Feeling utterly refuelled by Folly Farm writing retreat by Tamsin Cooke

A couple of weeks ago, I was very lucky to go to Folly Farm for a long weekend retreat – the Winter Warmer – with other members of the Scattered Author Society. I had been a few years before and absolutely loved it. But I was still rather nervous.  Would it be welcoming? Would it be fun? Would it be inspiring? To anyone who is thinking of going next year, the answers were Yes, Yes and YES!!!

Folly Farm is a truly magical place. Even though there are some people who are lifers – go every year – it’s not cliquey at all. Everyone makes you feel so welcome and you have such a laugh together. I was surprised to find how many people I knew, and it was wonderful reconnecting with them. Plus I made lots of new friends. It’s so lovely spending time with like-minded people who share your hopes, joy and struggles of writing children’s books, as well as love cake and wine.

There was a full programme of events, but what made them extra special – was that they were planned and delivered by the other authors going; other authors who know exactly what it’s like to write. You can dip into these as much as you like, since none are compulsory. As I had edits that I really wanted to work on, I chose certain workshops that I thought would be the most beneficial, relaxing or playful.

There were fabulous sessions on planning, trouble shooting, and story prompts. We had a wonderful meditation that was not only relaxing, but incredibly helpful in connecting with our own creativity. There was a frank discussion on failure and how to deal with it. Plus we created characters and stories from our own histories, made collages and designed a choose your own adventure story. Everyone shared their expertise – not only helpful for our own writing, but also for school visits.

We played games in the evening and had a rather fierce literary quiz – all very funny. And once again, you could join in if you wanted or simply sit back and absorb the atmosphere.

When I returned home and told my family about it, they decided I’d been on a Primary school camp. And they had a point. It was just as joyful as that. It was a lovely reminder of why we write; the pure joy of it, rather than the business side. 

I slept very well. And ate even better! The food was delicious. Folly Farm caters for all dietary requirements, and I think I ate even more than I did at Christmas. Especially cake. As for alcohol - you can take your own booze or buy from the bar. 

If you decide you want to work off some of the cake and puddings, there are fabulous walks around the beautiful grounds. You can go for as short or as long as you like … even longer if you get lost. My group found their way back straight away, but another group may have taken a more scenic route! Apparently this year was muddier than most, but that just made it the more memorable. It was noted how lots of people helped those stuck in the mud while I took pictures!!!

The long weekend went far too quickly and was full of laughter, chatter and creativity. I came away feeling utterly refueled and inspired. So much so, I'd designed a plan for a whole new story, as well as worked out some solutions for my tricksy edits. I recommend this retreat to anyone who wants to reconnect with their joy of writing; who wants to play with words and meet like-minded authors. It was an absolute joy and I might even become one of the lifers!!!

Tamsin Cooke

Author of The Scarlet Files Series and Stunt Double Series

Website: tamsincooke.co.uk
Twitter: @TamsinCooke1 

 

 

Essential Items To Take On Writer's Retreat by Jo Franklin

I'm going on a three night's writer's retreat tomorrow. I try and get away to focus on my writing at least once a year. It's good to leave the laundry and the vacuum cleaner behind, my children, my impending tax return and the mystery that is Bromley council's recycling collection rota.
As I am busy packing, I thought I would share with you what I am taking with me.

1. My dog, Mickey

Now the truth of the matter is, I should really leave Mickey behind as he is a terrible distraction, especially if he goes off on one of his adventures while we are out on a walk. But finding dog care is difficult and anyway he forces me to leave my screen which has to be a good thing. Right?

2. A Writing Companion

Now I could go on retreat on my own. I spend many days on my own at home which is great, but I find going away on my own a bit lonely. Actually, very lonely and I can get very depressed. Although I aspire to be an eccentric recluse, the reality is that I am a social person and enjoy the interaction with my fellow dog walkers, the delivery people who need me to 'Sign Here' and my fellow allotment holders. I prefer to go on writer's retreat with someone else. This time my lovely companion is Emma Styles. We have been on writer's retreat many times, we are easy companions and will have a lovely time.

3. Cake

A writer's retreat isn't a retreat unless cake is involved. Actually a writer needs cake even when they stay at home. Unfortunately I now have tedious dietary problems, so I generally make my own or suffer cake withdrawal.
For this break I have made a lemon drizzle polenta and almond cake. (The shoes will be coming with me too)

4. Cocktails

I don't drink very much, however I am very fond of cocktails. There is no way I'd shake up a cocktail to drink on my own, so I save my cocktail drinking for social occasions. Most of my social life revolves around authors who are very active on social media, so there are probably more photos of me out there with an exotic cocktail in my hand, than there are of me drinking my usual beverage - water. Not quite sure how, but cocktails have become a feature of this writer's retreat.
Emma has recently started drinking Caipirinha, so she is bringing the appropriate ingredients with her. Not to be outdone, I am bringing the ingredients for my current favourite cocktail - pornstar martini.

Well I think that is everything, other than clothes etc. Have I forgotten anything?

Oh yes! My writing!

That's easy. I'm taking my latest wip (Work In Progress). I've written a terrible first draft, often known as the vomit draft, and half the proposal to go with it. So I will be whipping that into shape on my new Macbook Pro.

I can't wait.

An incident with Instagram by Lu Hersey

Social media can be a helpful marketing tool, if you choose to use it that way. A means of drawing attention to new books coming out, reviews and events. It’s also a way to communicate with other writers, family and friends. But very occasionally it can backfire in a spectacular way, as I found out recently with Instagram...

Fab cake made for me by YAfictionados (cakes feature a lot on Instagram)

Unless you choose to have a private account, Instagram is a public platform – a bit like twitter, but with more pictures. Great for improving mediocre photos with its selective cropping and filter options, and for the most part, fun. It’s become an increasingly popular site for authors and book bloggers, and a social media site currently popular with nearly all teenagers.

YA event at Foyles, Bristol - writers always Instagram events...

Some writers and illustrators have a ton of followers and a zillion ‘likes’ for everything they post (look at Chris Riddell’s amazing Instagram feed and you’ll see what I mean)…although if you take a look at teen profiles like Zoella’s, the rest of us have a lot of catching up to do!

Like all social media, Instagram is another way of keeping up with what your writer friends are doing – and on a bad day, making you feel really inadequate looking at other people’s amazing book tours, fantastic book covers, new book deals, and countless foreign editions (even though you’re delighted for them!)

Social media can sometimes make you feel like this...

Anyway, as Instagram is mostly a public platform, like most children’s writers, some of my followers are kids and teenagers. The audience I write for, in fact. And therefore I’m fairly selective about the images I post.

So when my Instagram account got hacked by a spammer, my new profile pic of a much younger model with surgically enhanced breasts (and wearing very few clothes) was a bit of a worry.

Eeeeep!

It took me some time to actually find my account again. The spammer had blocked me from accessing my own photos, and it’s quite complicated getting Instagram ‘help’ to do anything remotely helpful. I had to send them a photo of myself holding a card with my email address on to prove I was a real person. It took them several days to grudgingly agree that yes, maybe I had been hacked, and let me have my account back with a slightly different name. Now I’m luwrites instead of LuWrites, because Instagram ‘help’ said someone already owned LuWrites. Duh. But I couldn’t be bothered to argue.

Having got my account back, I found my big breasted spammer had kindly started following 5000 random people on my behalf. Some of them had very dubious names like Cmidic and Luvmicok and had messaged to request nude pics...

After hastily blocking all of them (and changing my profile photo, obvs), I had to unfollow the other 5000, which took AGES. Instagram only allows you to unfollow about 100 people in one session before they freeze your account for a while – apparently to ‘protect our community’. Yeah, right. The same ‘community’ where a spammer can follow 5000 people in one go. Pffft.

Surprisingly, in the end, some good came out of it all. I ended up feeling almost sorry about unfollowing some of the 5000 people I’d never met. Quite a few of them had followed me back – though I’m surprised they didn’t wonder why I’d followed them in the first place, especially with THAT profile pic.

By the time I’d slowly waded through, I found it kind of comforting that apart from the porn spammers, the vast majority of the accounts I had to unfollow were people from across the globe, simply recording very similar things in their lives. High days and holidays, families, falling in love, cars – along with some truly spectacular cakes, and a very wide range of pets. (One guy actually appeared to own a pair of tigers and a grizzly bear!)

I ended up with a warm, fuzzy feeling of a global community and shared humanity, something hard to remember in these days of political tensions and rifts between countries.

I still follow a few of the people who followed me back. Mainly young teens I feel might be upset if I unfollowed them, and I wasn’t quite sure if they were following me before or not. After all, at its best, Instagram can be a great public space and a good way to link to others.

But if you’re a children’s writer with an Instagram account, or about to open one, I’d strongly advise making your password impregnable…it could save you a lot of time and effort.

Lu Hersey
Deep Water out now, published by Usborne

@LuWrites on twitter

luwrites on Instagram

Lu Writes on Wordpress