’ lounge or a library within walking distance.’ And whereas Alan takes residencies infrequently, for Jex little and often works best. ‘Even if I have a month when I simply can’t afford to go away, I spend a day in a local cafe, library or bar – just so I’m in my own mental space separated from the jobs that are always waiting at home.’

Convinced? I think I might be. To learn how Jex and Alan utilise their time away, join us next Saturday for Retreating to a Retreat 2. This NaNoWriMo series started with #NaNoWriMo is Live - But is it for You?

J.S. Collyer is a Science Fiction novelist from Lancaster, England. She likes narratives that are larger than life. Her first book Zero: An Orbit Novel (Dagda Publishing) is now available internationally in paperback and for Kindle.  
Follow her on Twitter: @JexShinigami
'Like' her on Facebook or drop into her writing blog 

Alan Wilkinson has just completed Chasing Black Gold (The History Press, July 2015). His account of a six-month retreat on a western cattle ranch, The Red House on the Niobrara, is available as an extensively illustrated e-book, or paperback
Visit his website or catch his ruminating blog

More History Than Anyone Should Have To Deal With

Sixty years ago - 1951 to be precise - petrol was 3s 4d (that's shillings and pre-decimal pence) per UK gallon of  4.5 litres, making the cost equivalent to 3.5p a litre in today's money. For the non-Brits reading this, it is currently coming in at around £1.33 a litre, that's a whisker short of £6 a UK gallon. A pint of beer cost 1s 3d (1/3d I believe we used to write it), and a three bedroomed semi-detached house £1,450 - which I know to be correct as I've just found the receipt to my parents' house bought in 1952. The average weekly full-time wage was £8 6s 0d for men; £4 9s 10d for women (equivalent to £8.30/£4.49 in modern money).

Still nostalgic for the "good old days"? Well try this one. In 1951, that's six years after the end of the Second World War, the meat ration per person stood at its lowest level ever, 10d (4p) worth per week for an adult, which could buy you, if you could find it, 4ounces of rump steak. And meat didn't finally come off ration until 1954. Pretty dire, eh?

I thought so until I was reading Alan Wilkinson's blog. He's a writer friend of mine who, in true English eccentric style, has gone to live on the Nebraska range for six months, ostensibly alone, to write. The family who own the land got it under the Homestead Act in 1904 and lived first in a dug-out, then in a sod-house, before building the first home-made block-built ranch-house in 1923. It's now used as a hunting lodge, and it's the house he's staying in. There's a lot of history mixed in with his observations. Drop by, you'll find it interesting.