Here, we have gathered answers to some final questions you might have about the purpose or logistics of holding a DIY writing retreat. If you want to ask about anything that isn't covered in this guide, please use the Here to Help form to get in touch with the Academic Skills team.
The point of a writing retreat is to help participants make significant progress on their writing. Retreats achieve this by providing internal accountability, group accountability, motivation, focused blocks of time, and a sense of community, all while encouraging strategic goal-setting practices in a distraction-free setting. See the 'Why & When' page of this guide for more details.
No, not quite! The two things do have a lot in common though. For example, both writing groups and retreats aim to improve productivity by encouraging participants to discuss their goals and get to work in a communal setting. Here's the key difference:
If academic writing were physical training, writing groups might be someone's weekly 5k parkrun, whereas writing retreats might be their twice-yearly half-marathons. That said, if you meet regularly with a group of peers to study or write, they would be ideal candidates to attend a DIY writing retreat!
To figure out the timing of your retreat, assess the semester to come and consider when a mini-marathon of writing would best serve you and your friends/peers. A well-timed retreat can do a lot to mitigate the stresses of a semester with many competing deadlines.
Students may find retreats particularly beneficial when working on dissertations or theses. If your retreat will support progress on a major research project, the timing may depend on the type of work you hope to achieve: for example, a retreat to jumpstart literature searching and notetaking will obviously fall much earlier than a retreat to power through writing up your results and discussion. See the 'Why & When' page of this guide for further guidance.
No–not at all! Retreats are often interdisciplinary by nature, with attendees writing about any number of different topics. In fact, it's beneficial to discuss your work with peers outside your subject area: for example, in trying to explain your research methodology to someone unexperienced in your field, you might come up with clearer ways to phrase complex ideas, thus helping your writing.
Additionally, the ways we think about the writing process, structure, etc. are influenced by the disciplines in which we are writing. This means a chat with someone outside your field might provide new perspectives and problem-solving approaches to address any writing difficulties you're facing.
Not necessarily! As long as everyone is on board with the central goal—to get some writing done—it doesn't matter if you have a mix of undergraduates and postgraduates, PhD researchers alongside MA candidates, etc. It can be refreshing and interesting to chat with people who are engaged in different levels of study. Do gauge potential participants' preferences and comfort levels, though.
Whilst in-person retreats are lovely, a digital retreat can offer similar benefits—with the key advantage that attendees can log in from anywhere. A dash of creative thought and planning can help cultivate that 'community vibe' despite being geographically separated. See the 'Going Digital' page for tips and advice to make your digital retreat a runaway success!
Absolutely! The word 'retreat' might conjure images in your head of fancy getaways for rich people at sprawling country manors, but that is not the kind of retreat we're talking about. We hope you have seen across the previous pages that hosting your own writing retreat requires no extra expenses, with low-cost or no-cost options available for each planning element:
This one is kind of up to you! We recommend you float the idea past friends and peers to get a sense of how many people may be interested, and then begin to refine your planning based on availability (both of people and of spaces). Remember that 'more people' doesn't equal 'better retreat'—the energy of a big group of people writing together is exciting, but smaller numbers (e.g. 4-10 attendees) make it easier to coordinate schedules, find a suitable space, and keep the itinerary on track.
