What’s it like going to a writers workshop? Are these things worth the expense, time, and effort? What’s it like traveling by boat to a tiny uninhabited, off-the-grid island, to be secluded with ten other attendees off the coast of Maine for a week? Will this end up like Lost or Survivor?
Tune in to find out, as I am en route to the Norton Island Writers Workshop, moderated by the novelist Tom De Haven. There are some very talented writers who will be attending, so I am really looking forward to the immersion in a week of nothing but the craft of writing with other similarly motivated folks.
Norton Island is located in Downeast Maine (that’s Way Up North for most of the rest of the US), about a mile offshore. We’ve been told not to venture off the trails without a compass, as the island is heavily wooded, except for ten “isolated” log cabins we will be staying in for the week. If we use a flashlight (“it will be your favorite companion”) we’re supposed to be able to find our way at night without too much trouble to the toilet (“it’s just a short walk”).
Okay, here’s a motivated question. Set aside for the moment that the flashlight is supposed to be our favorite companion on this trip. If you were going to spend a week on an uninhabited island, with possibly some wild critters roaming the dark woods, but also with probably a lot of downtime in the log cabin while waiting out the storms, who would you pick as your favorite companion–Sawyer or Kate?
Nota bene: these posts will be posted periodically, in maybe a kind of pseudo-real-time, as best I can manage it, all assuming of course that we aren’t currently in the middle of a bad storm (a Nor’easter, as they call them up here) that knocks out island Internet and/or power–we are off the grid, after all, that my fellow workshop participants haven’t launched a revolt against the editor’s red pen, and that the island caretaker keeps pressing that button every 108 minutes. So, if you happen to see a big delay in posts, then it is likely that I am currently dealing with one of the above issues.
Finally, a disclosure: I actually brought some work with me, since I couldn’t escape from all work for a whole week, but thankfully I can work as well “at work” as I can “on an island.” So bring on the Nor’easters, polar bears, and shenanigans by The Others–Kate and I will be busy either writing or working.
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Norton Island Writers Workshop post series: