Writing Retreat: 2018

Last year's writing retreat was such a blast that we had to plan a sequel for this year. We went for warmer weather and a different venue, while retaining the fun and creativity of the original retreat. It's a challenge to do it justice, but I can't help trying to share the joy on our blog, so here are the highlights.

Location, location, location. Las Vegas was an excellent choice for our retreat. First, it was easy to find good deals on flights and hotels. Second, the weather was cheerful and bright, perfect for meandering among resorts. Third, there were ties to our stories to laugh and dream over. Silbrith's been setting scenes in France recently, so the Paris resort was a must on our list of visit. She also has plans to send characters to Italy, making the Venetian inspirational. I'd set scenes of Caffrey Disclosure in several of the resorts, and delighted in pointing out elements that had inspired me.

Room to sprawl. When I'm working on a story, I spread out with computer, notebooks, sticky notes, and so forth. We found a hotel with rooms that included long sofas to spread out on and desks when we wanted a good writing surface. The downstairs lounge area also had lots of seating, and we hung out there in the mornings, scheming over breakfast. A pleasant surprise was that our rooms had a view of the New York New York resort, and their gleaming Chrysler building certainly reminded us of the view from Neal's loft in White Collar.

Health. We needed our bodies to be in shape to keep up with our marathon brainstorming sessions. Therefore we picked the Vdara because it was a non-smoking hotel, we went for gluten-free meals, we limited desserts to sorbets (refreshing and perfect for temperatures in the mid-90s) and we took long walks each day. The hotel was quiet for being near the Las Vegas Strip, which aided in getting enough sleep.

Time to recharge. For most meals we wandered into different resorts, allowing time for sight-seeing and picking up on the energy of the crowds as we tossed around ideas -- sometimes becoming so engrossed in the conversation that we lost our way in the resorts and needed to retrace our steps to reach the destinations we had in mind. Between meals we spent time in one-on-one sessions discussing plots and our writing challenges in detail. I took LOTS of notes that I'll refer back to in the months to come. We also had time on our own to read and decompress. It felt like the perfect mix of being energized and relaxed, and that aided our productivity.

Planning and flexibility. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, and sent each other chapters to read in advance of the retreat. We created a list of topics to cover, to make sure we didn't forget anything. And then each day we decided what we felt like covering. If inspiration took us in another direction, we didn't quash it. We used a different approach to giving feedback and liked it so much that we'll try to replicate the experience over a video chat in a few weeks.

We look forward to continuing the tradition of writing retreats, and our brainstorming included a conversation about where we might meet next time.