In March, 2005, I had the invigorating experience of being chosen as an Associate Artist for theAtlantic Center for the Arts residency program with author Maggie Estep.  For three weeks, I worked with Maggie and seven other writers, writing new material, critiquing one another’s work, taking pre-lunch walks, post-lunch writing sessions, and hanging out.  There were sixteen other Associate Artists as well, visual artists and musicians.  ACA is unusual as an arts center; it has an interdisciplinary approach to mixing up residencies, and it allows the Master Artists to select their Associates. (Most residencies use a committee-based system to vet applications).

I would definitely recommend a residency for artists of any type!  The quiet space to contemplate and create, deliberately Away from the Real World, can be a valuable investment for yourself and your art. It also means taking your work seriously, as few hobbyists are going to invest the time and money to do a residency.  Some are semi-structured, like ACA; others are completely free-form and much more isolated.  A good place to start researching these artists’ colonies is here: http://www.artistcommunities.org/

I wrote nearly 200 pages while I was there: four short stories to completion, one partial short story, and another 25 pages on The Man Who Roared with Lions.  Of those short stories, I’ve sold two: “The Tale of Trapper Tommy” and “Horsing Around”.  “Off Balance” and “Making the Jump” are still out on sub.