writing retreat

Friday Food – Writing Retreat

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One of my rituals when I’m on writing retreat is to take a photo of the first breakfast oatmeal of the retreat. I don’t always publish it, but it’s nearly always there in my phone’s memory. In addition to the taste and variety of the food, there is the wonderful blessing of not having to plan it or cook it or clean it up. It takes some of the stress out of the weekend.

Last weekend’s writing retreat, or was it two weekends ago, left me with inspiration as well as the dread of reevaluating my checklists and my outlines and my path forward. However, the food can still inspire even when the planned inspiration hangs like dew over the morning grass.

Added to my hot, comfortable oatmeal is butter, brown sugar, and dried cranberries. A very simple combination that always says retreat to me, and gets me in the right mindset for a writing weekend.

My tea this weekend was PG Tips. It is a good writing tea.

The flowers were not for eating, but we enjoyed them with our meals nonetheless.

(c)2026

Inspired & Inspiring – Writing Retreat Reflection

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This weekend I went on a much anticipated writing retreat with three writing colleagues. We have been meeting every two weeks for the past year, and the amount of feedback, suggestions, and camaraderie we’ve each received has been a glorious blessing.

We each had our own private bedroom as we shared other accommodations and a small conference room for meeting together and writing.

We interspersed our own writing with writing prompts and exercises to jump start our creativity and we enjoyed snacks, candy, and company and remarkably we each got quite a lot done on our individual projects.

As the “host” I had several goodies planned and I just loved both aspects of hosting and of participating.

The shared space worked out amazingly well, and we have tentatively scheduled another retreat in the fall.

Moving forward from this weekend, I have some goals set that need to be formally set down with specific timelines:

• Sample Book Cover
• Book Title Ideas
• Chapter Headers (each chapter needs):
          – Titles
          – Picture, sketch, or quotation
          – Fictional narrative of this aspect of Kateri’s life, especially related to the shrines
• Timeline both of the formal governments & of Kateri’s life
• Questions to be answered

I’m looking forward to the rest of the week, planning, meeting again on Zoom, and focusing on the direction of my book.

Happy Writing to All of Us!

Caption for Photo Collage above:

  1. Our reserved dining table for the weekend
  2. A beautiful necklace one of my colleagues gave me
  3. Protest sign created for April 5th Hands Off protest that three of our group went to
  4. Chocolate chip scone & cup of hot, black tea with milk
  5. Our conference room where we met, laughed, read, and wrote

Writing Retreat Prep

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I should have had this written & posted hours ago, but you know how it is:

  • Slept in
  • Needed breakfast
  • Someone was wrong on the internet
  • Took a shower
  • Packed my retreat stuff
  • Someone was wrong on the internet
  • Ate a quick lunch

But I’ve finally arrived, rooms are setup. Anticipation is doing its thing!

A Prompt for You

What would make it a perfect writing retreat for you?

What are your goals?

What is your packing list?

What is your go-to motivational thing?

Have a great & productive weekend!❤