(I Attended My First Writing Retreat; Here’s What I Learned.)

Walking has always been a tool for writers. You may already use short strolls to take a break from the desk or a longer wander to work through an intractable knot in your novel. A walk in your neighborhood may sharpen your powers of observation, while a hike away from the city could inspire new directions in your writing. Henry David Thoreau and William Wordsworth are particularly famous literary walkers. Writers whose books are about walking, such as Bruce Chatwin, Robert Macfarlane, Rebecca Solnit, and Raynor Winn, found book-length inspiration on foot.

Writing retreats are usually centered in one place. A walking writing retreat moves you and your writing ambitions or project forward, literally step by step. A self-guided walking trip, whether by yourself or with selected others, offers freedom and flexibility to choose dates that suit you and an itinerary tailored to your preferences and often budget. Add in the key elements of a DIY writing retreat, and you are off.

Recently I spent 11 days on my own walking writing retreat, following Offa’s Dyke Path which wiggles back and forth across the border between Wales and England. Days 1 and 11 were arrival or departure, I had rest days in Monmouth and Hay-on-Wye and for seven days I walked. I loved the rhythm of scanning for trail markers, opening and closing innumerable gates, eating my pack lunch with a view of deep valleys traced by hedgerows between pastures and fields, the joy of birdsong and butterflies, the horror and heartbreak of a dying lamb. Most walking days I managed at least a brief Morning Pages. On the trail I stopped to scribble thoughts or a potential paragraph into my notebook. I got a good start to a new chapter and mulled a nagging question on what the narrative arc of my book could be.

Planning the Walk

Plan the walking first. Where would you like to go, for how long and when? Alone or with others? It is possible to plan the logistics yourself, booking your own accommodation and organizing luggage transfer. Self-guided walking tour operators make this easier and are cheaper than group and guided walking trips. I booked through a Welsh company which modified their standard itinerary to add in the rest days.

The choice of where can be overwhelming. For its size, North America has few long-distance paths with accommodation at regular intervals. A search for inn-to-inn hikes in the USA provided suggestions in New Hampshire, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Arizona. There are terrific options in Vermont, Quebec, or Newfoundland. Suitable walking routes crisscross Europe and the United Kingdom. The choice can be overwhelming: Focus on a country or region that attracts you and look for paths there. Research beyond social media. Look at walking guidebooks. Most European countries have a national trail organization and official tourism websites have links. I chose Offa’s Dyke Path because I was going to be in England for other reasons, it is not over-touristed and I loved the literary linkages to passing Tintern Abbey praised in a poem by Wordsworth and spending time in Hay-on-Wye, of Hay Festival and bookshop fame.

Details matter, especially the walking distance between accommodations. Be realistic. Better to plan on less than discover that you can’t go the distance. There are a few details that I will be checking before booking future tours. It never occurred to me that there might not be desks in every room. Or that Wi-Fi was unreliable at best in a few locations. Finding food that was not highly processed and included fresh vegetables took up too much time.

Setting Goals and Expectations

Clarity of objectives and realistic goals are essential for any writing retreat, stationary or mobile. List yours. Is it writing a certain number of words a day or a deep dive into editing? Researching a new idea for a book or an article you want to explore? Now review against the walking plans.

My retreat suffered from conflicting objectives. I wanted the challenge of walking big distances over many days. I succeeded, but that satisfying tiredness meant that I was not up to writing after I reached the inn. For my next walking writing retreat, I will plan shorter walking distances and build in more rest-writing days.

Find a balance between selecting a location that appeals to you but is not so interesting that you spend more time sightseeing than working. I was very productive on my rest day in Monmouth. In Hay-on-Wye I got too distracted by all the bookshops and trying to find a real salad to get as much done as I wanted.

Getting on the Trail

I am a fan of packing light, but I negotiated the transfer of two suitcases for my retreat. I wanted to bring notebooks, my laptop, and research books. I carried more changes of clothing than I normally would. I did not want to spend time finding laundromats when I could be writing or coaxing handwashing to dry when I was staying one night. I made sure that I could get to the start location easily—adding a few hours of writing time to the retreat and setting the tone that I was here with a purpose.

If you have never done a walking tour before, do some training in walking longer distances. In the shoes or boots you plan to take. Consider staying two nights in the start location. Spend that first day getting used to navigating: learning to spot signage, read paper or online maps, understand the style of written directions or guidebooks. If it is a foreign country, get an e-sim card or pay the roaming fees to ensure that you have data on the trail. Read all the material sent to you by the tour operator and load any recommended apps on your phone in advance. Know the local emergency call number. This translates to less stress on the trail, more mental room for deep thoughts or the joy of walking.

Be prepared for different weather and trail conditions. Make sure your day pack is big enough for a raincoat and extra layers, but don’t overfill it. I use dry bags (like for a canoe or kayak trip) to compartmentalize pack contents and especially keep the precious notebooks dry. Be open to the unexpected. The terrible experience of the lamb led to a draft submission for literary magazines.

I am starting to plan my walking writing retreat for next year. It will be in the Dordogne Valley in southwestern France. I will explore a trail that meanders with the river, passing through golden limestone villages, under high cliffs, around castles, through walnut groves. There are many hotels with desks in the rooms to choose from. The food will be excellent. And I will write.

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(Turning Your Career Into a Book (with Alexandra Gater))

In the season finale of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” editor-in-chief Amy Jones and literary agent Jessica Berg talk about why writers should consider writing retreats, what you can expect from the Writer’s Digest Writing Retreat in Tuscany this spring, and more. Scroll to the bottom of this page for more information on the retreat.

Listen or Watch Here

About the Writer’s Digest Writing Retreat: Tuscany 2026

Escape to the peaceful Tuscan countryside to spend a week dedicated to making time for writing, improving your craft, and learning from publishing professionals, all while enjoying a taste of Italy!

Tour Dates

April 7 – April 14, 2026

Tour Includes

• 2 nights in Florence 
• 5 nights on a nature reserve in the hills of Tuscany, an 1,100-acre organic farm, Tenuta di Spannocchia 
• All breakfasts, 5 dinners, and 5 lunches 
• Coach transportation to and from Spannocchia 
• Farm tour, a pasta making class, and a day trip to Siena 
• Friendly and knowledgeable local tour guide 
• Dedicated writing time, instruction, and 1-1 coaching in the scenic Tuscan countryside

Click here to learn more and to register today.

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But did I get much writing done there? Some people did, but I didn’t because of the way I operate. I buckle down to work when there’s a deadline looming, such as when I was a newspaper columnist, but not when I’m writing chapters of a book that has yet to find a publisher. The payoff is distant or nonexistent, and time stretches out luxuriously in front of me as if there’s no rush.

Also, I’m an extroverted tree hugger, constantly tuning into people and nature. My curiosity immediately got the better of me. I heard there were secret animals drawn by author and cartoonist, Lynda Barry, during her stay and discovered a brown cat painted on the desk in the Yellow Room. Then I went in search of the art of Sylvia Shaw Judson who grew up at Ragdale. In the garden by the Barnhouse, I found her most famous sculpture, Bird Girl, well known as the image on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Nearby I found a treehouse and made a habit of meditating in the mornings up in the little house in the sky.

During the day, I was often out exploring the 50 acres of Ragdale’s prairies while more diligent residents were at their desks or easels. Janet Lombardi, author of Bankruptcy: A Love Story, was one of those diligent people. I asked her if she was able to focus on her work during the residency, and she said, “I felt because others were working that I too needed to focus. I probably wouldn’t have finished my book but for Ragdale. I was much more focused there than I am at home.”

Janet is now working on another book and looking for another residency where she can make good progress. Somehow, I ignored the peer pressure Janet felt. While my fellow writers were occupied, I befriended local people, such as our stellar Ragdale chef, Linda. We had friendly chats in her kitchen or while harvesting the gardens or beehives.

Perhaps my boundaries are too porous to make good use of residencies and retreats. I felt honored to be admitted, but once there, I was not as productive as I thought I would be, following my whims instead of my book outline. I’m more prolific when I arrange my time to stay home and avoid distractions. In that way, I’ve immersed myself in stay-at-home do-it-yourself retreats.

The isolation of the pandemic was a kind of a retreat for me. I wrote my memoir, Reconfigured, during that time. The need to tell my story overcame my tendency to procrastinate. Rather than feeling like an aspirational writer, I told myself I’m a working writer, thus shifting my sporadic scribbling to a daily practice.

Order Barbara Wolf Terao’s Reconfigured today. 

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Of course, solitude is harder to find when raising children or working full-time. For me, our kids are grown, I’m retired, and I’m married to an introvert who is happy to be left to his own devices.

Where and when do you get your best work done? Think about it before you sign up for a workshop, retreat, or residency. Where do you hear your muse? Find what works for you! A classroom? A coffeehouse? A cabin in the woods? Or maybe in a bathtub, like screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

Attentive writing generally requires quiet time and space, along with what I call the three P’s: preparation, pampering, and persistence. We prepare our minds and our workspace, gathering knowledge, training, and resources to have on hand. We pamper ourselves by lightening our workload, such as ordering nutritious take-out food rather than cooking supper. Most importantly, we persist in our creative endeavors, which, for me, means butt-in-chair, typing away on my laptop.

When my mind wanders, I add another P to the mix: the Pomodoro Method. It’s a technique for time management consisting of 25 minutes of focused work followed by a five-minute break. (After four consecutive work intervals, longer breaks are allowed.) With no parameters, I tend to start scrolling on social media. When I set a timer, I hunker down and complete a chunk of writing.

In those ways, we create our own writing retreats.

Whether there’s a pandemic or not, I get more done at my own blue desk. The fewer stimuli the better. Much can be achieved by having retreats at home—without having to apply for admission or travel to get there—and I recommend it.

Still, I must admit I miss the pampering, especially Chef Linda’s sumptuous suppers.

[Click to continue.]

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(I Attended My First Writing Retreat. Here’s What I Learned.)

I needed some concentrated, undisturbed writing time. So, I hastily booked a stay at a hotel about an hour’s drive north from home for four days of total book immersion. My goal was to come home with 125 good pages, along with a detailed outline for the unfinished portion of the book and fully realized character sketches for the three main characters.

It was an overly ambitious goal, and I didn’t quite meet it. But I did end up with 80 pages plus a plan that would get me to the finish line in plenty of time for my editor. And along the way, I learned that a multi-day “solo write” can be productive and highly satisfying—and you don’t have to be on a deadline to reap the benefits. So here are seven tips to avoid those pitfalls that threatened to derail me as I aimed to move forward.

1. DO realize that you’re going to be lonely.

Yes, many writers are introverts and accustomed to spending lots of time in their own heads. And yes, many of us attend writing retreats and conferences, devoting extended hours to our craft. But there is nothing like the experience of being alone and keeping company only with your characters for days on end. So, it’s a good idea to pack supplies to help you re-center yourself when the isolation gets tough. For me, that meant bringing along my yoga mat, good walking shoes, and my favorite music preloaded onto my phone.

2. DO choose a hotel that’s offers a range of convenient and healthy food options.

For me, this meant choosing a hotel that had breakfast included. it was nothing fancy—just a cold buffet with oatmeal and a few other hot options—but it helped me get started each morning, since I didn’t have to waste time in search of a coffee shop. I also appreciated that the hotel had hot brewed coffee and a selection of teas available in the lobby all day. Having local eateries with fresh, healthy lunch and dinner choices, available by delivery, was also helpful for afternoons or evenings when I was “in the zone.”

3. DO factor in outdoor time.

You’re going to want to clear your head with fresh air at least once or twice a day—so make sure there are safe places to walk or run right outside your hotel, and that you have the appropriate footwear. It’s also good to plan your trip for a time of year when the weather isn’t crazy cold or hot. I was lucky, in that during the winter week I chose, the weather was relatively mild, with sunny skies and only light, occasional snow flurries.

4. DON’T neglect to call the hotel and explain your needs.

I chose my hotel at the recommendation of a writer-friend, who’d made a similar trip a few months earlier and found the staff friendly and the hotel clean, spacious, and quiet. So imagine my surprise when I showed up to learn that a huge wedding was planned for that weekend, and some 100 guests would be staying overnight. Fortunately, when I arrived, I was able to snag a room far away from the event hall and the corridor where the wedding guests were staying. But in retrospect, it would have been smart to contact the hotel ahead of time to make sure my stay didn’t overlap with any major events.

5. DON’T compromise this valuable time with other priorities or people.

On the third night of my stay, my husband offered to join me for dinner. It was only an hour away, he reasoned, and he didn’t have much going on that evening—so was fine with taking the drive. I thought that was a lovely gesture and made a reservation at a nearby Italian restaurant. Mistake! It was hard for me to carry on a conversation over dinner as my head was filled with book details. What’s more, it felt strange and kind of sad to say goodbye to him after we’d eaten, which made it hard for me to get back to work that evening. My best advice: Save the reunion for when you’re back home!

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6. DON’T set unreasonable expectations.

Yes, four days alone can feel like plenty of writing time—but remember that you’re only human! Writing is hard, and getting to know your characters and their struggles can take more hours than you’d prefer. I see now that my 100-page goal was unreasonable and set me up for disappointment. I would have been better off with a more reasonable page target—or even no expectation at all, other than give the experience my all.

7. DON’T forget to pat yourself on the back.

A “solo write” is not an easy activity—and certainly not something I’d do more than once or twice a year. I’m not the kind of person who craves isolation—and maybe you’re not either. So while you repack your suitcase and prepare to head home, take a moment to acknowledge what you’ve accomplished. As I was signing my bill at the front desk, I made a point of telling the staff members behind the desk that I was a writer—and considering the four days I’d just spent, no truer words were every spoken!

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“Thank you for submitting your story for consideration. We really enjoyed your story, but we’re sorry this isn’t the right story for us right now.”

Not the best way to begin a creative weekend. From Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, my two best friends and I were heading to the neighboring city for a long weekend of writing, and this felt like the universe telling me to give up now, that it’s just not going to happen for me. It’s hard to remember when writing feels good; it’s easy to believe what your anxiety tells you.

(What Is Literary Fiction?)

This was my first writing retreat. I’ve been writing with my two best friends for six years now. We regularly meet every month to discuss what we’ve been working on and to workshop our new pages. We’ve only actively written together once or twice in coffee shops. This was our first extended try at writing together, and it was the first time we were doing it away from home.

What I learned is that writing retreats can do more for you than to simply get you closer to “The End.” I gained so much from my writing retreat, both personally and professionally, and I want to share that with you.

Set the Right Expectations Before You Go

The week before the retreat, my therapist asked me what about it made me the most anxious. I told him I was worried that it would feel like I wasted my time and that by the end of Sunday, I won’t have felt like I achieved enough. He told me that I should anticipate that I will waste some time. That the goal is to get some work done, but also to spend time with my friends and fellow writers, and that it’s OK to not be dialed in to a creative mindset the entire time I was there.

This was a game-changer for me. I’d been telling myself that if I don’t get x number of pages written by the time we head home, it will have been a waste. But reality is very different than the goals we set for ourselves. Instead, my group and I set certain goals that made room for “wasting time,” to recharge and put our creative minds to rest for a moment. This built-in “wasted time” not only helped me step away when things became frustrating, but they helped me change my perspective about how I go about writing. Which leads me to my next point.

Experiment With Your Writing Process

My writing process is both simple and silly: Don’t write anything down until you know it’s perfect. Major LOL here.

I spend a lot of my writing process in my head, thinking out what would be drafts or notes before I put them down on paper—because I want the version of what’s in my head to read as seamlessly as possible upon first pass. I couldn’t recommend this less. This has made my writing process so slow, because I’m terrified of the messy beginning stages that I end up spending more time in writerly fantasy than I do in actual writing.

So, I used this writing retreat to try my hand at truly drafting. I felt myself hitting a wall near the end of our second day, and part of me thought, “That’s OK. You’ve made it through two days of writing. Clock out early.” Instead, I decided to try and draft, and used my writing partners for help.

One of my characters is a mother to a toddler, and my story needed a moment of reflection. So, I wanted to go back to the last days of her pregnancy. I’ve never been pregnant, and I don’t have children, and I wanted her thoughts and emotions to be authentic. So, I asked my friend Lily, a mother of three, if she wouldn’t mind spending some time telling me about her feelings of being pregnant the first time.

She started reminiscing, and I wrote down every word she said as bullet points and half-formed thoughts—but what began to grow from those seeds was a scene I wouldn’t have ever thought could fit into my story. It unlocked a part of my character I didn’t yet know. I felt like I was getting to know her as a real person. That flashback is now one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written. It was some of the most fun I’ve had writing in a long time. Which leads me to my third and final tip.

Have Fun!

Recently, I spoke with an author who I adore, and asked him what advice he might have for other writers. He told me to remember the moment of writing what will end up being the first thing you publish, because it’s the last moment that writing is for you and you alone.

Writing and publishing is stressful. It can be crushing and make you second-guess yourself. I started this weekend thinking the universe was telling me I didn’t have it in me, that yet another rejected story on the morning of my first writer’s retreat was an omen.

So, in the car on our way that Thursday, I stopped complaining about my perceived failures and reminded myself and my friends that this moment won’t happen again. We’ll never go on our first writer’s retreat again. We’ll never learn what we learned on that retreat for the first time again. These stories are hopefully the first of many, and I wanted to remember that.

By the time I was back home on Sunday afternoon, I’d forgotten completely about the rejection email I received that started everything. My characters were alive in my head, I’d made new memories with my friends, and had a path forward to continue working. We’re already planning next year’s retreat, where we promised each other we’d have new projects we were working on—whether that’s third drafts of these stories or brand new ones that need our attention.

My writing retreat started with a rejection, and ended with a reminder that every rejection is one step closer to getting that acceptance.

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