Rachel Hauck

What’s The Advantage of A Writers Retreat

I’m in sunny yet sometimes rainy Destin, Florida at the 5th annual Deep Thinkers Retreat.

Seventeen writers (all women at this event) gathered to learn the craft of writing a novel.

There’s laughter, fun, frustration, confused looks, pondering, break throughs and friendships being forged.

A writers retreat like Story Crafters and Deep Thinkers is the pressure cooker of learning craft.

You can’t escape. It’s all around you!

Everyone is talking, breathing, sleeping STORY!

So how do you know if a writers retreat is right for you?

It is a commitment of time and money.

Are you really ready to invest in your writing journey at the retreat level?

Maybe you’re asking what’s the difference between a retreat and a conference.

Eavesdropping At A Writers Conference

I’m at the Deep Thinkers Retreat in Destin, Florida and it’s beautiful. We come to the beach every year in February and I help facilitate the conference for the week. My main job during the conference is the care and feeding of the attendees. But I’m also watching, listening … and yes, sometimes I hear things.

Today I wanted to share some of my observations:

Eat Well, Write Well. Sorry, a steady of diet of chocolate chip cookies and malted milk balls are not conducive to clear thinking and well developed plot lines. Although they do help stabilize emotions, at least at the moment. When all else fails, have a malted milk ball instead of a melt down. For the record, I resisted the temptation this year and only succumbed to two. (Although we have two more days to go!)
Battle Uncertainty. I’ve heard, “I thought I had my story down, but now I’m not so sure.” It’s so easy to doubt yourself and question the validity of your writing.

Social Media Minute—Hashtags 101 for Writers

Hashtags can be a confusing concept, so today I’m sharing Hashtags 101 for writers. I’ll give you a list of popular hashtags and teach you how to use them effectively.
First, lets back up and evaluate the reason we’re all working at building an online presence. We are looking to deepen existing relationships and build new ones. But building new ones can be difficult if the only people we interact with are those we already know, either online or in person.

We can get a little bit of exposure to new folks by our existing connections introducing us, but that’s a time consuming way to go about it.

What if there was a way for someone to search a given social media network by topic and find new, interesting people to interact with? That would be a great way to grow our connections.

Help! How do I make my reader care?

I sat on the tarmac on my way to Florida for five hours last week (#IloveMinnesotaweather), and while we were waiting, I stirred up a conversation with my seatmate.

“What do you do for a living?”  I asked.

“I break into building to check their security.”

#Cool!

Poor guy suddenly discovered the dangers of sitting next to a novelist. By the time the plane took off, we’d plotted a story about a man living two different lives – a spy living in suburbia, posing as a regular guy.

Then came the moment when we had to figure out the first scene.  “We need to make him relatable,” I said to 24B.  “Someone who the reader can relate to.”

“Why?” 24B asked. “He’s not a regular guy.”