PART VII: Public Space; Chapter 29: Two Weeks in Italy
If [a place] has meaning for you, if something in you is stirred by imagining yourself there, sitting, staring, walking, and writing, that is a place you owe yourself a writing visit. ... You want to go as a writer, not as a vacationer ... I suggest that you actually write when you get there ... For this to happen, you need to prepare yourself in the following way: by calling it a writing retreat, not a vacation; by bringing your writing tools and your current project; and by thinking as much about your writing as about your destination. (184-185).
Perhaps it's obvious that I have escape on the brain right now as I cope with the last two weeks of a really difficult semester. The avalanche of papers that awaits my grading makes me dream of traveling ... away. Anywhere, really, not necessarily to Maisel's Italy or to other famous writing locales.
The reality, however, is that I'm staying put for the holidays with my husband and our many kitties. And the truth is, it's by choice. It's even my preference. I'm deliberately not going anywhere during my winter break precisely because those four weeks at home from December 21 to January 21 will be my own personal writing retreat.
I have two goals that I must meet during my upcoming retreat:
- Revise an article for resubmission to a peer-reviewed journal.
- Complete a strong draft of a chapter for a book on a particular kind of cinema.
The first should require no more than a few days. The second will take most of the time I have available.
I'd hoped to be able to begin my writing retreat schedule as I began the push through grading ("I'll write in the morning, and then I'll grade in the afternoon ..."). First, I thought it would be possible, and second, I thought it would be a good way of not losing my own identity as a writer and scholar in the blizzard of grading.
It may still be possible, to an extent. Starting Monday, I'm going to see how it feels to get up early and work for, say, two or three hours on my writing before spending the bulk of the day on grading.
If it turns out that the grading really demarnds all my energy and time through December 21 (i.e., when grades are due), then so be it. I do have over 300 students this semester, after all.
We shall see.
If you can't go to Italy, or aren't inclined to travel for whatever reason, anywhere, what kind of writing retreats do you set up for yourself?
