Postcard from the Winter Retreat

Mary's Ideal Writing Window

 At our winter 2 Birds Winter Retreat Karen led us in a postcard story exercise. We had done a freewriting, and then gathered some of our ideas from this to distill into a concise idea that could be the seed of a longer piece. We chose an audience, and shared a tiny story.

But before that, I had led a drawing exercise, helping us to imagine our ideal writing space. As I drew, I thought about a little table nestled in an alcove with my office window. My office is in the attic of the English Building, so my view is cradled in the branches of the tree just outside. A squirrel often peeps in as I sit writing. I revisited that scene on the front of my postcard.

Lesson: "Get back to the basics. A pen, A paper. A window. A desk. A question.

For my audience, I chose Karen, so often my partner in writing and other projects. I told her about a lesson I learned as we led the retreat.