Recharges and Tune Ups

Do you ever wonder if your creative batteries could use a recharge? Or perhaps your creative engine could use a tune up? I've been feeling in need of something. My writing motor is grinding

and I suspect that it could use some fresh oil. I still bubble over with the love for writing and stories, but something is not clicking in one particular novel and this is keeping the whole from working in smooth conjunction. Critique pals and others have read this novel, delivered golden feedback, and pronounced it ready. . . but I'm not convinced (ARG—I reach for my hair to start ripping it out). I know in the deepest depths of my writer's gut that something about this novel isn't working well enough yet. But what?

Since grabbing fistfuls of hair is sort of painful and does not solve writing dilemmas, I applied for admission to the Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshop, a week-long mentorship program that promises guidance for each participant's novel, group discussions and feedback, seminars, and lots of quite writing time. Could this be the tune up my writing self and my novel need?

So, I leave this coming weekend for a week of writing and mentoring seclusion. I hope you don't mind that I will be absent from the blog world, but when I get back, hopefully I'll have lots of great information to share.

Tell me, do you ever feel the need to recharge your creative batteries? Has a project ever left you baffled (and pulling at your hair) about what it needs?

Have any of you ever attended a Highlights Foundation workshop? Or some other writing retreat?

Happy writing and reading!