What I know for sure about improving one's writing: 
Read more.  Write more.  And your writing will improve.  

Read.  Newspapers.  Magazines. On the Internet. Discarded newspapers if you are watching your budget. Go to the library. Pick up books at used book sales.  Book swap with friends or family.  

Notice why you liked something you read, and didn't like something else. 

Write. Grab a pad, or a piece of paper—even the back of a flyer that arrived in the mail—and write what was on your mind today.  After work.  This morning when you woke up.  After you had the disagreement with your partner.  What words most clearly express what you are thinking?  Feeling?  Wishing had happened?  Wishing would happen? Describe your dreams in living color. Tell your story. Play with words. Taste them. Savor them. Then let them go...  

Then what?  Your appetite is whetted. You want more time to taste, savor, explore these words, your thoughts, your stories. Grabbing moments here and there to read or write is rarely enough for either professional writers or writers working to become published authors.  Life interferes and moments to read, ponder, write, are always too short, too few. 
A common question at writing retreats and workshops and in critique groups is always, How do you find time to write?  Many of us are parents, all of us have family and/or professional obligations. 

HOW can I find time to write?

Two of us writers have decided to do something to support this hungry writer in us and our colleagues, to support this desire to believe enough in ourselves to take this time, to answer the urge to clear the decks, get away from the rest of our lives for awhile, and write. 

And Writeaway Retreats was born.

Meet your hosts:

Me, Beverly Breton Carroll, a professional author, nonfiction and fiction, who started her career selling travel pieces to the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., newspapers and in-flight magazines.

And my colleague, Robin Grace, a travel guide with Collette Tours and former newspaper reporter currently polishing her first book. 

We have embarked on creating reasonably-priced, writing-focused retreats.  There is power in numbers. Not only for the pocket books, but for the muses. The collective energy of writers meeting and writing together is unquestionably more than the sum of the parts. Seems our muses can't resist flocking in to join a good party of their own!  

We hope all of you writers out there, looking for this supporting space and supporting place, will join us. Our upcoming retreat is November 3-6, 2011, in Ogunquit, Maine, oceanside, at the Anchorage by the Sea. Write in our designated writing area, work in your room, or brainstorm in one of the inn's public spaces. Sit at the ocean’s edge, inspired by the sea air and sound of the waves. If a reflective stroll is what you need, the scenic Marginal Way walking path borders the inn. Swim in the pool or relax in the Jacuzzi to rejuvenate the mind and body. Join an informal roundtable to talk about a specific aspect of writing, or share your work at a retreat community reading. Whatever your pleasure, you will be indulged. 

Write on!

For prices, and to register for the upcoming Ogunquit retreat, go to www.writeawayretreats.com