5.07.2012

Writing retreat

Today and tomorrow I'm taking part in a writing retreat on my campus.  This is a surprisingly cool thing:  each faculty member who's selected gets their own room, with a super-comfortable desk chair and a big empty table.  We get a white board with markers.  We get natural light, snacks and drinks throughout the day, and lunch with all the other faculty members.  And we have to commit to arriving at 8:30am, staying until at least 3:30pm, and not emailing throughout the day.  We're there to write.

We had to apply to take part in this, and it was somewhat competitive.  It's sort of fascinating to me that so many of us wanted to be chosen.  We don't get any money, or any prestige.  What we get is support to write, and accountability.  These things matter.  We've agreed to take part in creating space and time for our writing, so we all take it pretty seriously.

I'm a bit of a compulsive email reader, and I didn't check my email today.  I sat in my very own writing room, and I wrote.  As I said on Twitter this morning, it's like camp for nerdy adults.  I loved it!

In case you're curious, I'm finishing up an essay called "The Inadequacy of 'Choice':  Disability and What's Wrong with Feminist Framings of Reproduction."  Four years from now when it's actually published in a scholarly journal, I'll post a link here so you can read it.

5 comments:

Erica said...

That is a neat idea! Plus - snacks!

Alison Piepmeier said...

The snacks were crucial. You should get your campus to do it!

Anonymous said...

This is awesome. My department is hosting an interdisciplinary "dissertation boot camp" for the first time this summer. Pretty similar to what you describe here, except for dissertating folks, lasting 2 weeks, and featuring a few breaks each day to talk about the process of writing and researching as well as strategies for handling such an enormous task (emotionally and intellectually).

Alison Piepmeier said...

Ooo, that sounds wonderful. I hope you can take advantage of the opportunity, allison!

Meriah said...

really, really awesome! I'd love that. AND I'm looking forward to hopefully reading what you write.