Civil War Horror: Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

I'm baaaack!

After ten amazing days in Tangier, I'm back in Spain. I went there on a writing retreat to work on my next book, a novel set in contemporary Tangier.

I cut myself off from the internet, music, video, and all those other distractions that are only important when we have them around. I wrote 21,000 words in longhand and outlined the whole novel. It's amazing the progress you can make when you have nothing else to do.

It was nice to fully reconnect with my fiction, something I haven't been able to do for far too long thanks to all the other writing responsibilities that demand my time. Writing longhand was wonderful too. It made me write more slowly and focus on each word and phrase.

Of course I didn't spend all my time hunched over a notebook, although I did carry it everywhere. I explored the city more than I had time for on my previous visit and met lots of interesting folks who I'm looking forward to seeing again.

Yep, I'm already planning my next trip. This time I'm going to rent a cheap room in the medina and stay for a whole month, probably in November. The kind folks at the American Legation have given me access to their excellent library, complete with a desk and wifi. If I'm going for a month, I'll have to take my computer. I don't think my editors would take kindly to me disappearing for that long!

2 comments:

Alex J. CavanaughJuly 2, 2013 at 6:21 PM
Hey Sean! Welcome back. Glad you got so much accomplished on your trip.
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UnknownJuly 2, 2013 at 7:05 PM
I'm embarrassed to admit that I just had to google Tangier to find out it's in Morocco. :P

Congrats on the 21k words and outline. That's awesome! I'm sure it helps to be away from social media -- I'd probably get a lot more done if I could keep off the net. Good luck! :-)
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

2 comments: