Writing in Retreat

Writing is a solitary occupation - or so it is said. But if you can find 'your tribe', other writers who share the passion and understand the frequent need to stare into space or scribble or type frantically for hours at a time, it's like finding gold. Not necessary to be solitary after all. And the creative energy generated is increased many-fold through the sharing and supporting of each other's journey.
Six writers, who all belong to Romance Writers of NZ but who write in different genres, came to stay with me at my sister's home where I am currently house-sitting.

It's the perfect venue for a small retreat and I'm very grateful for the opportunity and her willingness for us to use her home in this way.
Genres included regency romance, crime, fantasy and contemporary and you would wonder how such diverse writers could help one another. The process and the business of writing is the same whatever genre is your passion. Things like keywords, target market, synopses, creation of covers and marketing strategies are issues for us all. And we can share our editing expertise with each other too. Often it's easier to edit someone else's work than it is to be clear about the issues in one's own.

We all set goals on Saturday morning and we all finished the weekend with happy smiles at what we'd achieved. One wrote 2000 words! My main goal was to create a cover for a prequel & sequel to a series that I want to publish as a permanent freebie. With lots of input from everyone else I have created something I'm really happy with. Six pairs of eyes, two of whom are also artists, were more valuable to me than I can say. Here's the result. Now to get down to the process of publishing it, always a little daunting at first.
But I have the cover and that makes me keen to start!

And by the by, when writers get together, they also need to eat. Looked like each of us came prepared to feed the masses! Thank goodness my sister's house has the perfect spot to accumulate it all!

Of course there had to be a superviser! Madame Pene made sure all kept their focus on the goals!
And focus we did. An awesome weekend.