The magic of a writing retreat

Is this something you can recreate when you’re back home?

Aug 30, 2024

Gooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you happen to be!

I recently had the very, very good fortune of going on a writing retreat. In Greece. For an entire week. And yes, it was amazing. It was amazing because of the place, the company, and the weather, but it was most amazing because of the set-up. I‘ll get to that in a moment.

The retreat had been organised by my brilliant friend

Laura Saetveit Miles

, who lives and works up in Norway, and who invited a dozen other scholars and writers to convene at a study centre on the isle of Lesvos for a week of intensive writing (thank you, Laura!!!!). The study centre was part of a monastery, a quiet place where we could work uninterrupted during the day (unless we needed the interruption of a quick trip to the nearby beach—you know, for inspiration). Every day, breakfast was served from 7-8am, lunch from 1-2pm, dinner from 7-8pm. Pilgrims and others might visit the monastery’s chapels at any point during the day, so it was expected that we not make too much noise.

It was glorious.

Writing retreats are often wonderful ways of getting work done. Usually the objective is to remove yourself from the circumstances of your usual daily routine in order to focus more deeply, and for longer periods of time, on a single project. For the participants in this particular writing retreat, all of whom happened to be women, ‘the usual daily routine’ involved looking after kids and household pets (including, in one case, a dozen chickens or so) as well as all the usual household tasks. On the average working day back home, all of us struggled to find long stretches of time in which to concentrate on our writing. And this was where the set-up of the writing retreat worked its real magic.

We never had to shop for food.

We never had to cook.

We never had to clean (apart from bringing our plates and cutlery in and scraping any leftovers into a bin).

Most importantly, we never had to think about any of that.

I won’t lie: it didn’t hurt that the food was absolutely delicious, all made with local products from neighbouring farms and bursting with flavour (I’ve never eaten so much feta and tzatziki in my life). But all of us kept commenting on how amazing it was to be able to think and write, uninterrupted, without sparing a second thought for things like cooking and cleaning.

When our week of writing bliss came to an end, we all had one question on our minds: How could we recreate some of the magic of the writing retreat back home?

The first thing we decided was that we wanted to do the retreat again sometime. We also came up with a few ideas about how we could reconvene as a group, both in-person and online, in the intervening period so we could keep our writing going and have some accountability. Here are some of the ways we’re hoping to recreate the magic of last week now that we’re back home, as well as a few other ideas about how you can create some writing retreat magic wherever you might happen to be.

Retreat! Retreat!!!

Run away and hide! The most effective way to avoid all the distractions and responsibilities of your daily routine is not to be there. (Why do you think I run away to Zermatt sometimes?) Even if you’re only running away to another room in the house (preferably a room with a door), do it. Find or create a writing space for yourself and tell people you are going there to write and that they should not disturb you between the hours of X and Y. And while you’re at it, remind yourself that this space is FOR WRITING ONLY. That makes it less likely that others will bother you or that you’ll become distracted. (I bought one of these tiny signs while I was working in Oxford—I hang it on my office door, and nobody bothers me!)

Make a plan

One of the things that made our Greek writing retreat so effective was the clear and straightforward schedule. So make one for yourself! Use whatever strategy works for you. Maybe it’s the Pomodoro method, where you set a timer and work in 25-minute increments. Maybe you can set up a ‘Shut Up and Write’ session with a friend, either in person or online. And you can always follow the structure of one of my Writing Camps (I think I need to plan another one soon!).

Make more plans

You may not be able to have someone else buy your groceries, cook your meals, and clean up after you, but you can take a lot of the distracting thinking out of your ‘writing retreat’ by planning out as much as possible in advance. Make a meal plan for the week, and prep what you can in advance (batch recipes are a lifesaver here!). Set aside specific time slots for dealing with household tasks or email so that you won’t be tempted to do those things during your writing time. Write down your daily schedule in advance, and keep it somewhere visible. And set some clear, achievable goals for your homemade writing retreat. Remember: you want to save your thinking for your writing.

Look at something beautiful

Sadly, we don’t all live on a Greek island, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find inspiration around us. Treat yourself to a short walk in a beautiful spot. Plan (i.e. schedule!!) a visit to a local museum or gallery. Drive to a lookout point where you can space out and let your mind wander a bit.

Relax

This is important, too! We were all in Greece to write, but we found ways to relax, too. Some people cycled to the beach to cool off in the Aegean. Some of us read under a tree. And all of us went on an afternoon excursion to another town where we could look at a medieval castle, stroll through vine-covered streets, and cool off in another part of the Aegean. Are there any rituals you can incorporate into your day to help yourself relax? Maybe it’s a bath, or a cup of your favourite tea, or playing with your kids or pets, or watching a movie you’ve really been wanting to watch. Make time for that, and write it into your schedule!

Or, you know, book a writing retreat!

One of my lovely paid subscribers asked me how one can find out about writing retreats to participate in. I was going to start a GoogleDoc or database, but then I figured someone else might’ve done that already, and I was right! Here are a few places you can go to hunt for retreats and residencies: