Getting the best out of our retreats
Our writing retreats work best when writers come prepared to focus on writing. This can be at any stage in your writing progress (including not starting at all!) but coming prepared will really help to make the most of your time with us. See some of our 'top tips' for preparing for our writing retreats below.
Writing schedule
Writing planner
Our retreats following a writing schedule similar to that developed by Professor Rowena Murray. In total, our one-day retreats provide five hours of focussed writing. This may not seem like a lot, but it's amazing what you can achieve when you write without distractions in a retreat environment. Writing is broken up into blocks and we will encourage you to set goals for each of these. This will help you learn more about your writing behaviours. You can download our one-day retreat writing planner below, alongside our three-day planner for our extended writing retreat. Copies will also be available on the day.
Choosing your writing project
Deciding your focus
Our writing retreats are open for anyone working on any type of writing project. This could be a book, journal article, blog, report, website content, teaching materials, whatever! However, it is important to select something. If you have lots of potential options, you may want to think about this in advance. Download our writing prioritisation exercise below. This could be done months, weeks, days or even in the morning before you join us.
Retreat preparation
Getting the most out of the day
The aim of a writing retreat is to 'privilege' writing as an activity. This means that ideally you come to a retreat prepared to write. Depending on what you are writing with us, this may benefit from some preparation. To help you get the most out of the retreat, we've created a writing retreat 'checklist' which gives you some suggestions on how you might want to prepare for the retreat. These are based on our behavioural expertise, but are completely optional. You'll also receive these by email when you sign up to our retreats.
Physical wellbeing
Looking after your writing and your wellbeing
Our retreats include regular breaks from sitting in a writing position to ensure we are also looking after your physical wellbeing. At each of our locations there is room to stretch, get some fresh (sea) air and move around during these breaks. The lunchtime break is extended to provide an opportunity for some physical activity. The facilitator will lead a gentle walk during this time making the most of our beautiful coastal location. However, if you would like to do something else, other options are described on our venue pages.