Category: Writing Excuses Cruise Baltics 2017

If you’re serious about writing, you’ve probably come across the Writing Excuses podcast in your research. It’s hosted by bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler and Mary Robinette Kowal as the core team.

In weekly 15-minute episodes, these fabulous writers and their frequent guest authors offer their views on anything writing-related from antiheros to zombie tropes.

The podcast has a famous tagline: “15 minutes long – because you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart.”

Well, I cry foul on that last part! These wordsmiths know their wordstuff. The number of episodes they’ve accumulated is testament to that fact: 12 seasons and counting. Continue reading “4 Ways I Leveled Up My Writing On The Writing Excuses Retreat Cruise 2017” →

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: writing retreats are the bee’s knees. Especially retreats organized on as professionally high a level as the Writing Excuses cruises.

You have almost no choice but to level up in your writing game by the end of a week of workshops, critique and guided writing sessions, dinners with famous authors and one-on-one Q-&-A opportunities. (More on all crafty cruise capers in the next post!)

But improving the craft isn’t the only way a writer may level up during such a retreat. There is another, more personal component than even our own writing, that adds to the magic of writing retreats. Continue reading “The WXR Tribe – How Introverted Writers Turned Into Social Butterflies” →

I realized something yesterday: all my writing retreats have been on or near the water.

Baveno on the Lago Maggiore in Italy, Lake Temagami in Canada, the Chiemsee in Bavaria. And now the Baltic Sea. Those weren’t conscious choices, they just sort of happened that way.

Large bodies of water have something magical about them. They’re calming, hypnotizing and meditative, and they invite you to sink deep into the depths of your own mind and imagination.

In other words, ideal for writing. Continue reading “The Cruise Ship Paradox” →