OK … so I don’t have an issue with writing retreats, per se. It’s nice to have a place to go and write free of distraction and really focus on the work.
But my sense of retreats is this: It’s a status symbol. I earned this retreat or I won this retreat, so look at me.
I doubt people truly get that much work done on a retreat.
But more importantly: I think a writer of a certain mindset feels that if only I earned a writing retreat or bought my way into one, then I will be able to write my book, finish my book, and be a capital W writer.
It looks good on Instagram. A great peeve of mine is the bucolic vistas writers take as if THIS is the writing life. Look at the dappled light. Look at the mountain. Look at the trees. I don’t know about you, but seeing that outside my window makes me want to go climb stuff and not be at the ledger writing paragraphs. That’s just me.
My point is this: You don’t need a retreat to write. Yes, you need time alone. Yes, you need time away from distraction. You can do that in your basement. You can do that at a hotel in town. You can get an AirBnB if you really need to change your context.
But don’t be fooled by the writing retreat industrial complex and the graduate school industrial complex that preys on the insecurities of the impressionable artists.
Pick a spot. Make it special. Do the work.