Your Writing Retreat

Maybe your budget, job, or family commitments keep you from getting away for a week to concentrate solely on your writing. Or maybe you just got back from a longer writing retreat, and now it’s time to make that investment pay off. You can use the same principles as in the extended writing retreat to structure your writing life for the long haul.

Your Close-to-Home Writing Zone

If you can’t get out of town, say goodbye to your other responsibilities and spend an hour or a few in a setting where you can work undisturbed. The public library might have what you’re looking for — WiFi, a comfy chairs, and the smell of books. Not all public libraries are equally good for writing, so if your neighborhood library is too crowded or noisy, a college or university library might work better, even if you’re not a student — or, given the pressures of student life, especially if you’re not a student.

Other public venues work, too. A lot of writers write in coffee shops, but keep your eyes open for writing spaces in public buildings, an empty classroom, a motel lobby. Since you’re just going to be sitting quietly writing on your notepad or laptop, you might be able to get permission to work in some surprising places.

Different people have different ideas of what constitutes calm and quiet surroundings. For some people the food court of a shopping mall is a perfect place. You’ve got a table and chair, and the anonymous crowd, as loud as it is, resolves into an ocean of sound that drowns out distractions. Even public parks might offer the right atmosphere at the right time of year, and in Oregon, where I live, some state parks even have public WiFi.

If you want to make a day of it, you can usually get to a place that’s unfamiliar enough to excite the writing juices if you travel just 45 minutes from home. Whether by car or public transportation, if you just get out of your own neighborhood, you eliminate a lot of the distractions of the familiar.

If you enjoy working in company with other writers, you can organize a writing day (or half day). Set aside periods to write and periods to talk. One group I know of used to gather monthly for a Sunday afternoon. They structured the time with 45 minutes of work and 10 minutes off. Variations on that schedule might be helpful whether you’re working alone or with a group. Writing in company helps keep you focused, and the conversation serves as a kind of reward for work well done.

Create a Writing Retreat Inside Your Own Mind

The ultimate goal of a writing retreat is to create a space where you can focus. A change of location can jump-start the process, but the real change happens inside your own head. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioners say that you can use a physical item, environment, or gesture as an “anchor” to access a mental state. The anchor might be a room or a space where you go only to write and for no other reason. It might be a writing hat or the music you use to set the mood.

You can also meditate your way into the story. Relax your muscles, calm your breathing, and have an imaginary conversation with a character. At a workshop, I heard NLP practitioner and writing coach Jurgen Wulff give a Power Trance where we toured (with permission) our character’s living space. In variations on the exercise, you might invite the character for coffee, interview his mother, or visit her favorite place. Imagine going to a picnic that all your characters are attending and watch how they interact, find out which ones talk to you and what they say about themselves, each other, and the story.

When you learn to go to that place in your mind where your story lives, you can access it from anywhere and really at any time. You’ll spend more time writing and less time trying to figure out what to write.

If you combine the extended, concentrated effort of a long writing retreat and the daily discipline of the mini retreat, you’ll find the pages clicking away. Writing your novel still won’t be easy, but a few strategies can help make it possible.