People! The Musical

It’s only been two days since the authors of BGL dispersed across the country, and I miss them. How to capture this past weekend with words? I find, as I sit here, that words fall short. So here is my meager attempt to tell you what I’ve taken away from this experience.

Group Hug!

People. More than anything from this weekend, I’ve walked away with connections to a spectacular group of people who are dreadfully talented. Writing is, by its nature, a solitary act. Most writers are introverts. Goodness knows I am. Writers have to be comfortable with going all unibomber in order to get words on the page. Many of us enjoy this focused isolation. I do. It recharges me.

This weekend was like pushing a kid who still needs floaties into the deep end without warning. I clung to the fact that at least one person there knew me well, and for the first day, I quietly watched everyone. Hopefully not in a stalkerish way. (As a lifelong people watcher, I like to think that I’ve honed my staring skills without setting off people’s creeper alarms. Not a creeper, right? Right, guys?)

Another author said it best when she likened the experience to summer camp. (In many ways, it was summer camp for authors and illustrators. Less bug juice and archery and more wine and scrivener.) When you first get to summer camp, you scope out the other campers, hoping they’re nice and that you won’t be the kid who trips in the lunch line. Then you slowly talk to people and realize that the other kids are just like you.

And they were, in so many ways, on so many levels.

During the scheduled sessions, we discussed our “if only” projects, our tricks for getting words on paper, books we love and books we hate, industry stuff, how we measure success, and our fears. Outside the scheduled sessions, we discussed life, the universe, horrifying youtube videos, and really epic fanfic. From all of that, I found that these campers were just like me with the same fears and neuroses and hopes and desires.

I walked away from this experience with new friends and a renewed desire for the pursuit and the result of my art being something that connects me to people instead of something that isolates me. I am not alone. Other people DO understand, and I need to stay engaged. Broken record that I am, I’ll say it again: Community breeds art and art breeds community.

P.S. This retreat reinforced many things I knew about writing, but it also taught me new things. From All the Things I Learned at Retreat, I plan to write an ongoing series of posts. Of which, this is Post the First.
P.P.S. I bribed myself into finish this post. To a store that sells Prarie Underground!
P.P.P.S. I will only be blogging two to three times a week, in order to concentrate more on my drafting. While blogging is fun, my focus needs to be on my fiction writing.