Solo Writing Retreats to Feed Your Soul

Do you dream of a getaway where you can focus solely on your writing? Perhaps finish that novel that's been neglected over the competing time grabbers of work, family and day-to-day life? I feel you. Let's go. For real! Start planning your personal writing retreat today. Thoughtfully, I've started your research for you. I present three places to consider for your vocational vacation.

“Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become
quiet, and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice;
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Franz Kafka

#1 The Whidbey Island Writer's Refuge

In the Pacific Northwest, tucked into between towering evergreens and in a dense green forest, you'll find The Whidbey Island Writer's Refuge. This island just a little northwest of the emerald city boasts a plethora of writerly opportunities. Also home to Hedgebrook, NILA and the Whidbey Writer's Conference, you'll find yourself warmly welcomed as a fellow writer. At the refuge, you can hole away in a little cabin perfectly suited to writing. As they say on their site, there is no escaping yourself in a space this size, so you might as well sit down and write!

Website: writersrefuge.com Facebook: /WritersRefuge

#2 The Lanaux Mansion.com

For those of you that require a little more stimulus to get your creative juices flowing, New Orleans offers just about all the stimulus you can handle. Stay at the Lanaux Mansion bed and breakfast at the edge of the French Quarter. If you need a little more inspiration, the Johnson Suite comes equipped with a literary library for your prose perusing. Although I strongly recommend getting out of the mansion and spending a few hours writing at a cafe table nestled on the cobblestones outside Pirate's Alley Cafe and Absinthe House.

Website: www.lanauxmansion.com

#3 Lamy Cottage

If what you seek not stimulation, but quiet and calm and a place of peace. Then I give you Lamy Cottage in New Mexico. This private guest cottage offers an incredibly beautiful, ordered space. Desert rocks artfully decorate the grounds, while an interior of warm wood, parallel beams and neatly ordered books calm a frazzled soul. Turn on the overhead fan, power up your mac book and type away, free of distraction.

website: www.vrbo.com/228759

Now perhaps you're written three glorious chapters on your much deserved writer's retreat, and now it's time for a break. What do you do, read of course! And perhaps have a little sip of something. You'll need to bring along a copy of Book Lush to discover an author new to you, as well as a cocktail pairing suggestion. Of course, Book Lush will not exist if we don't fund hte project on Kickstarter. So please, hop over now and become a backer.

All my love to you, writers. If you know of another great writing retreat, please do leave the link in the comments. You'll help me plan my next trip!

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Dianne

11 years ago

http://tucsonpoetsstudio.com

Aaron Davis

11 years ago

I would have never guessed there were such things. You never know what you'll find out there until you go.

Paula

11 years ago

I need to go to one of these places! Thanks for sharing : )

Tom Seymore

11 years ago

When I lived in New Orleans, a local group of friends and I used to make an annual pilgrimage to Oak Alley Plantation to participate in a round-table "ghost story" reading. We rented cabins on the plantation grounds for the weekend and penned short stories specifically for the occasion. We established a theme and a few loose parameters months ahead of time, then composed our tales in private.

On the first night of these gatherings, each participant read his or her own short story aloud by candlelight. Afterwards we ate, imbibed and made merry. 🙂

These annual trips not only made for lasting memories, but also led to gradual improvement in my creative writing with each passing year. The act of reading my own words aloud was an eye opener because it exposed occasional "snags" in terms of pacing, mood, etc - all good stuff I could learn from.

Kelsye

11 years ago

Tom, that's brilliant! How I would have loved to have been part of your group.

Petra Martin

11 years ago

I turned a cabin into the Writer's Refuge because I wanted to help make people's dreams come true. Not romantic-honeymoon or memorable-family-vacation dreams. Writing dreams. Often, those who come to the Writer's Refuge are leaving behind the distractions of everyday life to devote themselves to their writing for the first time. They use up their vacation time at work, arrange for child and petcare, stop the paper, hold the mail, and withstand the pressure of those who think their priorities are misplaced.

When they arrive, the Writer's Refuge embraces them, honors the risk they've taken, and "infects" them with the creative and productive energy of the writers who stayed before.

It doesn't matter to me if the work of these writers gets published. What matters is that they honored the call, came to the Writer's Refuge, and served as the conduit for something that could only have been expressed by them.