The first major writing event I attended—the Yellow Bay Writers’ Workshop at Montana’s Flathead Lake in 1991—was very definitely not marketed as a retreat. It was a workshop, with well-respected faculty members (in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry), a detailed agenda, teacher/student reading events, and multiple critique options.

I’d applied to the workshop while living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, after working all day as a desktop publisher, I struggled to write historical mysteries nightly at my kitchen table. I hoped the workshop would give me some type of breakthrough, show me how to stop struggling so much with my writing, and set me on the path to finishing my book. Wasn’t that what a writers’ workshop was for?

And yet, thirty-plus years later, despite all of the planned critique activities, candid conversations about writing, and some very emotionally-generous attendees, when I think of that week, I don’t think writers’ workshop; I think writers’ retreat.

And I really think that’s because the absolutely stunning setting made me feel like I had totally retreated from the world.

See what I mean? This wasn’t a writers’ workshop; this was summer camp!

For an entire week I slept in a small, singly-lit cabin in the woods, canoed with other writers on the lake, got not-so-surprisingly sunburned, and eagerly enjoyed eating someone else’s cooking. All of these delights led me to breathe deeper, explore the woods longer, smile a bit more easily, and make some new friends. In this totally nurturing environment—combined with my five day solitary road trip—I had time to write, plot, and muse. Time to retreat from the world, to relax and listen to myself, and to recommit to my writing.

I’d come to the lake to attend a writers’ workshop, but because of the peaceful location and the ability to step away from my real life stresses, that workshop quickly became a retreat.

As I drove home to California, I recommitted to letting nature nurture me and by extension, my writing desires. And when my husband and I purchased a home a few years later, we set ourselves in the hills and very consciously created our own summer camp retreat.

hey! that’s me in 1991…front row, second from the right!

Alas, although the Yellow Bay Writer’s Workshop no longer exists. But you might be able to find the writing retreat of your dreams in Anne Beggs’ recent 7 Links for Writing Retreats blog. Happy Hunting!

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