New Forest Writing Retreat 2015 aims

Hi everyone,

I meant to post this before starting the writing retreat, but things happened, so here I am half way through the first week finally posting this.

I’ve got a few weeks in the New Forest for a secluded writing retreat and I have decided these are my aims.

• On 27 February I’m at the Purbeck Literary Festival with Clare London and Charlie Cochrane doing a session on gay romance and gay fiction. Come on over and see what we have to say, and ask us a question or two.
• Self edits on Kev 1, 2, 3 so they’re ready for submission. I fast drafted these in 2014, but they’re very rough first drafts so I need to spend time tidying them up before anyone else sees them. This may be way too ambitious to try and do this, but it’s a clear block of time I have with minimal distractions so I’m going to give it a go. To be honest if I get half way through these edits this week I’ll be pleased.
• Finishing my current WIP - The Other Man and typing up the hand written notes I wrote while in Australia so it's all in one document. At the moment it's 2 Word docs (one pre and one post Oz) and one half full notebook of hand written words.
  
• Reading writing ‘craft’ books (when I’m too tired to edit). I’ve a couple of these which are gathering dust on my shelf, so I’ll spend time to read these and reflect on any learning from them.
• Beta reading a story for another author.
  
• Among all this hard work, it’s important to rest and recuperate, so I’ll build in some time to watch films and dramas (working my way through Gilmore Girls as I can pretend it’s work because the dialogue is so damned great I can pick up a few tips while I’m with the wonderful characters in Stars Hollow).
• I will walk for 45mins to an hour every day. I started this in December 2014 and noticed my moods have improved from the exercise, the light, and change of location from my desk all day.
• Catching up with friends from Hampshire/ Bath. I’m at the writing retreat on my own, so it’s important to meet real people and not just fictional ones in my imagination and in TV series.

Let’s see how that pans out. I’m sure I’ll have the odd day shopping in Southampton Salisbury/ Winchester/ Bournemouth, who knows, but I don’t want to fritter away the time so hopefully these goals should help.

Have any of you gone on a writing retreat, alone or with others? How did it go? I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Liam Livings xx