Writing Retreat

As I mentioned in my last post, earlier this month I had a unique opportunity to devote six full days to writing. Essentially, I made this my personal writing retreat, and it couldn’t have come at a better time because it gave me an amazing opportunity to work through the evaluation I’d received on my manuscript for NOBODY’S VICTIM. There were two key insights gained from the experience. The first involved the need to sharpen my focus on the type of story I am writing, more specifically, which genre I am writing from. Up until that point, my story had elements of mystery, thriller, and psychological drama, and the evaluation pointed out what I had suspected, that it was important for me to narrow my focus to one genre. Once I’d acknowledged and accepted this realization, it was easy for me to decide the direction I wanted to take the story: a psychological drama with a rich reveal of the forensic psychiatric system. After making this decision, it was also easier for me to make the necessary adjustments to the story, and I was very happy with the revisions I made.

The second insight related to letting go of the premise I’d been working under which was that NOBODY’S VICTIM was the second in a trilogy. Upon reflection, I realized that operating under this assumption was preventing me from reaching the full potential of the story. Once I made the decision to make this more of a stand alone novel, I was able to devote my entire attention on this story without holding anything back for a possible third story. The result is that I made refinements which I believe strengthen the novel.

My writing retreat resulted in improvements with my manuscript for NOBODY’S VICTIM, but also rekindled my passion for writing.