Good writing retreat

Last weekend I went on a writing retreat with the Romance Writers of America chapter I belong to. I had a lot of fun, even with the storm Friday night. A storm on the Oregon coast in the winter has always been one of my favorite things. Growing up I used to go with my family to stay in a hotel on the ocean for a weekend in the winter, hoping for a storm. There's something relaxing about it.

Well, this one wasn't so relaxing. The house was practically on the sand, only about 10 feet of sea grass separated us from the beach. The wind was up to 80 miles an hour, according to the news reports after the storm. There were reports of swells off the coast and a chance for flooding, which would have been bad news for the basement of the house and our cars. The front of the house came to a point, like a beak, and was almost all windows. The glass was bending back and forth with the strong wind. The logical side of me knew they were built to withstand that, but seeing the reflection of the lamps moving back and forth in the glass was unnerving. The wind howled all night long. I don't think any of us slept more than an hour or two. I kept waking up and feeling the house shaking under the wind. But it was fun. There's something thrilling about being scared of a storm that is out of your control.

The writing side of the trip was great too. It was very beneficial talking to people who have been writing romance for a while, and some published, to hear what they had to say. We did something called story magic where we all brought our story ideas. Then we sat together and brainstormed the inciting incident, long range goal, short range goal, relationship barrier, black moment, reliazation and character flaw for both the hero and heroine. It is much easier to write once you have the main points and themes outline like that. I also got a lot of great ideas with the ladies for my book series. Now I just have to write them.

I know the main events that will happen in all of the books and the sub plots, but I need to develop the hero and heroine more and why they are interested in each other. I also need to think of some ways to make my vampires unique compared to others that are in books.

All in all it was definitely worth the weekend and I enjoyed getting to know these lovely ladies.