There's a well-known phrase in the craft of writing - whether an author is a plotter or a pantser. Essentially, it's measuring the extent to which planning has gone into the writing. This month I'm extending the concept to writing retreats. Neither of myNot short retreats were planned more than a few days in advance, and so totally without expectation - all the better when they turned out so brilliantly.
Not that I can take any credits for the planning and arrangements. I've long been a member of Sophie Hannah's Dream Author Coaching Programme, so when I had an opportunity to sneak in the back door (literally) of her August retreat and sleep in the library at the grandly-named Marlborough Maor, I grabbed my toothbrush and ran.
That's me, French windows on the bottom left - when I wasn't in the pool, or the walled-garden, or one of the beautiful drawing rooms...Believe it or not, I really got to grips with editing book 2, and was really inspired by the fantastic group of writers also in residence.
From the grandeur of the Essex countryside (via a slightly surreal mercy dash invoving a suitcase via Cambridge/Stansted Airport - another story!) a couple of trains delivered me to Suffolk and a very different retreat.
Gunton Hall is now a hotel, but in years gone by, it was a holiday camp, where my sister-in-law (also a writer) and I once worked. In truth, she worked there, whereas I lasted about two weeks in the spring of 1988, but there was a very real memory-lane aspect to it. And it was here we had a very jolly 'home-made' retreat, where we did a lot of talking, a lot of eating - there's a common theme in my 'retreat language' - and even a bit of writing of our respective novels.
Yes, we were people-watching, too - mostly checking out the browsers at the library shelves: would they or would they not pick up The Almost Truth surreptitiously shoved into centre-stage by my wily sister-in-law...
With a few days in a converted container in the rural west of Ireland (yes, really - I covered all kinds of accommodation this year!) including lunches out with other writer friends I really did enjoy a literary(ish) summer. All the better to set me up for a winter of writing, editing and tutoring.
I'm making the end of the Edinburgh International Book Festival by the skin of my teeth - LNER willing - so more of that next month.
Anne x
