The Artist’s Way: The Ultimate Artist Date

Last week, I reported on my first few “Artist Dates” from the Artist’s Way. They were all short outings that caught my interest artistically and were meant to feed my inner muse.

These short “dates” were nice breaks and convenient excuses to do a few things that sounded fun to me. But there is no rule saying you couldn’t do a longer outing. In fact, it was encouraged. And for a long time, I had been dreaming of going on a writing retreat. But who would I go with? How would we coordinate our busy schedules? And I am usually a solo writer, so what if I found out that writing with a bunch of other cool people was super distracting?? So, even though I had a few writer friends sound at least a BIT interested in the idea, it remained a dream.

Enter the Artist’s Dates and the permission I needed to plan a completely solo writing retreat!!

And just like that, I was searching AirBnB for a suitable spot. I wanted somewhere far enough away that I actually felt like I left home and wouldn’t be tempted to get involved in my day-to-day life, but close enough that I could drive myself in a few hours.

I wanted somewhere I could write, but maybe also hike around a bit when my legs got restless.

Somewhere affordable, and on and on until I settled on a tiny house at an RV stop right next to a river and close to the Sedona hiking trails.

And it was perfect! I wrote. I hiked. And wrote again. The tiny house was super cute and free of distractions. And I had a story I was primed to finish...

In my first day, I completed just under 3k words—which usually takes me around 2-3 weeks to complete (yes, I am slow, but still be excited for me, please. :P).

The next day, I slowed down, but still completed just over 1k more, which was enough to complete the draft of my current WIP and add some words to another short.

After that, I did more hiking and freewriting that is harder to measure. I might have even gotten a little bored of writing (or it could just be a sign I needed to build up my writing stamina more before I could actually last three days), but either way, I was enjoying the escape and relaxation, and I’m calling that a win.

So, in conclusion, I will say, that there might be some very good reasons why someone might not want to spend a long weekend in a tiny house by a river, writing and hiking all day, but I don’t know what those reasons are. I highly recommend the experience, and I am definitely going back someday.

And did I mention that I got my WIP all drafted??

X)

More on that soon!