Make No Excuses — Get the Most From Your Out of Excuses Retreat

This list is advice for the lucky folks attending The Out of Excuses Writing Retreat II: The Retreatening, and much of the advice is going to be specific for this retreat, though probably applicable to the Writing the Other Workshop and Retreat, lead by WX member Mary Robinette Kowal. Some of it you can use for any retreat. While the retreat is quite a few months out, it’s good to start thinking and planning ahead of time.

1. Know what you want outside of the class time. Do you want to make writing friends? Build a critique group for after you leave? Run your outline past some good folks? Get writing time in? Knowing what you want will keep you from regretting a, b, or c. At some point you will have to choose between doing awesome thing A and awesome thing B. Knowing your overall goals can help you make that decision. It’s okay to change your priorities midway, but be conscientious about it.

2. Someone — bring an icebreaker game that can be played among a large group. If you’re a little adventurous, Cards Against Humanity is often a hit, but Mafia or Werewolf is really good for a large crowd. (And you can spin some great stories within those games.) You’re all going to be introduced online before you get there, but face to face meetings can be awkward for some folks. Drag them in.

3. Some of you will be arriving the night before the retreat starts. Get together with your fellow attendees! Grab some dinner, and ask all the awkward icebreaker writer questions. What do you write? How will you know you’ve “made it”? Favorite authors? Book you’re most waiting for this year?

4. Not everyone is a note taker. Those of you who are? Share your knowledge! Set up a group Drop Box/Google Drive folder where everyone can upload their notes for the group. Us non-note takers really appreciate it when we go to try to explain a concept we learned, but can’t remember something specific. And each note taker finds different nuggets of gold that meant more to them than other listeners at the time, but useful for everyone.

5. Sleep is for when you get home, but know when you need to take some downtime to recharge. Your brain is going to be going at 160%. It’s okay to shut off for a bit. It’s better to be on 100% part of the time than 50% all of the time.

6. Don’t be afraid to speak up in class or out of it. You are in a well-lead, safe environment. Everyone is excited to be there. Everyone is excited to meet everyone; that means you.

7. It’s okay to turn your cell phone off. You don’t have to, but it’s fun to focus entirely on the retreat. Tell your loved ones you’ll talk to them once a day, then lose yourself in the offline experience.

8. Don’t compare yourself to the other attendees. You’re going to do this anyway, but recognize that it’s pointless. Everyone is on a different path in their career, and it’s not a competition.

9. Get to know your Cousin Emily. Your Cousin Emily will most probably not be named Cousin Emily, but they are a person that the WX folks have pulled in to help with the mundane aspects of the retreat: lunch, clean up, who knows what. No matter who your Cousin Emily is, they are awesome. And they are a writer, too. Because your Cousin Emily is awesome, and you want to spend time with them while they’re not running around cleaning up your mess, make sure you clean up after yourself. Volunteer to take the garbage out. You’re in someone’s home. Remember this.

10. If there’s a closing activity, schedule your trip so that you can stick around for it. And save some energy for it. Just do it.

Thanks to Mike Thayer, Jason Gruber, and Kristen Mercer, fellow WXR 2013 attendees, for helping me compile this list.