Tefnut's journal

Posted by Christine Pride

https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/06/how-to-decide-if-a-writers-retreat-is-right-for-you

https://nathanbransford.com/?p=40678

Nathan here, I invited author and editor Christine Pride to post about writer’s retreats–she should know, she has one coming up this fall!

Perhaps you’ve noticed new writer’s retreats popping up across the country and around the world. (Including my own!) These getaways offer a chance to escape your daily routine, travel somewhere new, exotic, or beloved, and spend time focused on building your writing skills with a group of creative compatriots and knowledgeable instructors. 

But attending a writer’s retreat can be a big investment. It’s good to think through if it’s right for you and if and whether attending one would be beneficial. 

I’ve taught at dozens of writer’s retreats over my career as a book editor and author, and have thought a lot about what makes a great experience. These observations and research helped me design my own retreat, which I will launch this fall. WRITE WITH PRIDE will be held in Santa Barbara, CA in September and there are a few slots still available! 

Here are some questions to consider:

Would you best be served by a retreat or a fellowship?

Writer’s retreats usually offer a mix of free time to write, time to workshop your writing with other participants, and lectures/talks about craft or publishing. 

Fellowships, such as Yaddo and MacDowell, are usually application-based, involve longer stretches of time, and provide a lot of free time to focus on your work. You may just emerge for meals (though often lunch is delivered right to your room so you can keep working). A fellowship is designed to allow for maximum creative output.

There are also solo writer retreats if you just need some time in a peaceful place to get the creative juices flowing.

So it depends on what type of experience would benefit you and how much time you have available.  

That brings me to…

What are your goals for the experience?

Think about your larger writing goals and how spending time at a retreat could specifically help with them. 

These could be…

• I want to focus on finally nailing this difficult chapter
• I want to do a full read through of my manuscript
• I want to connect with new beta readers and writing friends
• I want to come away with an understanding of my next steps to getting an agent and a sense of how ready I am to query. 
• I want to travel to a nice destination and have some time to think about writing.

After you define what you’d like to get out of the experience, a little research will help you find the right fit for your specific needs, desires, and goals. 

Being clear-eyed about your goals will also help you ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. 

And speaking of bucks… 

How much of an investment are you willing or able to make? 

Writer’s retreats can be pricey—thousands of dollars for flights, accommodations, and programming. 

It’s a lot of money to spend, but it helps, I think, to evaluate it as investment in the same way you might spend money on golf or tennis lessons or professional development courses for your day job. If you’re serious about writing, as a hobby or potential career, it’s worth allocating resources to improving your craft. 

You can think of a retreat as an MFA seminar or a college class. The ideal setup gives you access to helpful instruction, information, and reactions to your writing from a professional/expert and from other attendees. 

Another key benefit is networking. Building community and connections with other writers is hugely beneficial on many levels, and a retreat is a great way to bond with other like-minded people in the creative trenches.

Which retreat elements are most important to you?

I’ve observed a lot of retreats as a teacher and participant and that’s allowed me to distill the key ingredients that I’ve found work best, which I’ve incorporated into WRITE WITH PRIDE:

• A beautiful destination. People tend to be more creatively inspired when they leave their comfort zones and can enjoy nature–and in particular for me, water.

• A carefully curated group of participants. Building community is such an important part of being a writer. Keeping the group small (8-10) allows people to get to know each other and build lasting connections. It’s key to be thoughtful about the type of people who come, which is to say, kind folks only. It really helps to have a retreat leader who can foster positive group dynamics by setting the right open and collegial vibe.

• A workshop component. I believe strongly that you become a better writer by becoming a more critical reader and learning how to give actionable feedback. Helping others improve their craft not only serves your fellow writing comrades, but has returns for you, too, in the form of a better eye for craft principles and techniques to apply to your own work.

• Strong, clear takeaways from the experience. Ideally, you leave a writer’s retreat armed with more concrete information than you arrived with—that might be some specific information about how to get an agent, or a new approach to creating characters, or a way to think about what it takes to have a writing career. But a workshop should offer lasting dividends for your investment.

When should you attend a retreat? 

With the various demands on our lives, it’s hard to carve out time to escape, but there are retreat options to fit every lifestyle and season. There will be options geographically closer to you, (a drive versus a flight), some might be halfway around the world. Some only require a long weekend, some are as long as ten days or two weeks or more. 

It also helps to consider where you are in your writing journey. There’s no “bad” time to attend one, but there will be different benefits if, say, you’ve completed the proverbial “shitty first draft” and are ready to focus on kicking off revisions, or if you’re still building the structure of your story and could benefit from focused conceptual  workshopping.

Or maybe there are too many distractions at home and a getaway is just what you need to clear your head to start a new project. 

If a retreat isn’t in the cards, then what?

A retreat is all about focus and commitment and creating dedicated space for writing. When you’re at a retreat, you’re saying, “this is my time to focus on this work before me.” 

You can carve out that same mental space closer to home by going to a new coffeeshop for the day, breaking from your usual routine, and/or turning your phone off, for example. Or by inviting your writer’s group to your home for a day and sharing your work with a special menu or theme. Or dedicating a day to take a break from writing and reading a book about craft, like your own personal editorial workshop. Something to make it feel different or special.

We all dedicate ourselves to our craft in different ways. A writer’s retreat is a great tool in your arsenal to contribute to your development as a writer.  Committing time to learning, practicing, and networking helps you level up and break through creative blocks. 

I’ve seen it firsthand, and am always so thrilled when my retreat students report they’ve landed a book deal or stayed in touch with other participants. It could be you! I urge you to at least consider a retreat experience.  I’d certainly love to have you at WRITE WITH PRIDE.

Christine Pride is a writer, editor and long-time publishing veteran where she held editorial posts at various Big Five imprints and published many bestselling and critically acclaimed novels and memoirs. As a novelist, Christine has written three books: two with Jo Piazza: We Are Not Like Them (which was a Good Morning America Book Club Pick) and You Were Always Mine and her solo debut, All The Men I’ve Loved Again will be published by Atria Books in July 2025. 

https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/06/how-to-decide-if-a-writers-retreat-is-right-for-you

https://nathanbransford.com/?p=40678