As you may remember, back in March, I attended a Sussex Writing Retreats event. The team hold these regularly throughout the year at a variety of venues, and I was fortunate enough to attend another of these recently…
Same coaches, different venue
This time, I joined Daisy and Lisa at the gorgeous Amberley Castle. The venue began life as a manor house in the 12th Century, and was fortified in 1377, giving it outer walls, a gateway, and other features which means that it looks very much what a lot of White British children might produce should you ask them to draw you a picture of a castle. Whilst there are plenty of suits of shining armour throughout the hallways, no Knights were detected (sadly. I did check).
Settling in
Having approached the castle with my jaw on the floor – from the car park, you pass the croquet field before heading through the archway to the courtyard – I needed some time to take everything in. Fortunately, in classic style, I’d arrived with time to spare, so took myself out for a wander around the grounds.
I went back down the driveway, enjoying the view across the countryside, and watching the resident geese appreciate their morning dip among the reeds in the pond. Brain a little bit less scrambled, I headed back to our function room to get started.
Due to other commitments, I was only able to attend the retreat for one day, but the other guests had been hard at work for two days already, and had clearly made a lot of progress. There was a board with their goals on it, which always freaks me out, and I couldn’t hold back a wince when I was asked for mine. One of the reasons I don’t push personal training clients to set goals obsessively is because I hate them too – my natural negativity means that I see it them as an excuse to fail rather than succeed, so I prefer to shy away.
But, I was able to lean on my training, and made two goals which were fairly straightforward to accomplish, to help with my terror of failure. Setting yourself up to win is a perfectly acceptable way of going about things.
Time to crack on
And with goals set, I was off. Due to their different timeline, the other guests were busy having one-to-ones with Daisy and Lisa, so I was left mostly to my own devices for the morning. I focused on backing up previous work, then turned my attention to some earlier efforts which could do with some improvement.
After a delicious lunch, we welcomed another guest: Saskia from Kate Nash Literary Agency gave a presentation offering advice to all authors regarding how to pitch their work, and it was a fantastic insight into how this part of the industry works. We then each got to spend time with Saskia one on one to further discuss our individual work, and I came away with more gems I hadn’t been expecting to pick up.
Mission accomplished
With a bit more frantic work under my belt, I said my goodbyes having achieved my two small goals I’d set myself. There’s no doubt that the gorgeous surroundings, focused environment, and regular check ins from the coaches pushed me to keep going – my work continues to progress thanks to their encouragement and support! I also came away with a copy of one of Daisy’s books – whilst most people know I’m not typically a fiction lover, I will always try new things, and crime has been a real gap on my reading list. Daisy had a few available, and chose one she thought I’d enjoy, so I’m looking forward to jumping in to something different next time I run out of pages to turn.
If you’ve been inspired and would like to find out more about Daisy and Lisa’s events, you can visit their website.