Last week I spent a long weekend at a lake house in rural Illinois with ten of the closest friends I’ll ever have. They’re the Dystropians, fellow classmates and writers who graduated from VCFA with me. We live on all sides of the country, from California to New York to Florida, and once a year we get together to talk craft, laugh, and write.
Many of us don’t have writing communities back home, and this weekend is one of the few times we get to geek out, be ourselves, and embrace all things writing. This is my writing tribe. I can’t describe how important it is to have a writing tribe. It’s the one group of people who are going through the same highs and lows with me and understand what it is to sacrifice to write, and to love it with your whole heart.
This year I brought my camera, and I put together the following photo essay of our weekend. Enjoy!
Note: Scroll over the images with your mouse and you will see the full color contrast versions of the images.
It was a magical weekend!
Learn all about writing from this brilliant group of Dystropians. Check out these amazing blog posts they’ve shared:
Want to hear about last year’s lake house retreat?
Looks and sounds like an amazing time! :D
BEAUTIFUL images! Hugs to all.
Wonderful pictures of a memorable time looks like fun!
[…] But the community that I spoke of last year—that remains, without a measure of doubt, just as vital. It has been said time and again that writing is a solitary act, and there is truth to that. But there is also truth to the comfort, wisdom, encouragement, and sometimes just plain fun that comes from having, as Dystropian Ingrid Sundberg put it, a writing tribe. And if you want more of a glimpse into what that looked like for us a week and a half ago, do go take a look at Ingrid’s photo essay of the retreat. […]