The Power of Collective Creative Energy

Today was the monthly chapter meeting of my writer's group. The meeting's always a good time. Nothing different about that today. We had a great speaker and topic - a member who is also obtaining her masters in creative fiction at Seton Hill University - and the usual laughter and talking.
This afternoon a few writer friends got together to do some writing retreat style. There's a lot to be said for writing beside others doing the same. The energy level at our retreat is always through the roof, and I can't say it was any different today. Sure we did our share of talking and laughing and discussing proper spelling of unusual words, but we also got a lot of work done. There are challenges to see who can get the most pages in a set time. I didn't participate in those today because I was editing. Note the "was". I got one project completely finished except for an additional last time read through. And I started working on my last loose end to tie up before starting something new. I made a good bit of progress in my goal to bring it up to page count - and I'll be working more on that this evening as I enjoy having the house to myself while the family is taking care of play duties.
The residual energy from these kinds of days usually lasts quite a while for me. It's never a bad idea to get together with other writers and just write together. Sometimes you need the challenge, the collective brain energy and the support you get from simply sitting in the same room.
And there's always someone to laugh with you when you discover one of those edited sentences where you missed adding or removing what you intended.
That's where I'm at right now. Full of determination, energy and the need to continue the progress I made today.
So, I'm off to bang out more pages and hopefully, hopefully finish up this project by tomorrow evening. It's possible, possibly probable, but most-likely a bit of a stretch with the rest of what's going on this weekend.
But I'm going to try. At least the cold germs have given me somewhat of a reprieve. For now.
Behave!