Coopers Shoot

Early May - I won a NRWC (Northern Rivers Writers Centre www.nrwc.org.au) residential mentorship with the fabulous Marele Day. For five wonderful, rainy days, myself and three other writers stayed at the Coopers Shoot Guest House outside of Bangalow. I've never had the luxury of writing full time, and having my meals prepared for me was a huge bonus (Thanks, Jan!)
Initially I was worried - how would I go, doing nothing but writing for five days? I usually hit a wall about the third day. And the logistics? Soccer training, school lunches, uniforms... But everything dovetailed nicely. I only had one urgent phone call from my husband - what was our son's medicare number? I panicked briefly, but it was only a school camp note that had to be signed.
So - five days, full time writing.
Mornings were taken up with group discussions, about writing in general, editing, strategies, hopes, dreams... Afternoons were private writing time, and one-on-one consultations with Marele.
We concentrated on 'tightening up' our prose - getting rid of weak phrases and fillers, that don't add anything to the story. We became pedantic, putting every sentence and every word under the microscope. Is there a better way to phrase this? A stronger verb? Is that dialogue realistic?
By afternoon, I was often too shattered to write very much, so took a walk around the guest house grounds to clear my head.
Wednesday was a full day of private writing, and working on ten pages that we were to present to the group for critique. A valuable exercise. Even though we were all writing different genres, to have the benefit of three objective opinions was priceless - and why writing groups are essential to anyone serious about honing their work.
My five days flashed passed. They are over now, but not forgotten. I'm still working through all the ideas and suggestions that came out of that week.

If you have the opportunity to participate in something like this, do it. Call in those 'family favours', let the kids eat toast for a week, and if you do it in winter, you don't even have to iron school shirts, because they can wear their jumpers on top! And if you absolutely can't because of work or you have babies or any other reason, dream for the day when it will be possible.