Tag: creativity

Doing what you can’t do

As part of my writing retreat at the tiny house, I decided to stretch some other creative muscles. I started trying to learn to draw.

It’s a skill I’ve never had and I didn’t expect to become an artist, but maybe I’d be a passable Pictionary player.

So I got this book

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and got started

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I’ve been sharing my progress (or lack thereof) on Instagram.

If you follow me there, you’ll see that I drew and posted every day for thirty days.

It was an interesting exercise. I ended up learning more about myself than I expected.

But I still can’t draw, lol.

I’d better stick to writing.

I walk alone

One of the reasons I chose to go to North Carolina in mid-April was that I miss Spring.

There are some really great things about living in southwestern Florida, but one of the negatives is that we don’t really have a a change of seasons. I wanted that, so I went out and found it for myself.

I spent a good deal of time on my writing retreat on hiking trails.

I realize that could sound counter-intuitive to getting writing done, but it’s actually a huge help. Being out in nature always fuels my creativity and helps me come up with new ideas.

The act of walking tends to help me sort through the jumble of ideas I’ve got tangled up in my head.

When I was walking with Donna of Girl Who Reads we came across this:

 

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I must admit that I didn’t follow its advice. I hiked for miles alone. (Well, the dog was with me, but she’s no Lassie….if I fell and needed help, she wasn’t going to go find Timmy for me.)

Because I’d seen that sign, I did find myself humming Green Day’s “I walk alone” on a pretty continuous loop.

So if you see a character named Greenday in one of my future works, you’ll know where it came from….  😉

Tiny house for a writing retreat

The day after my lovely visit with Donna of GIRL WHO READS I headed to outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

I rented a tiny house there.

How tiny, Jen?

So tiny that I could touch the kitchen sink, table and bed simultaneously (without stretching). It was so tiny there wasn’t space to lay out my yoga mat, lol.

I picked this place because it provided a cute little writing nook.

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The woman who owned this place is obviously obsessed with baskets. There were 16 scattered throughout the tiny house.

It was time to tap into my creativity and let the writing flow!

 

Deciding to go on a writing retreat

I’m a full-time novelist so it may sound strange to say that I decided to go on a writing retreat. But I did and it was totally worth it. This month I’ll be talking all about it!

Why go on a writing retreat?

I wanted to do something different to shake up my writing routine.  I had a project to finish, another I wanted to get started, and a fun, passion project I wanted to play with.

Also, I miss Spring. While there’s a lot to love about living in southwest Florida, one of the things I miss, being a NJ transplant, is the change of seasons.

I also wanted a change of topography. It’s soooo flat around here. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that the average elevation in Sarasota is 16 feet. That’s not a typo, SIXTEEN!

So I decided to go to the Asheville, North Carolina area in mid-April. Spring! Mountains! No neighbors to get stuck talking to!

I made my plans in January, got the “business side” of my writing world squared away so I only had to focus on the creative end, packed my car, buckled in my dog, and took off.

But before we got to Asheville, we stopped in Georgia because there was something I wanted to try and someone I really wanted to meet!

I’ll tell you about those soon, but let me share the good omen that greeted me in Georgia.

When I was a kid, my favorite book was HORSE OF TWO COLORS so this scene made me happy.

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Z is or ZANY — A-Z Challenge

I have so much fun making the  CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN books zany.

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I love it so much that it says right in my business plan that I want to “write more zany misadventures for Maggie and the gang”.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this kind of zany month on the blog. I think I’ll focus on a different kind of shenanigans in May.

For more zaniness be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook!