DIY Writing Retreat

*Reposted from 2017

I’ve always wanted to go on a writing retreat. The thing is, I’m not really in the space in life where its realistic. Maybe at a later time in my life, when I have a little more freedom and leisure time. The idea of having actual face to face time with other authors sounds great too, although daunting in equal measure. So, when I booked a weekend away a couple of weeks ago, I decided it would be the perfect time to do a writing retreat of my own.

Prelude to a Writing Retreat

I’ve been thinking about a weekend away for awhile. Not a weekend with friends or family. A solo weekend–just me. It’s been a very busy start to the year, and I needed a break. Some people find it strange that I sometimes take a weekend to myself, but being a mother of three young children, juggling part-time work and everything else, I find that I have very little time when I can just be alone and not talk to anyone. It is one of the things I most miss about life without children.

I needed to get away–not really away. I didn’t leave Melbourne.The point wasn’t to go anywhere in particular. It was just to be by myself for a couple of days. So I just booked a hotel in South Yarra, caught the train.

In the week or so preceding my writing retreat, I’d slipped into a writing funk. At about half way through my first draft, I’d stopped writing for a few days, claiming tiredness, and was having trouble picking it up again. When you’re in the middle of the first draft, interrupting the flow can make it difficult to get started again.

So, I decided that my writing retreat needed to include a focus on my first draft.

the key was to feel like the weekend would be productive, while also having some time to rewind and recharge

Planning for a Writing Retreat

To be honest, I did little planning for my writing retreat, apart from packing my laptop, e-reader and notebook. However, in the back of my mind, I’d started to set myself some little goals. I knew there were a few things I wanted to achieve on my solo weekend.

• A good chunk of drafting. I’m a fairly modest writer in terms of daily output. I’m very envious of those writers who regularly write 10,000+ words a day. I routinely write somewhere between 1,000-2,000 words per day. My minimum is 500 words, though in the week preceding my writing retreat, I’d gone several days writing nothing at all. So, I decided that I wanted to write 10,000 words over the whole weekend.
• Exercise: The bare minimum of a run along the banks of the Yarra or through the Botanic Gardens. I have not been on close terms with exercise lately and since I would have a couple of days to myself, it seemed like a good way to remedy this!
• Relaxation: I had taken this retreat because I needed some time out. Time. Out. Period. So, I knew I would need to balance my drive to get some writing done, with some time out where I could just read, watch a move, wander in shops, or whatever I felt like. There had to be an element of creative recharging, because I’d been burning the candle at both ends for months and it had been taking a dent out of my creativity as well, as seen by my total lack of progress in my drafting in the week preceding my writing retreat.

For me, the key was to feel like the weekend would be productive, while also having some time to rewind and recharge. Stay tuned to find out how it went!

Have you ever taken time out for a personal retreat? Perhaps not to write, but just to take care of yourself? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

*Photo by Bookblock from Unsplash.com