Is a Writing Retreat for You?
Writing Retreats - What does a retreat provide?
Is a Writing Retreat the Best Choice for You?
Or would you rather attend a writing conference or writing workshop?
Writing events abound. As with anything, choosing to go to a writing retreat, writing workshop, or writing conference begins with being clear about what you want within the limits of time and money. Do you want a vacation with a focus, as in an excuse (perhaps tax deductible) to visit Tuscany? A time to socialize with other writers, perhaps those of the opposite sex? A nuts-and-bolts critique of your manuscript? To meet an agent or rub elbows with the famous? Time alone to write?
Defining what you want will help you limit your Internet search and also assist in limiting the events for serious consideration. Before focusing on writing retreats, I'd like to differentiate writing workshops and conferences from writing retreats because the words are often used interchangeably. Definitions are from The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition. A writing workshop is an "educational seminar in a specified area" such as plot, character, or publication. A writing workshop often includes critique of manuscripts. In fact, the verb "to workshop" describes the act of critiquing one another's work in groups.
A writing conference is a "meeting for consultation or discussion" which can be held in a public place such as a hotel and have any number of teachers, often well known authors, and a wide variety of topics.
To retreat is to withdraw from the fray to a "place affording peace, solitude or security." Writing retreats are usually held in retreat centers that provide room, board and meeting facilities and have no more than two facilitators.
A writing retreat should offer:
Silence. Determine if you will have a single room or, if not, if there is quiet space set aside for writing. Are the accommodations in a retreat-like setting away from the noise and distraction of town? In our normal lives we are inundated with sound-music, television, traffic, leaf blowers. To write we must be able to sit in silence and listen with an inner ear.
Solitude. How large is the group? Is it single or mixed gender? Size and gender affect the social context of a group and also influence emotional safety. In the retreat description, does the leader set clear boundaries promoting solitude and silence including limiting telephone, cell phone and Internet usage, and discouraging shopping and tours except at specified times? Discipline is not a dirty word. We alone are responsible for the how, when, where and what of our writing.
Safety. Clear expectations for the group provide the safety in which each member can get the most from a retreat. There's a Zen saying that "how we do anything is how we do everything." One of the gifts of a retreat is to discover and face how we use our addictions and habitual behaviors to relate to our writing.
Support. At a retreat, the leader's ability to facilitate group process, maintain boundaries, and provide emotional safety and support is probably more important than his or her writing and publishing resume. A good leader will enable you to take risks while providing a safety net. She or he gives a gentle nudge to the next step on your writing journey.
A few other benefits you might expect from a retreat? Rest. Renewal. Re-creation. Community. All that.
