What I learnt during my Phillip Island retreat

A successful getaway to get some writing done

I recently took advantage of the ANZAC Day long weekend to get away to Phillip Island for six days of uninterrupted writing.

The weather forecast wasn’t looking good for a beach getaway but I figured that would only motivate me to stay inside and write more!

It ended up being a really productive trip. I arrived with around 8,000 words already written towards my new draft of Song of the Summer and I left with 23,000 words. So I wrote 15,000 words towards the new draft during my time at Phillip Island. Yay!

I’m still really far off from reaching my goal of around 80,000 to 90,000 words but progress is progress. 

Here’s what I learned about writing while I was there.

Ventnor Beach at Phillip Island.

I need to focus on writing

This may sound really obvious, but let me explain. There are lots of ‘hidden’ parts to writing that aren’t writing. These include: networking and meeting other writers, building your social media profile, connecting with others on social media, pitching, querying, chasing invoices, etc. All of these extra things are necessary to make the writing happen. 

However, I need to prioritise my time to focus on the actual writing right now. Even though I’m rewriting, 80,000 to 90,000 words is a lot of work! My priority right now is doing everything I can to reach that goal.