BALI FIJI BURMA MOROCCO LAOS VIETNAM
Breakthrough Writing in Fiji. March 8-15, 2014. Eat, Snorkle, Write, in Fiji’s hidden paradise.
Indochine Journey, Vietnam. Aug 15-31, 2014. Following the footsteps of Marguerite Duras.
Backstage Bali,Oct 3-13. Join a writing retreat on the edge of a volcano before attending the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Moroccan Caravan, Nov 6 – 19. Ride a desert caravan into the heart of your writing.
CLOSER TO HOME
The Real Deal – in depth feedback session on your MS.
Three Session Committment – work on your MS with Jan over 3-4 months with clear goals and in depth feedback. Skype or in person.
Memory Into Memoir, June, NSW Writers Centre.
Draft Busters – monthly meetings in Petersham, Sydney.
Writer’s Journey Blog
In the New Year we have an opportunity to look back on our past writing year and make a balanced assessment. Did I achieve what I set out to do? Could I have done better? What were the major obstacles in my path and how can I deal with them in the year to come? Deal is the operative word here, for if we can make a deal with the part of us that is against us acheiving our writing goals, then we are well on the way to success. Success doesn’t have to mean fame and fortune, it can simply be satisfaction with yourself for doing what you said you would.
For the holiday period I made a deal with myself that I would write 500 words a day on my memoir, My Mother, Duras. So far so good. I love the 500-a-day goal for invariably you will always write more and even the busiest person can manage 500 words (ten mins) a day. I’m writing the pieces as blog posts so I have the satisfaction of seeing them in a published form which also gives me a sense of completion. I know they are just drafts and that I will come back to expand, edit, polish, rearrange, and I have the blog on a semi private setting (search engines disabled) so it’s not really out there.
These are some of the tricks I have to use. If you are a big avoidance addict sign up for our free Avoidance Buster Manual on the right of this page. I know it will help. And as the clock ticks over into 2014 and beyond, try thinking of your writing as a gift you bring into the new year; firstly, as a gift to yourself and then to the world. I guarantee you will be surprised by the response.
Give yourself the best New Year’s gift and make your plans now to join us this August for Indochine Journey in Vietnam as we follow the footsteps of the renowned French writer Marguerite Duras (The Lover), who spent the first years of her life there. All info here. Read more re Duras and Jan’s involvement with her work here.
