If you’ve been following along with my writing journey lately, you’ll know that I just spent a week in ✨writer’s paradise✨ as part of the first group of 2026 Artist Residents at Wildacres.
Located in Little Switzerland, North Carolina, at an elevation of 3,300 feet, Wildacres is a remote conference center that hosts weekly group retreats as well as a fully sponsored residency program.
The residency is application-based, and I applied on a whim last year with an excerpt of my novel-in-progress. I never expected to be accepted, but if you’re reading this wondering if you should apply, take this as a sign to go for it! You never know what might happen if you don’t put yourself out there.
HYPER/FIXATED is a home for all the things we can’t stop thinking about, and I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about this residency for a very long time. I’ve had quite a few folks reach out to learn more about what my week was like there, so I kept a log of my activities each day, including my word counts (shout out Scrivener, my one true love, for that feature).
I’ll put my biggest takeaway from my week right up here at the top: If you are a writer or artist with the ability to take a week off of your day job and hole up in seclusion—whether it’s a funded residency like this or your own trip—absolutely do it. Spending a whole week immersed in your project is such a luxury. I certainly will never take this week for granted. Go forth and apply for those residencies!
I hope you enjoy this very detailed account of my week in the mountains!
12pm: After spending the weekend in nearby Asheville, NC with my husband, I drop him off at the airport to head back to DC.
1:30pm: I drive to the small town of Marion to get some minor groceries and things i forgot (toothpaste [as always], shower basics, etc.)
2:30pm: I drive up the terrifyingly curvy dirt path to the mountain top…shout out to Subaru all wheel drive !
3pm: Check in and got the keys to my cottage, which turned out to be an INCREDIBLE lofted cabin with a giant beautiful desk facing a window that looks out onto the mountains :’) I’m in heaven!
6pm: Dinner with my fellow residents, Amy and Katy. They quickly feel like friends.
7:30pm: Read through/skim the 125 pages I printed out and brought with me to refresh where I’m at. I haven’t worked on my novel much at all since December, so it’s a bit overwhelming to jump back into it.
10pm: Bedtime.
Word count: 0, but feeling inspired!
7:30am: wake up & pull my tarot cards for the day (a new hobby I picked up literally two days ago, hello ADHD, that I am now obsessed with). I asked what I should work on now, later, and far in the future. Now: five of swords. Later: the empress. Future: page of cups. Hmmm…much to think about.
8am: hike the half-mile up to the main lodge and eat breakfast with the big group that’s here this week (masonry heaters). I learn about wtf masonry heating is from folks from the US, Canada, and Argentina
9am: take ADHD meds & lock tf in. get a solid 750 new words down & revise a couple of old chapters (I’m switching one POV from first- to third-person, lol)
12pm: totally spiral after realizing that despite being 50k words into this book, i have no idea where my plot is actually going. make popcorn and stress eat.
1pm: take extreme measures and create a “Save The Cat” spreadsheet. (for non-writers, STC is a very basic screenwriting plot structure that can be helpful when plotting stories on the macro level.) start reverse outlining what i’ve already written to try to figure out this dang plot
3pm: call my parents and yap for too long because I had another iced coffee and haven’t talked to anyone for 7 hours
4pm: lock back in to the STC outlining…luckily I’m realizing that a lot of what I’ve written does actually fit into the save the cat format—i’m not tied to this formula at all, but it’s been useful to gut-check that I’m moving in the right direction. I’ve been able to map out everything i’ve written so far in new Scrivener folders and note where I’ll need to make tweaks. Tomorrow will be the first big generative day, I hope!
6pm: meet up with the two other residents and hike up to the main lodge for dinner. I basically just ate snacks for lunch, so I’m starving. We talk about the books we’re all working on (memoir for Amy, rom-com for Katy) and about our strangely serendipitous backgrounds. We have a lot in common despite being different ages and from different places.
7:30pm: walk around Wildacres campus with Katy until it gets dark.
8pm: work a little bit more on my outline and tidy up the cabin.
9pm: yoga by candlelight in the cabin’s loft. I definitely need the stretching after a day of typing and reading!
Word count: 1,178 plus a bunch of ideas & notes & to-do items scratched into my notebook. New plot structure (priceless): 1
6:30am: according to my Oura ring, I slept like shit last night. awesome! but alas, I stumble over to the coffee machine. luckily, yesterday-me was nice and pre-filled it with water and grounds so all I have to do is press the button.
7am: bundle up in my big fluffy blanket and sit on the screened-in porch with my coffee, candles, and tarot cards. I pull an ace of swords, an ace of wands, and a four of swords. the two aces signify a big creative breakthrough—I’m feeling good about today.
8am: eat a granola bar and some avocado for breakfast (lol), take my ADHD meds, and once again lock tf in for a big writing block. I tackle a pretty gnarly torture scene that I’ve been putting off. Unfortunately this scene is pivotal to the narrative happening under the Argentine military dictatorship.
I find some declassified accounts of a US citizen getting tortured there and use that as “inspiration.” i quickly realize fact is often worse than fiction, and I am trying to stay true to what happened in real life while not wanting to go too far. I’m hoping an editor will help me with this one day; books are meant to make us feel empathy and I do want people to be uncomfortable here. It’s a strange feeling and one that I’ll sit with for a while.
12:30pm: I head up to the main lodge for lunch, and sit by Kathy, the woman who I’d been getting all the Wildacres emails from. It’s nice to put a face to the name. She’s a retired ESL teacher; we talk about languages.
1:30pm: Filled with energy from lunch and the sunny day outside, I head out for a hike. Dozens of butterflies flit past me. I’ve never seen so many on one walk before.
3:00pm: i make it back home and immediately shower, happy about the hike but terrified of any ticks clinging onto me (there are none). the whole hike i was thinking about the holy trinity beverage combo i was going to make when i got back: ice water, cold brew with coconut water and creamer (don’t knock it til you try it), and one of the grapefruit radlers i brought with me. the combo slaps, and i bang out another 1500 words or so.
6:00pm: Katy & I climb the mountain up to dinner, and the three residents stay and chat for a while.
9:30pm: I tumble into bed and pass out almost immediately, exhausted from the day.
Word count: 3,206 | Cumulative word count: 4,384
6:30am: i slept better than the night before but I still stumble over to the coffee machine.
7am: bundle up in my big fluffy blanket and sit on the screened-in porch with my coffee, candles, and tarot cards. i pull the emperor, queen of pentacles, and king of swords.
10am: officially locked in to the clocked in factory or whatever the kids are saying these days. the keys are flying; my heart is pounding—is it the coffee+ritalin combo, or is it my giddiness at writing fun scenes after my all-day torture sesh yesterday?
12:30pm: hit 1500 words and take a lunch break outside on a little bench near my cabin. the tree above me is filled with yellow butterflies. i almost (almost!) cry about it.
1:30pm: about to start writing again, but my old NIH manager (and friend—hi Katie!) calls to tell me she just spoke about me with the HR manager at my new job (!!). we laugh about ADHD things and she comments on how much cool shit I’ve done in the last year since getting fired by DOGE, and I realize that, yeah, I never would be at this writing residency had I not gotten fired. crazy stuff.
2pm: thoroughly distracted now, i try to focus again with some iced tea and a cookie in front of me. i drain the iced tea and gobble the cookie, but the words aren’t flowing yet. i run to the fridge and make myself a cold brew with coconut water and creamer. I put my headphones on and start blasting my favorite “ADHD deep house focus music” playlist to power through the afternoon sleepies.
2:30pm: ahh, I’m on fire!!! keys flying, ideas shooting out of me. i wonder if this is how (clinical) mania feels. I scribble new scene ideas in my notebook. I make a spreadsheet with nine new substack post ideas, then get mad at myself for not adding more to my book’s word count. back to it.
3pm: HOLY SHIT I KNOW HOW MY BOOK ENDS NOW!!!
4pm: okay, I made a ton of progress on the book today. now time to work on some of the substack things I’ve got cooking (including a post that is not written yet but needs to go out tomorrow, teehee!)
4:45pm: I drag myself away from my computer for a hike—my wrists are starting to hurt and I’d rather not get carpal tunnel, plus the weather looks AMAZING.
6pm: I end my hike at the food hall and facetime my husband and dogs before dinner. my dog brings a toy to the phone when he hears my voice. I miss them!!!
7pm: I check out the masonry heaters’ work down the mountain—these people have built a pizza ovens and several very professional looking brick furnaces in two and a half days. I’m so impressed!
7:30: shower, pour a glass of the chardonnay I brought, and sit down to do some more substack writing. I head to bed around 10.
Word counts:
Book: 3,294 | Substack: 1,856 | Today’s total: 5,150 (the most i’ve ever written in one day…my average is usually like 500)🤯 | Weekly cumulative: 9,534
7:30am: you know the drill: coffee in fluffy blanket out on the porch, tarot cards. I pull the ace of wands again, along with the nine of swords (scary) and the queen of swords.
8:30am: I eat breakfast, take my ADHD meds, and wait for my brain to chug to life. start working on the substack post I’m publishing today that will totally not take long at all!
11:30am: okay, so it took three hours to finish writing, edit, and make a cute little graphic on Canva…I’m a little annoyed at myself for taking so long but I suppose you can’t rush greatness or whatever. and I had fun! read it if you haven’t yet:
12:15pm: head up the mountain for lunch (Katy & I drive this time; we’re feeling lazy). we meet the Blumenthals, the spunky and friendly owners of this incredible mountain retreat. Amy & Phillip have been running this place for like 50 years.
1:15pm: it’s near 70 degrees out, so Katie & I set up our laptops at a picnic table outside and work yap. she tells me a crazy story about her friend’s IVF experience which immediately turns into a “weird girl lit with unhinged narrator” plotline in my head. I can’t help myself—I spend the next half hour cranking out 620 words of outline for a new book 😭 what am i doing
3:30pm: my skin starts feeling burnt (sigh) so we head back down the mountain to our respective cabins. i make some popcorn and pour myself my one precious root beer ollipop. I sip it as i set up my desk for the afternoon.
3:45pm: I make the mistake of going on instagram and I see some author highlight reels…I get jealous and then tell myself to reread my jealousy essay and take my own advice. one of my friends says she’s jealous of my current situation and i think about how we’re all just jealous bitches trying to do cool shit. and that’s that!
4pm: I get distracted working on this very post (meta) and tell myself to get back to work on my actual book that i actually want to finish. but then my husband calls and we start trying to figure out what insurance plan we should go on since we’re both starting new jobs. cue headache and exhaustion…we figured it out, though.
5pm: determined to keep working on the book I actually came here to write, I jump into an interview I did with a guy who lived through the AIDS crisis in DC. I want to write something fun right now, though, so I go back to our conversation about his first time at a gay bar (The Lost & Found in southeast DC). I use this transcript as inspiration for my protagonist’s first gay bar experience. he & i are having a good time 🥹 i google some details about the bar and end up going down some forum rabbit holes (may i suggest perusing the GayBarchives facebook group for some fun research?).
6:30pm: hike time! it feels good to move my body after being at my desk for so long.
7:30pm: it’s time for the event that the masonry heater group has been telling us about all week: the pizza party! these people built at least six incredible ovens and furnaces over the last few days, and they’re putting them to USE! Katy and I show up to their work area to an impressive spread of seafood boil, two ovens pumping out wood-fired pizza, furnaces with heated benches, and five kegs of beer. they soon start a ping-pong tournament using trowels. we hang out for a while, enjoying the pizza and beer and commenting on what an interesting group of people makeup this group.
10pm: shower off the sweat from my hike and dirt and smoke from the pizza party. goodnight!
Book 1: 972 | Book 2(?!): 620 | Substack: 1,482 | Today’s total: 3,074 | Weekly cumulative: 12,608
7:30am: i cannot believe this is my last full day. i bring my coffee out to the porch—no blanket needed this time!—and watch the spring breeze move the trees in undulating patterns across the mountain. the trees, mostly bare save for some buds and baby leaves, surprise me with how much they can bend. there’s probably a lesson here somewhere about staying mentally bendy throughout life’s hardships, right?
8:30-11am: honestly, i don’t even know what happened here. i posted some substack notes and replied to comments on my post from yesterday, journaled a bit, texted my friends and my husband, and all of a sudden it’s 11 and i’ve barely written. so much for making the most of my last day!! i remind myself that yes, i did take my ADHD meds, and i just need to focus. i don my noise-canceling headphones and unplug the cabin’s wifi router to get rid of all distractions.
1pm: frustratingly slow progress, but some is made, so I take a break for lunch. i go back to my butterfly bench and eat while i watch them flutter about the trees. my period starts and suddenly i understand why I’ve been feeling so crampy, crabby, unproductive, and restless.
1:30pm: i decide to see if some movement will help me focus, so i head out for a short hike and listen to the end of my audiobook. i’m joined by more butterflies.
3pm: I’ve hiked in the sun, showered, and collected my holy trinity of beverages again. spirits are rising! i decide to say fuck it, i’m a grownup and can do what i want, so i move my big desk out onto the screened-in porch. i grab a slice of lemon berry cake (leftover from a past dinner) out of the fridge for good measure. i enjoy my water, cold brew, radler, and cake at my desk while listening to birdsong. a woodpecker is hammering away somewhere out there.
3:30pm: i commit to writing at least 500 more words in my book before calling it quits.
4:45pm: i write something i’m really happy with and record a voice memo of me reading it aloud to my husband to listen to because he’s on a run and i need feedback RIGHT NOW (i’ve never done this before, but it was fun, especially because i haven’t spoke a word aloud all day). he loves it and i decide to believe him…for now.
5pm: I move over to substack and start drafting next week’s post.
6pm: Katy and I hike up the mountain for dinner. we sit with our third resident, Amy, and with Amy and Phillip Blumenthal. we discuss our (successful! amazing!) weeks and thank them for creating this mountain haven for artists.
7pm: we say our goodbyes to folks. Katy and i sit on some rocking chairs and watch the final mountain sunset of our stay.
8pm: I get back to my cabin, light my candles, and try to get a little more writing done. I start packing up my things before bed and start getting emotional. i don’t want to leave!
Book 1: 1,141 | Book 2(?!): 0 | Substack: 1,133 | Today’s total: 2,274
Weekly cumulative: 14,882 - more than I’ve written all of 2026 combined!
7am: I wake up to my final sunrise in the cottage, and I won’t lie i’m pretty emotional about it. this week has been incredible. i pack up, clean up, gather all my linens and trash, and drive up to the main lodge to drop off my key.
8:30: i begin the eight-hour drive back to DC, reflecting on—dare i say?—one of the best weeks of my life. This week kicked me back into gear on my novel, and I’ll be using this newfound motivation to push me to finish this dang manuscript!
This post is now over 3,000 words long, so if you’ve made it this far, dang you’re a trooper! I’ll try to keep the conclusion brief. Here are some final reflections and things that surprised me from the week at Wildacres.
Amazingly, I never got bored. You’d think that a whole week alone in the woods with nothing but your own writing to entertain you would be a nightmare. And maybe it is to some people. But I was surprised that I never got bored.
Even if you have a calm space to write at home, a week like this is so different. I don’t have kids, I have a home office setup, and my work schedule has been pretty flexible for the last year. Still, even the mundanities of life get in the way of writing—why should I focus on my fiction project if there’s laundry to be done or dinner to cook or friends to see?
This week gave me the time and space to stay immersed in my story for six whole days, which resulted in a constant flow of ideas. My characters were with me all week without distraction, and it was the coolest feeling ever.
I have the capacity to get through writer’s block if I just sit with it long enough. Given unlimited time, I eventually made it through my writer’s block and plotholes. I’m going to try to remember this moving forward—I just have to sit with the problem long enough for a solution to come to me.
I now know what my ideal day as an author looks like. When given the absolute freedom to spend my day as I liked, I fell into a natural rhythm as you’ve seen in this log. I’ll need to remember this and try to recreate it as much as I can (if only i didn’t have to have a 9-5 day job and could afford a private chef and maid service, lol. maybe one day.)
Wildacres is a most special place filled with creative energy, and I’ll be trying to get back there as soon as I can.
If you made it all the way to the end, THANK YOU for sticking with my rambling! <3 I’d love to hear your thoughts—did this inspire you to apply for a writing residency? All I can say is, GO FOR IT. You never know when you might get that ‘yes.’
xoxo Ashley
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.