Writing retreats

[ZickZack]

Has anyone participated in one of these before? What did it entail? Would you recommend it?

I have two small children and am thinking of booking one of these next year to have a little bit of a getaway and time to myself doing something I love.

If anyone can recommend any, I'd be grateful!

I really like the idea of these - taking a few days away from the kids to spend time in new surroundings, with other writers, somewhere the air is clean. I haven't managed to go on one, though. If I'm editing and need a bit of uninterrupted time, my husband helps with that. One thing that stops me booking - what if other group members are too critical, or not critical enough? And if it's a short retreat, you'd barely have time to get to know them or get much done. Are you thinking of a weekend, a week, more?

@WhisperTree yeah I see what you mean! There are retreats with workshops and lectures, or just retreats to write. I like the idea of both so don't know which one I'd go for!
That's great you have a supportive husband. My husband is also good at giving me time to write, it's just not very often at the moment as I have a breastfed baby 😅
I've seen one which is just under a week. I also like the idea of a long weekend just to write. It's very tempting, the idea of countryside, fresh air, writing, coffee, and no worries of dishwasher, cooking, tidying up etc.

I'm looking for similar for singing. But something that always puts me off group things is that in any group setting there is ALWAYS one know it all/teachers pet chiming in. And all the ones I've found include yoga which I don't get on with. I've just been googling cabins, but also it is nice to brainstorm and bounce off others. Tricky!

You need to check out Arvon. They do both tutored and non-tutored retreats. My absolute favourites are at The Clockhouse - I always get so much done when I am there, and I come back feeling properly relaxed.

I hope you manage to find something. Yeah I've done enough classes to know there's always one 🙈 the more I'm looking, the more I'm leaning towards just going into the wilderness and writing.

I'm looking at what you've (@AlbertCampion ) suggested at the moment. Looks brilliant honestly and exactly what I'm looking for (except from maybe the evening cooking 😬). A nice country house to get away from it all, have meals provided and just have headspace to write.

Hoping it'll be possible next year, maybe autumn. But it depends if I'll be able to leave my 18 month old at that point. I wouldn't have been able to leave my first at that age, but dreaming of a small break 😅

Arvon breaks are amazing. The one I went on was so relaxing but also very productive in terms of getting me actually writing. A couple of the participants went on to get published and have good sales.

You just have to be careful to choose one with tutors whose writing styles chime with yours. So it's worth doing a bit of research on their own books first.

God, The Clockhouse looks amazing... My youngest child is just getting to an age where something like this looks vaguely realistic, I'd seriously consider it next year.

Oh my goodness, you have your hands full! Hooray for supportive husbands. That week-long retreat sounds delightful. I suspect I might end up sleeping for some of it lol.

The way I made time to write when mine were tiny was to consciously decide not to tidy or clean a single thing until I'd written for at least 45 minutes, or produced 3 pages. Words first.

And in lieu of actually going on an actual retreat, there's always collective daydreaming about going on a retreat with other Mumsnetters whose responsibilities mean they can't actually just waltz out the door...

I went on an Arvon course when I was far too young to fully appreciate it

Yes, the Clockhouse looks tempting @AppropriateAdult

Combo of quietness, nature and - best of all - no food prep or cleaning up

I went on an Arvon course and it wasn’t for me. It was too social and I didn’t get along very well with a couple of the other guests - there was a bit of bullying frankly. I would try a retreat if I did it again or else if I wanted a course it would need to be non-residential. But would probably prefer to just book a random holiday cottage and just write.

I take myself on one of these sometimes. book an off season airb&b by myself and have a lovely time. Occasionally I write something.....

I had 4 nights away in my camper van and had thought this could be a great home made writing retreat in the Dark Peak - I’d be able to spill some ink about two periods in my childhood where I was abandoned in hospital - my parents were “un-contactable” - I didn’t miss them - it was respite from the damp, cold and dusty council flat we were temporarily living in - I was a breathless, scratchy child suffering from pleurisy, asthma and eczema, my parents were smokers, they drank, fought and argued: it was chaos. We didn’t own a vacuum cleaner that worked but there were three huge televisions on the bare wooden floorboards in the living room - the two on the bottom only managed to produce the pictures - one for BBC, one for Granada and the one perched on top had no picture but could produce the sound - there were three aerials dangling outside from a window left slightly open for the cables. I’ve been dogged by these flickering memories for years. The noise from the rain on the camper van caused me to think about scaling back and compressing this chapter of my life into a longish poem, maybe 50 lines or so but the sound of the screaming swearing Scouser kids kicking a football around at 6am made me think I should seize the moment and knock off a short poem about that or a haiku about the mother shouting at her kid for falling off a scooter with 2” wheels at 10 o’clock at night but that would be too much to cram in so I thought I’d settle for writing a visceral anonymous note and tucking it under the wiper blades of the massive motor home. In the end I wrote nothing and was happy to leave and continue my period of stumbling productivity in the comfort, peace and quiet of my own home.