Invitation to a Retreat

Writers’ Retreats

A number of retreats exist in many states and internationally. All basically provide lodging, meals, and uninterrupted time for their guests to write. Most are for a week or two and usually cost hundreds to thousands, not including transportation to and from. Time is allocated for some socializing or sharing of your work with other writers.

There are a great many more writer’s conferences throughout the country, which offer opportunities to speak to agents and give classes on various topics ranging from poetry to fiction and all the intricacies one must master in each genre—characterization, creating suspense and tension, the difference between a haiku and iambic pentameter—and classes in the business of writing—publication, promotion, self-publishing.

Conferences usually have a set number of class periods scheduled with a choice between two topics for each. Last year at the Write Angles Conference, a yearly one-day, affordable conference in Holyoke, they had, for instance, classes on internet resources for writers, how to develop your main character, poetry (I don’t remember the specific topic since I didn’t take that class), and a forum with the guest agents to discuss log lines—one sentence of under fifty words that describes the main idea of your novel or nonfiction piece, often used for promotion and on a book jacket to lure in readers.

An Invitation to a Hybrid Retreat

As I haven’t managed to sell any of my writing yet, I can’t afford more than the local Holyoke conference. I would like to configure my own combination of a writers’ retreat and learning experience to concentrate on perfecting and sending out my short stories, start a new novel, explore the online world of writers, and learn how to navigate Twitter.

The ideal situation would be to have someone else who can take care of the chores and cooking and someone, possibly the same person, knowledgeable about the intricacies of the internet and good at teaching them to barely computer-literate people like me. I would like another writer or two to join me and share their experiences in writing and trials and tribulations in the business of writing and publishing.

The location has to be decided, maybe along the lines of an out-of-season and more affordable beach house or a cross-country train trip (I know someone who is going to California, a nine-day trip, for just over $200.00) and the time. I’m open to suggestions. We also need to find the person or people who can help in allowing the writers the full freedom and time to write and learn. I hope those reading this share it with anyone they think might be interested and message me. I’ll let you know how it turns out.