Finnian Burnett

I didn’t have an interview for this week since I was away all last week on a writing retreat, so I decided to write about the retreat itself. I thought about this for a while. It’s so hard to quantify everything about this week. The good was incredible, and the bad (losing my computer) was awful.

My publisher, Off Topic Publishing, hosted a writing retreat in Banff, Alberta.

We started the retreat with a one-day conference. I gave a workshop on writing flash fiction which helped grease some people’s creative wheels. We also got a goal-setting workshop with Miranda Krogstad, a truly delightful spoken-word poet and writing coach who inspired us all on not only making goals, but reverse engineering them to figure out exactly where to start making them come true.

Editor-in-Chief, Marion Lougheed gave an excellent presentation on what exactly to expect from the editing process. Even though I’ve been through various different editing processes for books and stories, it was helpful to go through a sample contract, to learn what to expect, what certain verbiage means, and what, in general, a writer should expect to pay for editing not sponsored by our publishers.

Writer, attorney, and all around wonderful person, Andrew Shaughnessy, gave a presentation on copyright for writers. I admit, I went into this one with preconceived notions – I thought it would be dry and boring. I mean, I love Andrew, but it is about the law, after all. Turns out, I was completely wrong! The presentation was informative, funny, engaging, and incredibly interesting. Andrew is an excellent presenter, and if you are looking for someone to walk your group through copyright laws, or other things writers need to know about using other people’s words/images/etc in various situations, I highly recommend contacting him.

We wrapped up the conference day with a presentation by Giller-award winning author, Will Ferguson, who has written so many excellent books including 419, Beauty Tips from Moosejaw, and (co-authored with his brother, Ian Ferguson) I Only Read Murder. Will is delightful, charming, and hilarious. His presentation was a great way to end the conference day because I felt inspired to go write stuff after his talk.

On Sunday, we had a day of checking in, getting to know each other, writing, exploring Banff, and the Off Topic group dinner.

From then on, we all slipped into our separate modes. Some people slept in, read a lot, went to lunch, wrote in the afternoons. Some wrote all day. Some explored and interspersed it with writing. Most evenings, we gathered in the front garden and talked about writing. Our B&B was walking distance to downtown, so we could walk in to go to restaurants, walk to the grocery store, walk (as I did a couple times) to the local ice cream shop, Cows, where Marion and I decided the whole team should buy matching cow pajama for next year’s retreat.

On Tuesday, my computer died. I’d already written close to 4000 words on my WIP and had done probably 10 hours of editing on another novel. Losing my computer derailed me completely. First, I had a complete meltdown. Then, I spent the day trying to find solutions to get it fixed. (Note, a lot of people in Banff go on vacation in August. Who knew?) Andrew and Marion even went to Canmore with me to look for repairs but to no avail. On Wednesday, the host of our B&B, the lovely Robin of Tan-Y-Bryn, actually went to the Banff library for me and checked out a borrowed computer.

That helped me get some work done on Wednesday, but it wasn’t the same. I’d been debating staying an extra day, as most people were leaving on Friday. I had planned to leave Thursday because of a department meeting, but was seriously tempted to skip it. Since the borrowed computer didn’t have the same functionality and since I can’t really write by hand, I decided to leave early Thursday. It was lovely communing with writers (now friends), but the point was to write and if I wasn’t doing that, I figured I might as well head home.

But even though I left early, I did enjoy it and I learned a few important things:

1. I love other writers. I already knew this but it was reaffirmed.
2. Bring a surge protector. Always.
3. I thrive in an environment like this. If my computer hadn’t died, I probably would have written 20,000 words that week.
4. Sharing a bathroom with a bunch of strangers wasn’t as awful as I thought it would be.
5. I work better when I start the day with a walk. Author N.E. Rule and I got up early every morning and walked to Starbucks every morning at 6 AM(ish). After, I’d write until breakfast was delivered to my room at 8 AM, read while eating, then write again until lunch. I hold that the trifecta of coffee, walking, and conversation early in the morning put me in the mode.
6. I enjoyed the eight-hour solo drive! I’d forgotten how much I enjoy driving. And y’all, it was a gorgeous drive.

I was having a lot of feels at the end of the retreat – missing the community, feeling I didn’t get as much done as I’d wanted. So I decided to follow the advice of Lindsey Harrington in this excellent blog post – and think of the things I’m happy about in coming home.

1. My wife and cat. I missed them and I’m glad to be with them again.
2. Having my entire reading collection available for when I want to switch books.
3. My desktop computer with auto-upload to the cloud whenever I write anything.
4. Getting my computer fixed!
5. The lesson of how well I work when I close down social media.
6. Only having to share a bathroom with one person and one cat.

It was an excellent retreat all around and I’m already looking forward to the next one. (Hint, Marion – I hope there is a next year!) It was vastly different from a writing conference – of which I’ve been to many and while I love them, I rarely get any work done. This was focused, it was designed to give people the time, space, and motivation to write in a gorgeous location with cool people.

I will definitely go again.