When you set your intention to start or finish your writing project, you need to make a plan. For most authors, the plan involves periods of concentrated effort. Some writers have caves or treehouses for this purpose. Others achieve peak productivity with babies on each knee, several televisions, and a twitterfeed. A few arrive to their desks before dawn and the distractions of the day. But most of us have to carve both time and space from unyielding lives.
What is a writer’s retreat?
It is a time and a space defined for writing.
It means: give yourself permission to focus on your project, suspend obligations, and streamline logistics.
The form depends on your needs and desires as a writer.
It could be a simple as taking a week off of work and clearing the bills and taxes from your desk.
It could be as grand as living in a castle for a weekend with one of your literary heroes.
What retreat do you need?
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Is your objective to produce or learn?
Seminars on the craft? Expert private feedback? Mostly time at your desk? -
Are you seeking inspiration?
Literary hero? Spiritual practice? Nature or landscape?
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Do you want a writing coach as part of your retreat?
Help with structure? Someone to talk to when you get stuck? Reading and feedback?
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Is discipline among your needs?
Schedule and accountability? No internet? Productivity coach? -
What role do peers play?
Writing in the same room? Sociality at meals? Spiritual practice? Feedback circles? … -
Your effective writing context:
Making your own special coffee or drinking whatever is on offer? Meals at fixed times or when you reach a stopping point? Walks alone or exercise with a teacher? Cultural/touristic experiences? How many hours per day of writing?
Solo Production Retreat
If you are concerned with production and need to get out of your own house or city, the most available option is to rent an apartment or hotel room at sufficient distance. The problem is that this involves a lot of logistics. You’ll have to get oriented to the location and organize all your meals. You can work with an online writing coach during this time, but you won’t have any structure or support with discipline. And it might be too lonely.
If you do want to retreat on your own with an online coach, you might find one here:
- writingworkshops.com offers lots of online workshops, coaches, and some destination retreats.
- Gilliam Writers Group offers various kinds of coaching on an hourly rate.
- A Paris, Les Mots propose toutes sortes de formations pour les écrivains.
List of Retreats
updated November 2023
Below you’ll find two lists: Production-oriented retreats without workshops, and Retreats with workshops.
As a professional researcher, it took me about a week of full time work to compose this list (and the questions above). I used every list I could find on the internet and spent time on every site, taking time to understand the offerings and the pricing. There are two or three retreats that I did not include here because it seemed that writing was mentioned among other activities, but not a focus.
For uncluttered but consistent price information below, I am reporting the price of a single occupancy room with a private bathroom. Most retreats have the option for a shared room, or to bring a vacationing (non-workshop) partner along to share the room and meals. You’ll find more detail on each website.
I have added just a tiny bit of information based on my examination of the photos and programs. Elegant refers to the quality of the interior. Landscape refers to spectacular views. refers to an aspect of the program or place that I think deserves a close look.
Serviced Year-Round Production Retreats without Workshops
These are fixed-location production-focused retreats that you can book almost any time of year for the length of time you need. The hosts have transformed their own homes specifically to offer spaces designed for writing retreats. They provide various levels of service to support you. There may be other guests for socializing or meals, and the host may be available as a coach, but there is no structure of group activities you are expected to attend.
- Deep Wild, Hawai’i. Retreat for one guest with meals and kitchen access. $1000/5days.
- Writers’ Retreat UK, Yorkshire England. Two retreats offered each month including meals, with options for workshops and private tutorials. £470/3 days, £700/6days.
- Arvon Clockhouse, Shropshire England. Spartan retreat for four guests. You cook for yourself, but ingredients for meals and frozen dinners are provided. £660-1040/4-6 days.
- Tŷ Newydd, Wales. Cottage with kitchen to be booked by one or two writers. £750/7 days.
- Good Contrivance Farm, Maryland USA. Two independent houses available for retreats of two nights to a month, for one or two writers. $400 or $600/week.
- Moniack Mhor, Scotland. Untutored retreats offered throughout the year, as well as some retreats with workshops or private tutoring. Food included, but guest are required to participate in cooking for the group. £500/5 days.
- Château Détilly, Loire, France. Retreats in a luxurious villa with elegant grounds, with and without workshops, with meals or with kitchen, with optional one-on-one coaching, throughout the year. Accommodation, workshops, and meals: €1700/5 days. Cottage with kitchen €1200/week. Elegant
- Loire Valley Writers Retreat, France. Retreat for one guest with accommodation, breakfast and lunch delivered to your office, evening meal with the host, and your own kitchen. €1470.00/week
- La Muse, Southeastern France. Retreat for up to 10 writers and artists each week in a village house with kitchen access. Book for 1, 2, or 4 weeks with 50% discount on the 4th week. €375-920/week. Elegant
- Villa Aragon, Southern France. Year-round retreat for up to 5 writers in a tranquil country house. Base price covers accommodation and your choice of services including: coaching, time-keeping, accountability, shopping service, yoga, gym training, meditation. You can add meals or cook for yourself. €679/week, 50% discount for work-trade.
- Pen, Paper, Paradise, Salta Argentina. Year-round retreat for up to 3 writers at a time. Prices customized on request.
- L’atelier d’ecriture par Christine, L’abbaye de Maumont, Charente, France:
A weekend of solitary and group writing. “Ici, pas de bruit, pas de wifi : 0% de distraction et 100% de concentration sur l’écriture ! Offered twice in the summer. €490/weekend.
with Workshops
- A Writer Within, Tuscany. Retreats for Women writers. $4800/week.
- Las Chimeneas, Alpujarra Spain. 3 writing retreats per year. €1050.
- Tŷ Newydd, Wales. Residential courses throughout the year. £500/5 days.
- Birth a Book, Lisbon Portugal, Poconos USA, White Mountains USA. With a focus on publishing and including yoga. $2000-$3000/4-6 days.
- Wide Open Writing, Tuscany, Ireland Elegant, Maine. Retreats with yoga and several structured writing sessions and feedback every day. $3500-4500.
- Rocaberti Writers, castles in France, Italy, and Spain. Workshops on screenwriting with 5 industry professionals (producers, directors, writers) teaching. You can choose your “mentor”. €6000-7500/5-7 days.Elegant
- Farmhouse Screenwriting, Tuscany. Program of education and coaching. €4000. Elegant
- Arvon Residential Writing Courses, locations in England. Large roster of 5-day workshop-based courses or private tutoring. Ingredients for meals are provided, but guests are required to cook dinner for the group. £900.
- Paris Café Writing Two hours of .writing seminar per day in a café plus guided tourism. Does not include accommodation. $1500.
- Authors at Large, unusual destinations. One or two retreats per year. No price listed.
- Write Away Europe, Hydra Island Greece, Périgord France Elegant, Tuscany Italy. Workshops in the morning and evening with free time to write in the afternoon. €3500.
- Wayfaring Writers organizes group trips to various destinations with an educational focus on travel writing. $5000.
- Foreword Retreats are small group events with celebrity authors in luxurious locations in France. $6000. Elegant
- Writing Workshops Retreats, Iceland Landscape, Hawai’i, Paris, New York, Vermont, Michigan, North Carolina. Three to six-day retreats with a variety of authors, offering workshops and private coaching. $1400-$4000.
- The Writing Room, Cape Town, Lesbos Greece, México, Kenya, and Spain. Workshops and feedback. €3000.
- The Creative Writer’s Workshop, Ireland. Located in a spa on a beach, workshops on memoir and fiction. €2300 Landscape
- Rebirth Your Book, on the Queen Mary cruise ship travelling for 7 days from UK to US with publishing and writing coaches and add-on 3-day programs before and after in London and New York. $2500 and up.
- Himalayan Writing Retreat, India. Includes a visit to the Taj Majal en route to airport, yoga, hiking, and workshops. €3000/10 days. Landscape
The Perfect day of Writing
It’s true that we need to reduce distractions and obligations in order to write effectively.
The right retreat for you removes you from your usual sphere of obligations and habits, introducing exactly the right amount and kind of stimulation without invading your time with new distractions.
To book the right retreat you need to know for yourself what counts as a distraction (having to engage with other guests, eating in restaurants, other people’s schedules), what kind of stimulation serves your writing (workshops, vineyard tours, or just a great view from your desk?), and how much sociality you need to preclude the lurking distraction of loneliness (presenting your work and listening to others’, group meditation, or just a bleary end-of-day nightcap?)
As a productive author, most of the workshop retreats strike me as impossibly overscheduled. Based on my experience with both tourism and group workshops, I anticipate that during the blocks labelled “free time to write” I would need a nap. Furthermore, if you are a writer, you know the biorhythm of your writing. For example, I know that I need to write in the morning and take stimulation or input later in the day. Arvon retreats have workshops in the morning and writing in the afternoon.
I strongly suggest that you choose a retreat that gives you tranquility without tourism, and structure without fixed group activity and its social obligations. You may want to read this commentary-report regarding group activities on retreats.
If you want workshops and coaching, you can access a much wider selection of authors online, at your convenience, and at much lower prices than these retreats. Information is easily transmitted online.It may be tempting to believe that attending an event with a famous writer or agent will facilitate your success, but that’s an expensive fantasy, or gamble. The thing to invest in is the context that will facilitate your writing.
Destination and vacation-oriented retreats will offer invitations to see the sights, do tastings, cooking classes, etc. Having spent a lot of money to visit this place, you may feel bad about skipping these. So if you have serious production goals, you may want to choose a more focused retreat.
The thing that’s hard to get at any price is concentration and flow, so if you’re going to make an investment of time and money in a context for production, don’t dilute it with tourism and other people’s voices.
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