Why I find writing retreats help me to write more productively…

I have to confess that in the past I have been a bit cynical about writing retreats and social writing more generally. I am a typical introvert – I enjoy my own company and appreciate the peace and quiet of working on my own. I was always happy with my approach to progressing my writing and was confident that being alone was the best way for me to be productive and “get stuff done”. It has always worked so far, and I’ve written quite a lot over the years!

Two things have changed my mind.

The first was the pandemic and the impact it has had on my working life. Along with many others, this has meant a change to working mainly at home on my own. Although this is changing a little, home is still where I spend the majority of my working week. This was ideal for me initially, however after a few years, working alone at home no longer seems to offer the peaceful and distraction free setting it used to. I’ve quite successfully managed to teach myself to switch off from home related distractions - people coming in and out of the house, the mounting pile of washing up, the dog barking at people passing by. However, with everyone else now also working remotely, the distractions from work and technological communications seem to have gradually seeped more and more into my previously quiet (ish) home environment. Messages and electronic distractions seem to continually come at you from all angles these days and are, at least in my experience, getting more and more difficult to switch off from – emails (from more than one account), Teams messages, WhatsApp groups (work related and non-work related), texts, phone calls, zoom calls, news alerts ... the list goes on and on. Whereas being at work used to be a signal for people not to disturb you when writing, I’m finding the boundaries when working mainly at home are getting harder to maintain. This isn’t always a big problem for me generally, but I’ve found it has gradually affected my ability to concentrate on activities that require a bigger “chunk” rather than “chinks” of concentrated time. Time set aside for writing always seems to get eaten up and passes with little productive writing being achieved.

The second one was attending my first structured writing retreat. I thought I would find it difficult to concentrate with other people in the room – but actually found that this helped motivate me to concentrate more. I hadn’t realised that I tend to distract myself more than other people do! Being around other people who are all writing helps to keep me safe from my own self-sabotage (as well as, I have to admit, from a multitude of toast breaks!) I also hadn’t truly acknowledged just how difficult I find scheduling in enough breaks when on my own. I find it feels too self-indulgent as there is never enough time to fit everything into my day. I can sometimes (on a good day) get so engrossed in my writing that I tend to keep going, but then quickly run out of steam when I hit a writing block. To my surprise, I found that sticking to shorter writing sessions and a set break schedule actually means that I am able to write more, yet feel like I haven’t worked as hard (despite the post-lunch session feeling a bit onerous even after a fresh brisk walk by the sea!) The main advantage for me however was the freedom associated with getting away from the barrage of daily distractions. Getting away from the office used to be my retreat. Now the office tends to be at home, I found that attending a writing retreat with other people, quite ironically, provides me the peace and quiet from the world I need to help me be my most productive. Even for an introvert like me, it’s nice at times to be able to spend a whole day of writing in a supportive and friendly environment with fascinating and lovely people who share similar challenges and goals relating to “getting their writing done”.

If you’re not convinced that a writing retreat is for you – why not give it a go and see? You might be pleasantly surprised too.