Roundup: Take Your Writing on Vacation

In our Roundups segment, we’re looking back at all the great posts since the blog started in 2009. We explore posts from our archives as well as other top literary magazines and websites, centered on a certain theme to help you jump-start your week.

We’ve hit the dog-days of summer, dear readers, and the mercury is climbing. As the days get hotter, we dream of fleeing to the beach or the mountains or our back porches to relax and take a break. Vacation is not only good for us as humans, but it can also be good for us as writers. So this week Ploughshares bring you a roundup on taking your writing on vacation.

From Ploughshares

• You’ve heard all about the beach read, but how about beach writing? Rebecca Meacham introduces us to the saucy, thrilling alternative to focused writing.
• If you need more convincing, read Caitlin O’Neil’s post on how “Writing Is Like Going on Vacation.”
• Yearning for campfires and s’mores? Try writing a camp story. A.J. Kandathil gives us a rundown on why these stories are so haunting.
• Literal writing vacations can be as be refreshing: Jamie Quatro chronicles the time she spent writing at the MacDowell Colony.
• You might also consider these testimonials to the power of a writing getaway from women who spent time at Hedgebrook, a writer’s residence for women.

From around the web

• To combat the siren call of summer laziness, The Loft Literary Center offers “4 Ways to Keep up Your Writing Habit this Summer.” Useful for both your focused and beach writing.
• Carve Magazine encourages us to shake up our routine in their “Five Summer Writing Tips For Carve’s Creative Types.”
• Michael Bourne at The Millions writes about the value of summer writing conferences and “Keeping the Faith: Ten Days at Bread Loaf.”
• Inspired to start planning your own writing vacation? Check out Poets & Writers’s database of conferences and residencies.
• We couldn’t wrap up this roundup without a couple summer reading lists. For books to take on your writing vacation, check out the Best of The Summer list from NPR and the “Most Anticipated: The Great 2013 Book Preview” list from The Millions.

Image by Shena Tschofen.