Mulling Places To Take My Writer’s Retreat



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s July 4th weekend and I have four novel outlines to flesh out before I start writing again sometime early next week. I like to take the occasional personal writer’s retreat to distract myself while I try to figure out major problems with the novel(s) I’m working on. Here are my options at the moment.

New York City
This would be ideal, but it’s just not practical to do very often given where I am right now. I can still do it, but it’s a serious pain in the butt. So, no.
Charlottesville
I go to this option all the time and I’m looking for somewhere different. I actually have a bit extra money than usual — but less time — so it’s unlikely I’ll go to this option.
Washington, DC
This may be the sweetspot option because it’s not too far, it’s interesting and I can probably afford just one night. I don’t know how much I want to go through all that traffic — especially on July 4th weekend — so, I don’t know. All I’m going to do is just chill out for about 24 hours. I would prefer to just find somewhere quiet, low stress and stare at the ceiling for a few hours while I have a slight buzz.
Myrtle Beach
This would be cool. It’s the perfect distance and probably would be fairly low stress, but given that it’s the July 4th weekend, it’s probably extremely expensive and / or sold out for the weekend, anyway.
Somewhere Vaguely West Of Me
It would be fun, on an abstract basis, to just head west and see what happened. But, in all honesty, there isn’t a lot going on west of me, at least until I run into another state.
Somewhere Vaguely South Of Me
This is appealing. There are a number of smaller places south of me that might fit my needs — cheap, nearby and low stress.

I still don’t know what I’m going to do.