Writing Retreat Recap!
Takeaways from Four Day Writing Retreat
I’m still buzzing from the incredible experience I just had! Almost two weeks ago, I took my first flight in eight years to meet people I’d only ever met online! I know that sounds mildly alarming but it ended up being greater than I could have imagined!
Let me back up a little. The online writing group I’m a part of decided, after meeting bi-weekly for over a year, that it was about time we all met in person and host a writing retreat. The only problem was that we all lived states, and even another country, away! We all threw some options in the hat but ultimately decided on Salt Lake City, Utah.
I was admittedly nervous. I’d never been away from my kids before, especially not that far or for so long (two travel days plus three full days there). They’re young and the human embodiments of cling-wrap! Luckily, I have an involved husband who takes caring for his family seriously and an awesome mom who could take a few days off work to be there with the kids while he worked. So off I went!
I’ll skip over the months of planning and payments that got us there and get to the good part…arrival!
After a nightmare of flight delays and switching gates I finally arrived! I took my first ever Uber with one of the group members to the Air B&B and was greeted by the whole gang! Hugs and squeals of excitement ensued. I cannot adequately express how amazing it was to finally see everyone in person! It was truly incredible how natural it felt to be with everyone.
The first day was all about introductions. The admins had assigned several bits of homework for the trip and the first was slideshow presentations about ourselves. Since we got such a late start we did about half the presentations where much hilarity ensued. But before we got to that we all exchanged gifts which all matched the talents and tastes of the women who brought them. I designed and handmade custom bookmarks with the titles of everyone’s works in progress that looked like the spine of a book with pages on the opposite side. My daughter added matching keychains that were the talk of the trip!
The next day was supposed to be a hike on a mountain trail but, what turned out to be extremely good luck, the trail head was closed and the next one open added an additional mile and a half to the hike that the less athletic of the group (me) wouldn’t be able to handle. The fortunate part ended up being that there was a raging wildfire not too far off that we were protected from by staying in the great indoors.
So we stayed inside, wrote, ate, and did the second half of the presentations. That night’s writing activity was Pass the Prose and it was seriously the most fun writing activity I have ever done! The rules are as follows:
Pick an item (in this case they were magical items that ranges from the obvious like an amulet to the absurd like a spatula)
Then we all had the same starting sentence
We had five minutes to write the first three sentences to get the story going and then had to pass it to the next person.
After that we had time to read what was written then just three minutes to write three sentences to further the story
The last person had five minutes to write as many sentences as the could to close out the story.
After we finished the stories we ate a delicious dinner of DIY spring rolls and went off to bed!
I was super excited about day three! When I travel I like to explore the city and see sights and try food that I can only get in that location. So it being Utah, I had to try a soda shop! After running a few errands, We went to a drive through soda shop and I got to try my first dirty Dr. Pepper! It was delicious! To my surprise and tiny bit of disappointment the place we went was a chain that there were more available in my area back home than there were in the state of Utah. So I really didn’t get to try something I could only get there but I was happy to learn that I could get the same drink about fifteen minutes away from my house.
On the writing side of the day, we had some free write time where I worked on some edits. We also played a game that I think could definitely work for writers where the whole thing was about court politics and alliances. You could make whole story just off the events of the game.
That night we went out to try out a local Mexican restaurant. We called ahead to make sure they could accommodate our nine people party so were able to be seated right away. I was ready to be super judgmental since I’m from Texas and between Tex-Mex and authentic mom and pop restaurants, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to find anything that was near as good but was pleasantly surprised by the enchiladas I had. But the Sopapilla was nothing like what I get back home and would nit recommend.
The way back to the Air B&B was an adventure I wasn’t expecting. Our driver missed the exit and took us a little out of the way which was concerning but not as concerning as the red and blue flashing lights and sirens that tailed us as we drove. Only minutes away from our destination our driver got pulled over for some absolutely ridiculous reason (his Uber light was the wrong color), While the officer was nice and tried to make everyone feel comfortable it was an extremely awkward situation. He fortunately got let off with a warning and the frazzled driver dropped us off several doors down from where we were supposed to be. It was fine and we finished off the night chatting and making beaded bracelets.
Well we mostly finished off the night with the bracelets but I ended up waking in the middle of the night to one of the group suffering from some serious heartburn and trapped gas. She was being helped by another member and between mint tea and my home remedies she was able to find some relief. But in an unexpected twist, moments after I left them to head back to bead I immediately threw up everything I’d had for dinner and some of lunch too (thanks a lot weird sopapillas!) So I rand into them and they ended up taking care of me in return. (Thanks guys!)
The next day was our last full day on the retreat and was the day I’d been most excited for (other than the outing). This was the day that final bit of our “homework” was due! We’d been assigned to write a short story based on a prompt pulled from a sort of writing prompt tarot deck. We were given a location and motivation and left to our own devices. When I tell you this prompt took me out of my comfort zone! I literally sat for a while before free writing the whole nearly three thousand work thing in a day! It took so many twists and turns that had even me, the writer, surprised. It really took me to a different place and left me with the comfort that I could tell stories outside of the universe where all my other books live. I’ll be sharing it on here next week as a subscriber only post open to all tiers.
I went with the morning crew where the first half of us read our stories aloud. It was quite the experience hearing how different everyone’s stories were even with the same prompt! Though, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised after Pass the Prose. The middle of the day was filled with relaxing in the hot tub, plotting out another book idea (the next book in the alter novella series), and finally the night crew read their stories.
The end of the night was bittersweet. It was our last night and we made a few more bracelets and hung out but ultimately all needed to pack our things to be ready to head out early in the morning.
I’ve never had a more natural connection with that many people ever in my life and sure, some of it was built through nearly two years of online meetings and interactions, but anyone can be anything online but effectively living together for four days and having zero drama and all meshing together so well is quite the accomplishment! Everyone was real and authentic to themselves and it paid off in the genuine connection we all shared. I cannot wait for the next one!
Watch my daily retreat recaps on TikTok! Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four
Sounds like an adventure!