Every now and then you have to retreat. Get away from the world. Turn off the phone. The tube. The laptop. And let the mind rest. Eek! Really? All of it? Yes.
It’s best if you can get out of the house. Away from the fam. And the job. And even the hum of the city. Sound impossible? Why? There are 365 days in a year. Can’t you carve out one day? For you? How about for your writing?
This week the good folks at AIR Serenbe, the Artist In Residency program situated an hour south of Atlanta in the super cool, holistic, green Serenbe community were kind enough to give me a week in a cottage to work on my upcoming book on screenwriting. Even here I had a difficult time unplugging. But not from what you might think. There were cafes and cocktail hours. Films in fields and poetry readings. Bike rides and hiking trails. It did my body good being here. As well as my mind. And no doubt my soul. It gave me a place to rejuvenate and refuel, but much to my surprise, I wasn’t able to get done what I hoped. So as we writers are wont to do, I spent my time away from my writing riddled with guilt for not writing. And that’s my point. We all could use a helping hand steering our creative minds to complete our creative tasks.
Often I am asked for a follow-up course to my Screenwriting 101 workshop. From that, people are armed to tackle the blank page and burn through 100 more of their first or fourth script. What then? They want to take it to the next level. To get it to a place where it’s fit to share with agents or investors and try to make something of their pile of ink. For some time, I have been toying with the idea of creating a Rewrite Retreat. A time and place where you can get away with your script and surround yourself with likeminded souls to finish what you started. Fortunately, AIR Serenbe has kindly offered to host just such a screenplay soiree.
We’ll hold the first one over the long weekend of October 13-16. It will be a small gathering of dedicated writers sharing ideas and wine in an intimate setting, and helping one another make their scripts the best they can be. Care to join us?
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