Whether you are planning one for yourself, you and your writing partner, or a group of writing peers, a writing retreat can be a great way to escape the distractions of everyday life so you can focus on your writing.
Between work, family, and endless responsibilities that come with life, finding the time and energy to sit down and write can be a challenge. A writing retreat offers you the opportunity to step away from those distractions, surround yourself with creative inspiration, and dedicate uninterrupted time to develop your stories, write your screenplays, and accomplish your writing goals.
But before you pack up your bags and head off to some secluded cabin in the woods, there are a few things you should consider to make sure you’re getting the most out of your writing retreat experience.
Here are seven recommended essentials to remember when planning your next writing retreat.
1. Good Timing
Timing is everything when it comes to planning a writing retreat. One day isn’t enough. And too much time can take away the positive pressure of an impending deadline.
You need to block off enough time to make the trip worthwhile while also knowing that a single day away isn’t going to offer the productivity you need.
How Much Time Is Enough?
Try to find a long weekend at the very least. This will give you a Friday and/or Monday for possible travel time, leaving you with at least two full days and nights at your destination. If you can go the distance and take a whole week, even better. But you always want to make sure that you’re not taking too much time beyond that because your writing retreat can quickly turn into a vacation if you do. And that’s not what you’re shooting for in a writing retreat.
2. A Peaceful and Beautiful Location
A writing retreat is all about the escape from your daily grind, but it’s even more important to focus on where you’re going to escape to. Sure, you could simply kick everyone out of the house for a long weekend and work from home. Or, you could go to any local hotel or motel to get a room where nobody is going to bother you. But writing retreats are so much more than that.
You need to feel removed from your usual setting. This is the best trigger that will mentally and physically (and emotionally) flip the creative switch inside of you to writing mode.
- You’re not in your house where you could once again get stuck in your regular grind of leisure and chores.
- You’re not in close proximity to your neighborhood (or even your home town) where you could retreat to your local haunts and thought patterns.
And while it would be great to visit places like New York City or Las Vegas, the best places to escape to are those that offer a more serene setting.
Your writing retreat destination could be:
- A beautiful lake house
- A mountain cabin or lodge with breathtaking views
- A beach paradise house or resort
Whatever you prefer or can afford, try to find a beautiful and peaceful location that can ease your mind and engage your imagination.
You can also match your writing retreat location to the setting of your upcoming story. There’s no better creative feeling than when you’re in the world your characters are inhabiting. Do your best to replicate that world, if possible, when you’re searching AirBnB or Vrbo for your writing retreat.
3. Your Own Room
If you’re planning a writing retreat for yourself, no problem. But when you’re planning a writing retreat for you and additional writing peers, it’s tempting to want to cut costs by having people share rooms. If you need to do that, go for it. But if you can secure each writer their own room, the benefits are amazing. Early mornings, midday rests, and late-night crams are essential elements of a perfect writing retreat.
- You don’t have to worry about disturbing or being disturbed by a bunkmate or roommate.
- You don’t have to worry about walking on eggshells around anyone.
- You don’t have to worry about light or sound emanating from your or their laptop.
- You can come and go as you please.
- You can write, or not write, whenever you want.
Shared rooms can feel more like barracks or social events than a writing retreat. You’ll feel so much more comfortable in your own writing space.
4. Additional Places to Escape To
Anyone can lock themselves into a room and write. The writing retreat should also offer places to escape to during your creative process.
Writing isn’t just about typing. Most of your writing occurs within your own mind’s eye through visualization. How can you write the description for the reader without being able to see the visuals first?
The typing is just the translation of the story, characters, and events that you imagine. Visualization is where the real writing happens. And to do that, you need to let your mind wander.
- Go for hikes on a trail
- Take walks on a beach
- Find a beautiful place to sit
When you’re choosing your location, be mindful of what else lies beyond the confines of wherever you’re actually staying.
5. Food, Drinks, and Leisure
Writing retreats are about comfort as well. In your normal daily grind, you may not have time to enjoy great comfort food, drinks, and leisure.
Since you’re trying to detach from your regular life, find a place that has plenty of options for eating out, having some great drinks or coffee, and for basic leisure and people watching.
- Cheat on your diet
- Have some sweets
- Have a drink or two if you partake
- Lay loose and relax
You’ll find that your creative process will key in on this as well. Your body, mind, and spirit will engage and drive your imagination.
6. Inspiration
Not only will you be inspired by the beautiful and peaceful surroundings of a writing retreat, but also by outside sources that you can seek out or bring along with you.
- Books
- Podcasts
- Movies
- TV Episodes
You plant seeds in your creative mind and then you water them by taking some extra time to read books, watch movies and TV episodes, listen to podcasts, etc. You can choose your inspiration wisely by selecting things that live in the same world, genre, character archetypes, and story archetypes you’re writing.
It’s not about stealing ideas. It’s about inspiration. It’s about finding a particular tone for a moment, story arc, action sequence, or character. It’s about jumpstarting that imagination of yours.
You may not even take any direct inspiration from things beyond the excitement of being a reader or audience member and wanting to give your readers or audience the same experience.
Our minds are incredible tools that literally do the work for us. You could be watching a movie one night during your writing retreat before bed, and then wake up with some newfound inspiration you needed to get from one story act to the next.
Make time for both writing and content inspiration. It will help feed your creative mind.
7. Goal, Plan, Action
“A dream written down with a date becomes a GOAL. A goal broken down into steps becomes a PLAN. A plan backed by ACTION makes your dreams come true.” — Greg Reid
Planning a writing retreat represents you creating a goal. You’ve taken this dream of being a writer and you’ve changed it into a goal by setting aside a specific time and place to begin the steps of writing.
Those steps represent your plan. And a plan backed by action is what can make your dreams of becoming a professional writer come true.
A writing retreat is an escape, but it’s not a vacation. You’re there to work. You’re there to break down a goal into steps that become a plan. And then you take action by writing.
All of these recommended essentials for a perfect writing retreat exist so that you can take more action than you can in your normal daily, weekly, and monthly routine and grind. Thus, it’s essential that you go into your writing retreat with a goal and plan, followed by action.
- Maybe you’re going to start a new project.
- Maybe you’re going to finish your book or script.
- Maybe you’re going on this writing retreat to start the creative development process to find the idea or concept for your next project.
Plan each day and night. Give yourself enough time to write for a bit, and then take a break to escape on an adventure or enjoy some comfort food, drinks, and leisure.
Here’s a pro tip to go along with that - always end each writing session in the middle of a chapter (for novelist), scene (screenwriters), or sequence. That will leave you chomping at the bit to write again.
Enjoy Time with Your Writing Peers
Going on a writing retreat with fellow writing friends and peers is a great way to get those creative juices flowing as well. It’s inspiring when writers get a chance to talk shop with fellow writers. Most family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances don’t know or understand the life of a writer. But when you escape to a peaceful and beautiful location with fellow writers, you’re finally surrounded by like-minded individuals with similar goals, plans, and action.
During your joint writing retreat, set aside plenty of time to spend together talking about your stories and projects.
- Have pitch sessions where you each pitch your own projects.
- Brainstorm ideas, concepts, and characters together.
- Problem-solve each other’s work.
- Help each other with writing and marketing tips.
- Or just use your food, drinks, and leisure time during your writing retreat to spend time with them before and after you disappear into your individual writing spaces.
Whether your writing retreats are solo ventures or peer-enhanced, make sure you find the time to go on them each year. Writing retreats will change your body, mind, and spirit. You’ll be given a chance to exhaust your writing in the most positive of ways, or recharge it for the months or year to come.