Proposals for nonfiction, fiction, picture books, and pretty much everything in between all contain certain components (listed below). Throughout the upcoming posts, I will discuss what each of these components are, offer ideas on how to incorporate them into your proposal, and talk about how they may differ depending on the type of proposal you are writing.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past that a writer really only needed a proposal for nonfiction work. But that went away with the days of relying on a publisher to do most of your marketing for you. Now, whether you’re writing a novel, a picture book, young adult fiction, or any kind of nonfiction, plan on sending in a proposal either before or in conjunction with your manuscript.

The type of manuscript you’ve written will be one of the major differences reflected in how you present your proposal. For instance, with nonfiction, you can get by with an outline and three sample chapters of your manuscript. For novels and picture books (and sometimes children’s nonfiction), you will be required to submit your completed manuscript along with your proposal.

Often, even with nonfiction, many industry experts recommend completing the manuscript before writing the proposal, even if you’re not submitting it at the same time. There are many reasons why this makes good sense, and I’ll address these points in a later post when I discuss the details of a nonfiction proposal.

For now, here’s an overview of what every good proposal should include (the order of these elements may vary, except for the Table of Contents, Overview, Book Specs, Outline/Summaries, and Sample Chapters–these need to be placed in the very beginning or the very end):

- Title Page

- Table of Contents

- Book Overview (contains your Book Hook)

- Markets or Audiences for Your Book

- Comparable and/or Competitive Titles

- Author Bio

- Marketing / Promotion Plan

- Endorsements

- Book Specs

- Outline and Chapter Summaries

- Sample Chapters or attached manuscript

In my next post, I’ll start tackling these sections one by one, and then discuss areas of differences in how to present them based on the type of book you’re writing. In a final post, I’ll cover how to professionally format your proposal and package it for submission.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some resources to check out for a more thorough exam of writing book proposals.

There are two books that I’ve used extensively for helping me walk through the book proposal process, and I highly recommend both:

Book Proposals that Sell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success by Terry Whalin, Donna Clark Goodrich, and Steven Laube

How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen

One more book that comes highly recommended is Author 101 Bestselling Book Proposals: The Insiders Guide to Selling Your Work by Rick Frishman.

Additionally, you may want to take a look at editor and author Terry Whalin’s 12-week e-course which covers just about anything you’d need to know about writing proposals and the proposal process: www.writeabookproposal.com

Similarly, author and book consultant Mary DeMuth has developed two tutorials on writing book proposals, one for fiction and one for nonfiction: www.marydemuth.com/store/book-proposal/  and  www.marydemuth.com/store/fiction-proposal-tutorial/

In a separate category are conferences targeted specifically to those who write for children. Most of these, but not all, are under the umbrella of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. They include both their two national annual conferences as well as some various regional events around the country. You do not need to be a member of SCBWI to attend, although you will get a better rate if you are.

Please check out my Writers’ Resources page to view the conference list. Don’t wait too long–some take place later this month!

I realize that money is tight for many, and time is even tighter. But I encourage all of you who want to learn more about the art of writing (in any form) or who need to make some good industry connections for 2012, to choose one or two of these conferences to attend.

If you can find a local one in your area you may be able to save money if you don’t have to stay overnight or fly to get there. If not, perhaps you could work a conference around a vacation. However you need to do it, I highly recommend going to at least one this year. You will always learn something, and you just never know who you might meet–your next agent or publisher perhaps!

I also believe an important part of goal setting that often gets overlooked is the revision of previous goals in order to form new ones. The prefix “re,” as most of you probably know, simply means “again.” So when you’re working on a revision of something, you’re trying to cast your vision again. When you revise a manuscript, you’re hoping to give it better focus, make your vision for it become clearer and come alive on the page. Likewise, when you revise previous goals, you’re trying to cast your vision for those goals again.

Instead of forming completely new goals for 2012, look back to those goals you set for yourself in 2011 (or even earlier). Which ones were you able to meet? Which ones did you come close to meeting? And which are still a dream?

If you met your goals–kudos to you! Look at those and ask yourself if they were perhaps too easy. Did you have to push yourself to meet them, or did they come rather effortlessly? This will help you in constructing new ones. Then determine if reaching those goals helped you stay on track with your overall career goals. You may’ve met your goal for writing 50 poems over the course of the year, but now that you’ve accomplished it, has it brought you closer to where you want to eventually end up as a writer?

If you came close to meeting your goals but didn’t, ask yourself why not. Were there distractions that got you off track? Did you end up going in a different direction with your writing? Did you just get lazy? (That last one can be tough to honestly admit!)

Sometimes distractions get in the way that cause our writing to take a back seat. That’s OK. If you still believe in these goals and think they are do-able, then recast them for 2012. Sometimes not meeting your goals because you ended up taking a different path is a good thing. In this case, re-evaluate those goals and see if you want to completely abandon them for your new direction. This is the power of goal revision. If you failed to meet your goals simply because of apathy or laziness, look closely at those as well and determine if those goals are still worth striving for. If your heart’s not really in it, then perhaps those need to be abandoned as well.

If you’re leaving 2011 with goals that are still only a dream and you haven’t even come close to reaching them, try to determine the reason. Were they unrealistic to begin with? If you set a word count goal for yourself with 3 kids under the age of 4 in the house, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Or, if your goal was to hit the NY Times Bestseller List when all you’ve published so far were magazine articles, there’s a good chance you’re going to be let down.

If you truly felt your goals were realistic but you still didn’t meet them, was it was due to circumstances out of your control? In this case, there’s not much you can do but try again. Either re-set those same goals for 2012 or revise them to include only elements you can control: “I will submit my manuscript to 10 publishing houses or agents by the end of 2012″ vs. “I will have my manuscript published by the end of 2012.”

You can’t control what happens once your manuscript hits an editor’s desk, but you can control the process of getting it there.

Don’t just dive into your new goals without looking behind at your previous ones. Use them as your springboard to re-direct, re-vise, and re-evaluate your writing path. You’ll have a much clearer look into the future after you’ve looked into the mirror.

Blessings for a prosperous and word-filled 2012! And, please check this blog over the next week for an update list of 2012 writers’ conferences.

Here’s Tiffany…

Rhyme is a beautiful thing. Except when it’s not.

Stringing together rhyming sentences is only the tip of the iceberg. Great rhyming picture books result from the seamless integration of story telling, perfect meter, bouncy rhythm, and last but not least, the rhyming words.

Below you will find a mix of tips, tricks, and tests that should help you not only gauge where you may stand as a rhyming picture book author, but also elevate your work to the next level. Here we go!

 1)   Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow.

Aka:  THE most important rule of all

Like a figure skater gliding across the ice, executing leaps, spins, and perfect landings, the words of a rhyming PB should flow effortlessly from the reader’s mouth—never forcing him or her to stumble, reread, or create awkward pronunciations to fit the rhythm.

Test: Here’s a simple test you can run to check on the accuracy of your word stresses: Pick a line in your story. Any line. Put it alone on a page and read it out loud. What syllables do you stress? Capitalize them so you don’t forget. Now put the line back into the context of your story, and read it out loud again. Are you still stressing the same syllables? If so…awesome! If not, rewrite that line. Period.

Additional test: Read through your entire story out loud while tapping your toe like a metronome. You should be able to bounce right along through the whole thing with no stumbling. Is it working? Good! Not so much? Go back to the first test:

 MON-sters are a SPOO-ky bunch

 a SCAR-y, hairy GROUP.

They RUN in packs, leave GI-ant tracks

and DINE on eyeball SOUP.

Do you hear the consistency of the meter in the stanza above?  Can you tap your toe right through it?  Do you hear how every stress is completely natural?  Note that each couplet has the same number of stressed beats as well. If we mix up a few words, we can see the stanza completely fall out of rhythm (as well as the consistency of the number of stresses that occur):

Monsters are spooky as can be

A scary group.

They run in packs, leave tracks

and dine on bone soup.

Do you hear how many unnatural stresses the reader is forced to insert in order to get through the stanza?

MON-sters are SPOO-ky AS can BE

a SCAR-y group.

They RUN in packs,  LEAVE tracks

and dine on BONE soup.

That’s the way I would be forced to pronounce the words.  Unnatural stresses are everywhere:  AS, LEAVE,  BONE….  You wouldn’t naturally stress any of those if you were saying the same sentences one by one.  (Try it!)  And as a result of the awkward reading, it’s tough (I’d argue impossible) to get lost in the story.

Tip: These tests are even more helpful if you have an objective party read your manuscript FOR you while you listen and take notes on where they stumble, etc.

2) Step right up and pick a meter….any meter….

Did you choose the right meter in the first place?  Different meters definitely lend themselves better to different stories. Try starting your story with a few meters before you commit to one.

Tip:  The right rhythm will make your whole book fall together beautifully. Experiment and see the difference! (PS: I cannot lie. This is HARD.)

3) Syllables are your friends!

Scan through your manuscript. Does every rhyming word contain exactly one syllable? Play, day, say, hay, may? No way!

Trick:  Sprinkle some two- and three-syllable rhymes throughout your story to make for a more enjoyable read AND expose children to a broader vocabulary!

4) Story first. Rhyme second. Period.

This is critical. When you write a rhyming picture book, your number-one priority should not be to make it rhyme. Your number-one priority should be to write the most beautiful, humorous, silly, lovely, heartwarming (insert adjective of your choice here) story you can…that just so happens to rhyme.

In other words: rhyme shmime. Without a solid, well-paced storyline, believable character development, real conflict/resolution and a strong open and close, who really cares if it rhymes?

Test:  Be honest with yourself. Take any (or perhaps every) line in your manuscript. Would you have written those words if your story didn’t have to rhyme?  Would your main character have said that, done that, felt that if your story didn’t have to rhyme?  Make sure your answer is YES 100% of the time. If it’s not…scrap the line immediately and rewrite.

Little Molly took her dolly

out to drink some tea.

She tripped and fell and dropped her doll,

and then she said, “oh gee!”

I can’t tell you how many times I come across verses like this when I do critiques.  The verse is completely unnecessary to the story (or at the least the final two lines are), which causes the rhyme to feel forced.  I guarantee, it is nothing they would have ever written if they weren’t searching for a rhyme.

We can replace the last line with:  “beneath the chestnut tree.”

This adds purpose to the verse (description of where the doll landed), which saves the rhyme from sounding forced. Can you feel the difference?

Well, there you have it.  A light smattering of tips, tricks, and tests to help gauge the level of your rhyming manuscript.  I hope you’ve found these useful, and remember: Rhyme is a tricky but wonderful thing. When it’s bad, it’s a mess; when it’s right, it will sing. Happy writing!!

Tiffany’s obsession with rhyme began at the age of 3, when a nursery school admissions scout asked her, “What is a flower that rhymes with nose?” and she proudly shouted: “Rose!” Twenty-five years later (give or take), now married with two sons and coming off of a long career in finance, she has reconnected with her love of words and rhyme as a writer.

To learn more about Tiffany, visit her website at www.itsrhymetime.com or visit her on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/tshauthor. And, if you write rhyme and need that objective third party to review your work, contact her for a critique quote. She can help you fine tune and find your rhythm!

Contests, however, should be approached more strategically than such happenstance. Not only are contests an excellent way to practice sharpening your writing skills, but the rewards can be great. Most offer either cash awards or writers’ resources or toys (books, software, e-readers, and so forth) for placing in the top 3 (some even in the top 10), which can be good enough reason for sending in a submission.

But even if you don’t win or place in the competition, think of the panel of judges you’ll have carefully reviewing your work. Your manuscript would probably not gain this much attention if you sent it to an editor directly. Many writers have received book deals, gained agents, or at least got their work published because of a writing contest. And, I’ve heard of others who, even though they didn’t win the contest, the judges were so impressed with their work that they’ve used them for work-for-hire projects or have given them an open door to submit more manuscripts to them.

Not bad for a $25 entry fee and a little bit of your time.

I wouldn’t suggest entering every contest you come across, however. For one, there’s usually a price tag involved to enter, even though it’s typically small. Instead, pick and choose those that best fit your genre. If you’re a beginning writer, you’d also probably do better with a smaller contest where you’re not going to be up against thousands of entries.

I’ve chosen just a few writing contests on the short-term horizon for your perusal. In addition, at the bottom of this list are websites to bookmark for future reference, as they contain their own lists of contests held throughout the year. Pay attention to the deadlines, as most are fast approaching.

• CNW Publishing – Contests for fiction, nonfiction, children’s, and poetry; deadline for all entries: 3/15/12

• Athanatos Christian Ministries – Contests for Christian short stories and poetry; deadlines: 3/19/12

• Fish Publishing – Contests for fiction, poetry, and short memoirs; deadlines: 3/20/12 for fiction and 3/30/12 for poetry and memoirs

• Writer’s Digest – Contests in nearly every genre, including sci-fi, thriller, YA fiction, flash fiction, poetry, self-published books, and short stories; deadlines vary throughout the year. Also have one annual competition that also covers several different genres.

• American Christian Fiction Writers – Contests include 9 different fiction categories, such as YA, historical, and speculative; contests open in early January and close in early March

• Women on Writing – Quarterly contests for flash fiction; next deadline: 2/29/12

• Arts & Letters – Contests for fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and poetry; deadlines: 2/28/12

• Summer Literary Seminars - Contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; deadlines: 2/28/12

• FanStory – Continual contests throughout the year in various genres

• The NewPages Classifieds – Lists contests for magazines and books throughout the year

• Poets & Writers – Lists poetry and various writing contests throughout the year

So, what’s the point of this story, and what does it have to do with writing? Well, the catch is, while I’d love to just hang out at the pool all day, or play volleyball with my daughter, or watch SpongeBob with my seven-year-old, as usual, I have work to do. I promised myself, as always, that I wasn’t going to work over vacation. But, as always, I have no choice. Deadlines loom, and somehow or another, the work must get done.

So instead of a happy-go-lucky, carefree vacation, I’m spending my time trying to achieve a balance between working and spending fun, quality time with my family. I try hard to avoid having my kids’ (and my own, for that matter) memories of our vacations include me always having laptop or pad of paper within reach.

Since I’ve in no way yet mastered this dilemma, I’d really enjoy hearing from some of you who’ve been able to win the struggle of being a writer on vacation. In the meantime, here are some ideas I’m toying with at the moment:

1. Set aside a definite, particular time every day for work. This way, everyone will know what times are off-limits for Mom and can work around my schedule accordingly. But, what if something we’ve already planned ends up interfering with this allotted time?

2. Wait for everyone else’s moments of downtime to sneak in some work. This is actually what I’m doing now, but, what if my four other family members’ downtimes don’t always coincide?

3. Don’t worry about it; just enjoy my vacation, and work nonstop when I get home. Possible, but then I’d have all the stress of hitting all my deadlines once I return home, which of course, would make my vacation stressful simply thinking about it!

I apologize for whining, but you can see my dilemma–and why I need your help! I also apologize that this isn’t much of an instructional post–actually, I’m hoping to learn from you! Managing the writing life isn’t always easy. Freelancing can be tough because you ten to always be on the clock–no matter how hard you try not to. But, on the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for being able to work in your bathing suit next to a pool if you wish. I doubt that I would trade it for anything!

Until next week when I’ve returned home and hopefully, everything’s returned to normal.

1. In a workshop I teach, I talk about how to create suspense in your writing by not giving away all the goods at once. One way to do this is through the use of dialogue. Instead of strictly using narrative to spell out your characters’ every move or provide key details of background information, take advantage of your scenes with dialogue to allow the necessary information to trickle out in conversation.

This could come in the form of conflict where two or more characters are arguing, it may happen with one character accidentally spilling the beans over a important piece of information, or it might just be a casual conversation where some much-needed info is revealed. However you choose to divulge your facts, use your dialogue as stepping stones that gradually uncover the elements you wish to get through to your reader. But, resist the temptation to do it all in one scene. Give your reader some tasty morsels to chew on for a while before you reveal deeper insights.

2. One fun way to create realistic dialogue is to get into character with your characters. In other words, put yourself in your character’s place. You should be doing this anyway to help better develop your characters, but it’s especially helpful when writing their dialogue. Say the lines you already have written for them out loud, or if you don’t have anything written yet, imagine what your character might say based on the situation he’s in, then speak out what’s probably going through his mind or what he wants to tell the other character he’s with. Don’t just keep it in your head or on your paper. It’s important to hear their words out loud.

As you’re speaking, think about the dialect, personality, and even mannerisms of your character. Now, pretend you’re the other character in the scene and react to what Character #1 just said, again keeping in mind what this person is like. For instance, a teen gang member from inner city Detroit is going to respond to the same circumstance very differently than a stay-at-home mom from Iowa. By putting yourself in your character’s shoes and reacting as he or she would, your dialogue will come off sounding natural and not forced.

3. Be sure to balance your dialogue with narrative. Too much narrative in a scene causes readers to lose interest or feel as if they’re being preached to. But too much dialogue and your story’s going to lack necessary description, details, and action that not only create clarity but also give your story depth. After you’ve written a scene, step back and re-read it as a reader, not a writer. You should notice right away if you’ve not achieved a proper balance.

Some things to consider when you’re trying to strike this balance include: making sure you ‘ve spent adequate time offering background on your characters so your readers know and care enough about them; checking to see if you have long stretches of narrative or dialogue before or after this scene; determining if you’ve resorted to using only dialogue to provide plot details (too much of this gets tedious and should be handled through a combination of dialogue and narrative); and considering if your pacing is appropriate (pacing can be controlled through more or less dialogue).

As an added note, some writers prefer to write the narrative first, then add in the dialogue where necessary, while others allow the dialogue to form the scene then go back and put in just enough narrative to make the scene interesting and understandable. Either way is fine and can be effective, so you need to determine what works best for you.

4. Going back to the use of dialogue to create pacing, there are a couple of simple ways to mix up your dialogue in order to change the pacing of your scene. If you need to create tension or quicken the pace for any reason, try using quick, snappy exchanges without using dialogue tags. Also, stick to as few words as necessary to get your point across. For example, skip the small talk between characters if you’re goal is to move your dialogue along briskly.

If your objective is to slow the pace, add to your dialogue descriptive narrative and action that show “how” your character is talking (more on this in Tip #5), as well as other things happening in the scene. The mixture of narrative with dialogue creates a more relaxed pace.

5. To help make dialogue more interesting than simply a he said/she said back-and-forth exchange, and to help your readers get to know your characters better, add in elements such as body language and actions your characters are performing while they speak. Examples of this include having a character pace during a particularly tense moment, or add to the anxiety by having a character nervously tap his pencil on the table. Characters can use their body language to “talk” to one another by becoming more distant to indicate defensiveness or closer to accentuate a point. They can use facial expressions, hand or arm gestures, or they can even show off their temper by slamming a door or stomping.

All of these movements help reveal certain qualities about your characters and add sensory details to your scene, which help draw your reader in. Just be careful to make your characters’ actions compatible with their personalities so they’re not acting in a manner that is out of character for them.

Have you used these tips with success in your writing? Do you have others you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you to see what’s worked for you in the world of writing dialogue!

If we writers don’t know what we’re trying to accomplish with our writing, how will we know what success looks like when it comes–or how far we still have to go to achieve it?

Every business, non-profit, and even individual should have some sort of mission statement. This is another way to say you should have a purpose, a reason for being, a destiny. You may not know entirely what that looks like yet, but as a writer, you should have some driving force that brings you in front of your computer or pad of paper every day.

Often, we do have something in mind when we begin to ponder what our purpose or mission is in writing. But, more often than not, it stays in our head and never gets written down. Something powerful happens when we take the time to articulate our mission and actually put it into writing. In fact, there’s a Bible verse that states this very well: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2).

When you have your mission written out and keep it in front of you, you can run with it. It serves as a constant reminder of the target you’re trying to hit.

So, what exactly should a mission statement look like? It can and will look different for everyone, but it should somehow answer the following questions:

~ Why are you writing?

~ What is your writing passion? (What is that force that makes you sit down and work?)

~ What is your writing focus? (This could be genre, audience, or subject)

The mission statement I’ve used for myself over the past few years has been: “To develop written materials that help kids and adults draw closer to God in fun and practical ways.”

I try to keep this focus as the center of all I do. Sometimes projects will arise that don’t completely fit that description (for instance, I just wrote two books for Capstone Press on earthquakes and volcanoes), but I never stray too far from it (it’s quite doubtful that I would ever write chick lit strictly for entertainment).

A mission statement, therefore, should help keep you on track with your purpose. Unless you’re just starting out and want to take every writing job you possibly can, your mission statement will help you say “no” to those projects that are not aligned with your purpose. It’s OK to take on differing assignments for a while as you’re building writing credits, but there will come a time when these “outside-your-purpose” jobs will rob your time and distract you from ever reaching your writing destiny. Sooner or later you’ll have to set writing boundaries, and having a well-thought out mission statement will help you do just that.

A mission statement will also help you set boundaries between your writing and the rest of your life. Unless your purpose includes becoming a best-selling author with at least one book coming out every year (hence, you’re writing 50+ hours a week), you’ll need something to help keep your writing in perspective with the demands of a family and perhaps a full-time job. Having a realistic mission statement can help keep you grounded and better prioritize your various responsibilities.

What a mission statement is not, however, is a detailed blueprint for how you’re going to hit your target. Rather, it’s a picture of what that target looks like. From your mission statement, you can formulate short- and long-term goals that will tell you how to get where you want to be. Those goals should be fluid; don’t be afraid to change them. And, don’t be afraid to change your mission statement either. If you thought your purpose was to be a comedy writer so you can make people smile, but everyone groans at your jokes instead, it might be time to rethink your writing mission!

If you don’t already have a writing mission statement, I highly encourage you to take some time to think about one. Why are you writing? Where do you see yourself as a writer 5, 10, or 20 years from now? Put it down in writing and place it where you will see it every day. I guarantee it will help you “keep your eyes on the prize” on those days when you feel like getting out of the game.

Standing in line at my local grocery store the other day reminded me of just how prevalent the misuse of words is in our society. I was in the express lane, which was available for customers with “15 items or less.” (If you don’t see what’s incorrect about this phrase, please keep reading!)

The list of such words is rather exhaustive, and there’s no way I could ever compile a complete one. I have, however, assembled a list of words that often get used in the wrong manner in hopes that you’ll be more aware of these the next time you use them in your writing. And, remember that other piece of good advice: when in doubt, use a dictionary!

Advert–to refer to vs. Avert–to avoid

Affect–to influence (always a verb) vs. Effect–result (noun) or to accomplish (verb)

Altogether–entirely vs. All together–unity

Amiable–friendly or kind people vs. Amicable–something two parties have agreed upon

Amount–a bulk quantity vs. Number–individual items

Backward, forward, toward–American usage is without the “s”; British usage is with the “s.”

Beside–next to vs. Besides–in addition to

Born–referring to birth vs. Borne–past participle of bear

Comprise–to include or be made up of vs. Compose–to form the substance of something

Continual–occurring over a period of time with pauses vs. Continuous–occurring over a period of time with no interruptions or pauses

Counsel–advice vs. Council–group of advisors

Couple of–use together for adjective form, not “couple” by itself

Definite–exact vs. Definitive–conclusive

Discreet–careful to avoid mistakes vs. Discrete–separate or detached

Elicit–to bring out (always a verb) vs. Illicit–unlawful (always an adjective)

Enormity–evil vs. Enormousness–very large

Etc–refers to things vs. Et al–refers to people

Farther–physical distance vs. Further–extent

Fewer–individual items vs. Less–bulk quantities

Forego–to go before vs. Forgo–to do without

Hanged–form of execution vs. Hung–other forms of hanging (as in pictures)

Imply–to suggest (to give out) vs. Infer–to take a suggestion or hint (to take in)

Ingenious–intelligent or clever vs. Ingenuous–childlike simplicity and candidness

Loath–reluctant (adjective) vs. Loathe–to hate (verb)

Odious–hateful vs. Odorous–having to do with smell

Perpetuate–to prolong something vs. Perpetrate–to commit an act

Persuade–to influence actions vs. Convince–to influence thoughts or beliefs

Precede–to be in front of or go ahead of vs. Proceed–to move forward with an action

Stationary–immoveable vs. Stationery–writing papers

That–used as a restrictive relative pronoun to refer to a particular item vs. Which–a nonrestrictive relative pronoun to add information about an item (in this sense should followed by a comma).

Tortuous–having twists or bends vs. Torturous–inflicting pain in a cruel manner

What words would you like to add to this list? Which words cause you the most headaches in remembering how they’re used?

Perhaps it’s appropriate that I’m blogging on Labor Day, since it seems nowadays I need national holidays to get caught up on my work! Unfortunately, I tend to use vacation time (or what should be vacation time) quite a bit lately to make sure I stay ahead of writing and editing deadlines. But for me, a simply change of venue, especially if there’s a beach involved, is all the vacation I need! Enter the writing retreat.

Before I completely understood what writing retreats were, I likened them to writing conferences. But they are very different in a number of ways.

For one, at a conference, you usually don’t have much, if any, time to actually write. The workshop schedule keeps everyone quite busy, and often there are so many people that it’s hard to find a quiet space to get away and work. But a writing retreat is ALL about the writing. There may or may not be any workshops or actual teaching time, and each retreat is limited to a small number of people. And, the environment is conducive to alone time–just you, your imagination, and your pad and pen (or iPad!).

The writing retreat is much more like a vacation than a conference could ever hope to be. You will seldom find a retreat in the middle of a big city (I haven’t actually heard of any), but rather tucked away in the mountains, overlooking a coast, or in a quaint, historic town (think bed-and-breakfast properties). The idea is to submerge the writer in tranquility and a natural environment that stirs the imagination and calms the soul. Unlike a frenzied conference, the feel is serene and slower paced.

Another difference is the cast of characters you’ll discover at a retreat versus a conference. Conferences are full of agents, editors, publishers, and speakers who can teach you everything from proper grammar to platforms. Retreats usually have none of these, but instead have writing coaches, mentors, and facilitators to guide group exercises and discussions.

Writing retreats range from a weekend to two weeks or more. Some are only for individuals, while others are open to hosting writing groups. (Retreats make a great getaway for critique groups, by the way!) Some retreats are self-guided, meaning they basically just provide a bedroom and a house (or lodge) for you to work in, and you’re on your own; others have scheduled events and meeting times for group  work, mentoring, or on-your-own writing each day. Finally, retreats may be general–open to any genre or niche, while others are specialized due to the coaching and mentoring available. For instance, so far I’ve discovered retreats that focus on: dissertations, poetry, screen plays, fiction, business writing, and those for women only.

So, think of a writing retreat as being able to take a vacation but not feel guilty about having extra work pile up when you get home! Retreats are perfect if you need a quiet getaway for a few days, if you’re stuck on your book and need professional help to jump start it, or if you need to be with other writers who can help you brainstorm ideas.

And, if you have the money and an adventurous spirit, you may want to travel outside the U.S. to help boost your creativity. There are plenty of retreats in France, England, Italy, and more exotic spots like Bali. Whatever setting you need to get you in the “write” frame of mind, there’s probably a writing retreat available!

If you’re looking for guided instruction during your retreat, one place to check out is the Elizabeth Ayres Writing Center:  www.creativewritingcenter.com.

If you need to get into character for your next historical fiction book, look into this retreat at a historic farmhouse overlooking the James River in Virginia: www.porcheswritingretreat.com.

For a list of various retreats by region (U.S. only), try: www.retreatsforwriters.com.

By the way, if you still want to find a conference, be sure to take a look at my Writers’ Resources page for an updated list of writers’ conferences through the end of 2011.