I can’t quite believe we’re over a quarter of the way through 2023! If you’re just joining my blog, welcome, and here’s some context: I’m a personal trainer based in West Sussex who blogs on gym training (specifically, the compassionate variety, where we take breaks and choose goals that aren’t about pain and starvation), cancer recovery (what my own has taught me, and how I help others via my profession), and lifestyle (which sometimes means where I’ve been on holiday, often covers unique nights out, and typically involves a lot of cheese). As the world continues to move forwards in the COVID-era, I realised I’d tried quite a lot of new things in 2022, and wanted to carry that on this year, so I set myself the challenge of trying at least one new experience per calendar month.
March had a few new things, but the one I’m going to feature is having attended my first ever writing retreat. I booked a place for what would be a relaxed day, and a chance to have space to write as much as anything else. This particular event took place at Warnham Nature Reserve – I’d have loved to have gone to one of the team’s Amberley Castle events, but sadly can’t make any of those dates! – and although the weather was less than ideal, the surroundings offered the environment I was looking for.
The Sussex Writing Retreats team is comprised of Daisy White – who is currently completing her twentieth novel – and Lisa Brace – a former-journalist and soon-to-be published novelist who are both based locally.
It turned out that I also knew two of the other attendees, local businesswomen I’m friends with, one of whom I hadn’t seen for a while, so the day was set up beautifully. Daisy and Lisa introduced themselves fully, then set about sharing their tips for getting our creativity flowing, and asked us to introduce ourselves and what we were working on. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I wasn’t the only non-fiction author in the room – anyone who follows me on social media will probably know that I read mostly non-fiction books (the odd fiction piece sucks me in!), and I find it an art form that many people think is intimidating to the point of exclusion.
We were each given a short prompt to write to, and the frantic scribbling which ensued reminded me just a little of an exam room from the distant past due to the level of concentration we all suddenly demonstrated!
The morning progressed with other talks on topics such as how to go about sharing our work with agents and publishers, including red flags to keep an eye out for. Our next challenge was to consider how we plan our work, as this can be a valuable offering when pitching non-fiction in particular, and then we were given time to write or finesse the introduction to our work.
After a lunch break, we were all allocated an individual session with Daisy and Lisa, with free time to spend exploring the Reserve or writing as we wished. One of my friends and I decided to get some fresh air, walking around one of the lakes and catching up to clear our heads before settling down again to write.
I found my individual time with Daisy and Lisa really useful, they had some excellent guidance based on where my writing is at and the time I have available to work on it. I can’t possibly share all of their expertise as there isn’t space, plus good service is worth paying for, so I’d encourage you to book a place and get some personalised support of your own should you be intrigued!
Before the day closed, we were given the opportunity to read some of our work aloud if we wanted to. This is something I’ve never done before, and was a real push for me, but I took a deep breath and went ahead, sharing the introduction which I’d written earlier and was unedited. The audience listened intently – thank you, everyone! – and were incredibly positive when I finished, which was a lovely ego boost. Truthfully, this was the highlight of the day for me – getting to read my work to a room which incorporated a mixture of friends and strangers felt like a welcoming but honest environment to air the beginning of my story, and has made me want to tell it fully to a wider audience.
What’s next? You’ll have to stick around to find out…