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My first writers' conference/retreat was in 2002. I'd written a whole lot of words before then, but I'd never studied writing craft, which meant that I used the components, but couldn't name them. So when the freelance editor who reviewed my scene asked, "Whose point of view is this in?" I cocked my head, confused by the question. She continued, "You know. Whose head are we in? Whose point of view?" I thought this over for about five seconds and replied with what I felt was the perfectly obvious reply. "Well, the same point of view all my stories are written in. Kimberly's point of view." I'm sure she thought, Oh Boy.

I saw myself as the invisible narrator, telling the reader what a particular character was thinking and feeling and doing in each scene. After all, if we were truly in a character's point of view, why would the character be thinking of him or herself in third person? If I'm relating a story about something that happened to me, I don't say, "Kimberly parked her silver convertible under the tree's canopy and then..." I'll say, "I parked my car under the tree and then..."

In real life, only eccentrics, egomaniacs, and a few foreign dictators (who probably fall into one of the first two categories anyway) go around referring to themselves in third person. But in books, while there can be an all-knowing narrator, more often the convention is to write about characters in the third person from the character's point of view. Except, that is, for books that are written in "first person."

Before the writing retreat, I had never even tried writing in first person, though some of my favorite books are written that way. The retreat discussions started me thinking about the choices a writer makes (or doesn't make) in storytelling. Then one of the instructors had us try a writing exercise. We were asked to write the same scene. Initially, in third person. Then, in first person from the main character's point of view.

I took a prompt and wrote an odd scene about an elderly lady picking up her grandson and his demonic parrot from the airport. The scene was in the lady's point of view and written in third person.

Then I turned to a new page and rewrote the scene in first person as the lady. The dialogue and description were nearly identical, but the emotional reaction was heightened. It was more comic. She was more startled. Her thoughts were more accessible.

I found that exploration of "voice" very intriguing, and when I began working on a new project called Would-Be Witch, I decided to use first person point of view.

I am not an actress, by any means. If you asked me to do an imitation of Tammy Jo Trask, the heroine of my Southern Witch series, I could never get her accent right. And yet, I hear her voice and it flows out of my fingertips when I type the scenes from her point of view. I know what she thinks and feels; I hear the authentic cadence of her voice, and she says things I never have and probably never will. "Happier than a bee face-first in nectar...for the love of Hershey...what in the Sam Houston?"

I suppose I could've written her story in third person, but I'm convinced that writing in first person somehow channels Tammy Jo and prevents me, a woman with a post-graduate education who grew up in the Midwest, from getting in the way.

That's the beauty of a retreat setting; the discussions can give rise to amazing revelations and the change of scenery sometimes puts the world in a whole new light.

When I mentioned to my agent that I would be out of touch during an eight-day cruise, she e-mailed a press clipping about one of the agency's authors who took the same cruise each year. Victoria Holt left England just after the first of the year and returned in late April. She took with her the research materials for a new novel and the draft of a recently completed one. While on the around-the-world voyage, she wrote and edited, occasionally debarking to see the sights.

During that time, one presumes that she never did her own laundry, fixed her own meals, or ran her own errands. That's right. Yearly, Ms. Holt took the mother of all writing retreats. I'm a lover of all things writing, but nothing warms my heart more than the thought of partnering the creative process with an extended period of time in which I do not have to dust or vacuum.

I discovered online that I could take a three-month cruise from Iceland to Argentina, but the $15,000 price tag was a bit steep, so for now, I'll stick with the writing retreats that several of my friends and I have frequently taken to rented beach houses in the off-season. It was seventy-five degrees in Surfside Beach, Texas during the November 2005 trip. I had my own room, my own bathroom, and didn't dust a thing. I did, however, complete the final revision of a novel, walked the beach every morning and night, and laughed a lot over meals and margaritas with my friends. It's the beach, after all, so half the battle to have a good time is already won.

You may not be a writer, but I'll bet getting away with friends to the beach will help you clear your head and may even reveal things that change your life. If you are a writer, you can clear your head and plan someone else's life to the tune of 350 pages and your next book advance. Yes, do. Go and live the dream. :)

Warm wishes and happy retreats,

Kimberly Frost

Kimberly Frost, Barely Bewitched, paranormal romance, Southern Witch, author, Penguin Books, Penguin Blog