How To Plan A Solo Writing Retreat
Everything you need to know, whether you write for a living or are more of a hobbyist - plus where I stayed for my most recent week-long trip.
Greetings Spendthrifts,
I’ve been wanting to send this newsletter out since January, ever since I realised I was probably going to take a writing trip at some point this spring - but then other things kept coming along that I URGENTLY needed to address. Justin Baldoni. I watched Babygirl. In fact I nearly pushed this month’s newsletter topic a third time so that I could write about Meghan Markle’s new Netflix show, but honestly there’ve been so many millions of words written about it already that I thought I’d spare (haha – geddit?) you all another thousand.
So. Writing retreats. By which I mean the solo, self-organised writing trips I periodically take. (I refuse to describe them as writing “holidays” as otherwise my accountant might start querying whether ‘freshly squeezed orange juice’ really does count as a business expense). I’ve just returned from a pretty successful one, in the sense that I wrote consistently, plentifully (by my standards), and feel new energy and focus around the project I’m currently working on.
Try as I might, these days I find my writing progress is often excruciatingly slow at home (which hasn’t always been the case, and I hope will at some point in the future no longer be the case - it’s pretty inconvenient).
On the surface I have a pretty ideal setup and shouldn’t have any issues: I live alone, so don’t have anyone interrupting my work; I have a dedicated study, and a beautiful, giant desk I splurged on specifically so that it might entice me to sit at it each morning; a new public library opened literally thirty seconds from my front door not long ago – at a time when public libraries are disappearing at pace - and still. Le struggle.
[If you scroll through the IG post above you can sort of see my desk in the background - one of the first pieces of furniture I bought when I moved into my flat, purchased from Crosta Smith Gallery, an antique furniture dealer who specialise in French Art Deco. Ain’t she a beaut!]
I find writing from home (and by ‘home’ I mean both my flat, and London in general) fraught with distractions. My train of thought most days goes a little something like this: hmm let me just do some laundry do I need to actually CALL the council about my missing recycling bin or can I just sort that out online ding dong who’s that then ugh just a Hello Fresh salesman actually that reminds me have I run out of milk shit yes I have let me just pop to the supermarket oh the washing’s done I’ll just hang that laundry before the creases set ugh she’s already replied to my email okay I’ll just send a quick holding email !!lunchtime!! hmmm that was a bit disappointing okay back to work or maybe you should go pick up a little treat from Gail’s to make up for it… You get the gist.
After a Q1 where my attention has felt seriously fragmented by various work commitments and, if I’m honest, just an ungodly amount of screen time, I felt it was time to reset my focus via a change of scenery, and a bit of self-imposed isolation.
I’ve done several of these writing trips over the years, and as I was mapping out the when/where/how long of my most recent one, it occurred to me that I’ve learned a thing or ten about how to set yourself up for success that might be useful to share with anyone interested in doing the same - I started jotting down notes on my phone and before I knew it I had 3000 words (!) of practical advice on everything from choosing the right environment and what type of accommodation to book (including where I stayed on my most recent jaunt business trip to Morocco); how to structure your time and set realistic targets, how long to go away for, what kind of reading material to take with you, and everything else that either has or hasn’t worked for me over the years.
I want to stress that you don’t need to be a ‘professional’ writer for this advice to be of use to you – not to sound too Artist’s Way or anything but if writing is something you feel genuinely enthusiastic about (and would like to see what might happen if you took it a bit more seriously) then you should absolutely give yourself permission to do this sort of trip, and not consider it an indulgence which – even as a working writer! - is a mindset I still have to coax myself out of.
As I outline below, you can start small - just a night or two is a great start if you have neither the time, nor the inclination to decamp from your home for a week or longer (not to mention the funds - something else I get into below...)
I have zero experience of the sorts of structured retreats/formal residencies where you’re part of a cohort of fellow writers – the MacDowells and Yaddos of the literary world – though tbh they’re much more of a thing in the US than the UK. I’ve never done one of these myself, and might potentially consider them in future - but honestly most of the time the thing I need to make progress on my writing is just space, time and a bit of solitude, and you don’t need to fill out an application for that. If you’re newer to writing or looking for guidance though – perhaps you’re trying a new medium – then I can definitely see how a retreat with workshops and mentoring etc. would be beneficial.
Ultimately, you don’t need a formalised programme in order to write, nor do you need someone else to organise it for you. You do however, need a plan.
So - here’s how I go about planning mine (continued after the jump).
Until next time,
p.s. speaking of writing, I wrote a short story (scroll to the bottom of the link to read) as part of a new campaign for Pukka Herbs… which, honestly, I had a blast writing! It’s a slightly tongue-in-cheek ~contemporary~ take on a classic fairytale - I shared a bit of my process with HuffPo last week - and I think it’s pretty good. So you should read it, ideally over a cup of Pukka tea ;)
p.p.s. Not one but two of my friends sent me a link to this corny-but-low-key-enjoyable-looking Netflix movie when I mentioned I was off to Morocco to write, which made me laugh a lot. I love movies about writers! They usually have the most preposterous vision of the writing life and I cannot wait to sit down and watch this one, which is also set in Morocco, and stars ACADEMY AWARD WINNER Laura Dern falling for a miscellaneous Hemsworth brother. J’adore!
HOW TO PLAN A SOLO WRITING RETREAT
Start small. The longest I’ve done a writing trip for is three weeks, which turned out to be far too long - though I think that might have been due to the ambient racism which really wore me down by the end of it (I was in Sicily). If you’re new to this/not particularly comfortable flying solo, maybe try max 3 nights? I’ve just spent a little under a week in Morocco, which felt like the right amount for me this time around.
Actually, let’s get the racism bit out of the way up front: if you’re a POC, please bear that in mind when choosing your destination and go somewhere reasonably diverse, where people kind of don’t give a f*ck about you. Even if the stares are friendly-curious as opposed to hostile-curious, it will wear you down, more so if your presence prompts more than just stares. So go somewhere you can blend in, and feel reasonably anonymous.
Don’t go with a friend. That’s just a holiday waiting to happen I’m afraid.
Don’t attempt to write all day every day. It’s just not realistic babe (editing existing work is a different matter, but pure generative writing? No). I tend to break my writing up into a couple of hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon, reading, thinking and relaxing in between. Maybe you want to get all of your writing done first thing, and then give yourself the afternoon off. Maybe you feel like tinkering a bit in the evenings after dinner? Whatever works for you, but all I can say is that even when I’ve been on a tight book deadline (as I was for Whites), the absolute max number of FOCUSED WRITING HOURS I’ve done in a day is 4.5 hours.