Patricia Harrelson

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} catch(err) {}Since it is not always possible to secure a wonderful retreat at some place like Norcroft or Soapstone (one place I’ve been, the other I’ve applied to), I often make my own writing retreats. That means securing a place of seclusion to write for at least 3 days and preferably 5-10. I’ve rented cabins, stayed in hotel rooms, and housesat for friends in order to secure the necessary seclusion.

This past week, I rented a cabin in the High Sierra for 5 days to work on the Right Sisters. I packed food, my lap top, a few sweatshirts for cooler nights and left home for the cabin. This retreat did not turn out to be the Walden adventure I envisioned when planning it, i.e quiet all but wind in the pines, musky scent of hot decaying forest earth, simple living in a sparsely furnished Forest Service cabin.

Instead I faced

• a generator that ran 24 hours a day blocking the noises of nature (necessary for electricity);
• the pungent odor of a skunk wafting intermittently through the cabin floor from an abandoned nest under the cabin;
• a floor so slanted that my computer tilted on the little kitchen table where I sat to work;
• a noisy critter that visited every night biting into anything edible that I left out (see banana picture) and waking me 4-5 times a night with his raucous presence.

The good news is that despite the sensual assaults and strange discomforts, I got tons of work done. Perhaps it is true that a little suffering is good for the work.

Still I recommend a little more investigation regarding the space you choose to stay when making your own writing retreat! Anyone have suggestions for us writers looking to retreat?