July 1, 2009
Another "Writing From the Heart" writing retreat has come and gone and another bouquet of Red Rover Writing friends are on their way to creating great works with their time and talents.
Who are the Red Rover Writers?
Picture a place of solitude, your own cabin in the woods. Deer, chipmunks, cobalt blue butterflies... nature is your neighbor. Leafy green canopies and hiking paths make strolling with characters inviting. There's creative space, a place to ponder, a place to fall, sprawl and play with memory to find your stories there.
Daily craft workshops set your inner child at play. Writers meet, greet and feed on learned writing gems and decadent foods, prepared with a plethora of textures, colors, and flavors. Lifelong friends are made in this week of focused play. Best of all you have a quiet place for dreaming, a haven, where you can write, write, write away.
As with the child's game of Red Rover, closing the last workshop we talk about the care and keeping of you, the writer. Writers band together strengthening their grip and call fear over. Red Rover Writers standing together leave fear lonely. There is no place for fear, self doubt, insecurity, or anything else bleak to go, but away. Group support is too strong to succumb to the opposition of a writer's determination for publication success.
To learn about more about Writing from the Heart and Highlights Foundation's other wonderful writing workshops, please note the quick links on this page and click on Highlights Foundation. I hope to see you in Boyds Mills in 2010!
Pictures posted soon.
Comments
There was no TV, no cell phones (bring a calling card), no distractions of any kind. The private cabins are anything but rustic. In fact, The Muse lives in a cabin at Boyds Mills!
I found that when the frantic waters of my life had leisure to settle and still, my mind also cleared. I came to the workshop with one story in need of work, and left with five--three of them ready for submission.
There are many educational opportunities for your writing. If you want one that combines quality instruction, helpful critiques, a small friendly learning group, and an experience that is good for your body and soul as well as your mind, the Founders Workshops are the investment to make. I plan to go again.
I've been blessed to have spent the past two years under Lori's constructive counsel and keen eye. Through the exchange of ideas, she's helped me connect to my characters from a three-dimensional perspective, and my writing has jumped levels ahead of where I began.
We, as writers, have this iconic place in Boyds Mills, where we can get away from the clutter of everyday life; constant phone calls, piles of junk mail, and the contiuous tug from people who want our attention. To spend a week in these rolling hills of PA, in a modern cabin alone with pen, paper and a laptop, working one-on-one with a professional mentor (Lori Ries), and getting fed by a gourmet chef is a week of eutopia. There's no other place like it on earth, and is worth every penny and more.