My At-Home Writing Retreat (+ Tips If You’re Going to Host One Yourself)

This week, our family is having a “Fall Fun Week”. Since we’re homeschooled and we started school early this year, we thought it’d be a good idea to take a week off of school so we could enjoy autumn together as a family.     

We’ve already done some really fun things, but we’d decided that Monday would be a bit more laid back. So, I decided to take advantage of a quiet day at home and finally do that writing retreat I’ve been wanting to do! It was so much fun (although there were a few interruptions), and because of the work I was able to get done on Monday, I was able to finish my story’s outline yesterday! Well, the first draft, anyway. It still needs a bit of work (;

I wanted to share what I did with y’all. If you love the idea of dedicating a whole day (or just a big chunk of time) to all sorts of writerly things… then this post is for you! 

I started off the day with all sorts of cleaning. A lot of rearranging was done and I got my desk setup in my room and decorated. I love the way it came out! While getting things orderly and cute, I listened to an interview that one of my instructors did with an author which was a great way to kick the retreat off with some good advice and motivation! 

(here was my desk in the morning) 

I began my “schedule” at around 11:30 (some things came up so I started later than I’d originally hoped) with a writing session. After spending an hour working on my story outline while listening to some writing instrumentals, I took my first break. 

I had some loose plans to fill this time, but I actually had a few things that I needed to do, so I ended up spending more time on my computer than I’d wanted, but I was okay with it. 

One thing I’ve learned about living life is that you have to plan for things to not go as planned, and be okay with it. It’s something I tend to struggle with, but it’s so important to remember. 

During the short remainder of my break, I went outside where it was around 50 degrees (ahh I love fall!), layed in the grass, and just thought about my story. I ended up playing with my brother for a bit as well. 

For my next one hour writing session, I’d planned on just writing whatever I wanted to write, as long as it had to do with this particular story. I ended up writing a couple scenes, and the totalled word count was just under 1000 words. 

This was the brunt of the retreat— but getting to write for 2 hours in one day with relatively no distractions and nothing else on my plate was blissful. 

When I washed the dishes after dinner, I listened to some more lessons from my writing community. Then, much later, I ended up sitting at my desk with a pad of sticky notes and a pen. You see, I felt inspired. 

In one of the author interviews I’d listened to that day, a girl mentioned how she wrote down fun little writing prompts on sticky notes to put by her desk. So I decided to try it! Some of the things I ended up with were… 

• Opinionated people pleaser (I feel like this would be the funniest personality trait combo…)
• Old books
• Cows 
• Bhutan

Honestly, I think that I could probably come up with a story idea just using those four prompts, haha!

I’ll be continuing to add to the wall of sticky notes. If you have any prompt ideas, please send them over! I’m always looking for new inspiration. 

As you can see, my retreat was very laid back and I didn’t pack my day full of stuff to do. Part of what made Monday so enjoyable was that I knew I could write, even when I currently wasn’t. Anyway, you can work a lot on writing even if you’re not sitting down in front of a computer typing. Inspiration comes to us in the little things that happen every day. 

If you want to have your own mini writing retreat, it doesn’t have to be a huge commitment! Maybe your retreat looks like blocking out a total of two hours that you can dedicate to anything writing related. 

A few things that would be fun and/or helpful to have on hand for your writing retreat could be… 

• Snacks (a must have!)
• A candle or essential oil diffuser
• Pens and/or pencils
• A cozy sweater (this made the retreat most enjoyable for me!)
• Coffee, tea, or another beverage that would feel like a treat
• Sticky notes 
• A notepad 
• Blue light glasses (these are my absolute favorite)
• A full water bottle 
• Christmas lights/sparkle lights
• A cute lamp

I hope you enjoyed reading about my writing retreat! Do you think you’ll be doing one any time soon? If so, please let me know how it goes!