Run Away and Write

Promptmaster's Note:

Today's guest blogger is Kathryn Canan. She is an accomplished musician, writer and mother who is working on a book called "Run Away With Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Planning a Solo Retreat". You can learn more about her at the Sacramento Recorders site. 

I have a room of my own. My husband's office is directly below mine and his conference calls on speaker phone faintly float up the stairs. The kitchen constantly beckons and the laundry needs shifting. The clock reminds me how many minutes I have to accomplish something before I pick up my daughter from school. The kid across the street recently took up drums. Sometimes "a room of one's own" isn't enough. It's time for a writing retreat!

I've done both solo and group writing retreats. I hid myself away at my family's cabin in Montana for a week to jump start my master's thesis and, more recently, I treated myself to one of Jennifer Sander's Write by the Lake retreats. 

Which is right for you? It depends on your temperament and goals.

Jennifer's group retreat offered plenty of private time for writing and the support and connections I found there have been invaluable. We each stated a goal for the weekend and provided gentle accountability and feedback for each other. we met after breakfast each morning to warm up with quick prompt responses; then we retreated to private bedrooms or the porch to work on our own projects. At meals, midday walks and evening wine and cheese tastings, we shared our progress and bounced ideas around. I used that weekend to break through an emotional block and write about a harrowing experience; I needed the encouragement of other women for that particular task. I came away from the weekend with renewed confidence that I really can become a professional writer because I met other people who are succeeding. 

A solo retreat is a more intense, personal experience. It's more deeply introspective: when you have only yourself for company, you begin to confront your inner strengths and weaknesses and you have to develop your own inner discipline. It's great to start each day of a solo retreat with stream-of-consciousness journaling in order to clear some of the mental junk out of the way, set your daily goals and cheer your own progress. I've found that solo retreats are useful for starting a project - I used my time in the cabin to skim through a huge stack of books on Anglo-Saxon medicine and draft a preliminary thesis proposal and outline. Not many people could have helped me with that. Solitude is also helpful for full-steam-ahead writing, when the research is done and you just need to slap a lot of words onto the page with no interruptions. 

There are practical considerations as well. With group retreats, someone else usually does all the planning, provides the meals and cleans up after you. You just get to write. Solo retreats can be less expensive and you have a greater choice of locations, but you do need to spend time on some daily tasks. Try both and see what works for you!

What experiences have you had with retreats for writing and other purposes? I'd love to hear your recommendations!