I don’t know about you, but I’m hooked on the BBC series of The Traitors. Taking place in a Scottish castle, it reminds me of the time I stayed in a castle too. Back in 2007 I booked my first ever residential writing retreat held at The Castle of Park near Aberdeen and run by Bill and Lois Breckon. The subject was novel-writing and the tutor was the much-published and successful author, Anita Burgh. I think there were twelve or so budding novelists in my group. We all lived, studied, wrote, shared and ate all our meals together in the castle. As I watch the current remaining eight contestants move round Ardross Castle north of Inverness, it takes me back to my own experience, 18 years ago. The wooden floors, the bookcases and the exquisite furnishings, of course, but also how everyone gathers round a large table at least once a day, later tucking themselves into cosy corners to chat like old friends with people who were strangers a few weeks before. They are united by a common goal – in the case of The Traitors – to stay in the game til the end and win a share of the prize money. In an enclosed space, away from the rest of the world, everyone is able to focus on the objective in question (in this case winning the money) while making lasting friendships. They do not have to spend time shopping, cooking, doing the garden or the school run. This is a rare and special experience.
The Traitors is remarkably similar to a writing retreat. Thankfully, on a writing retreat there is no fear of being murdered or banished, as happens in the TV show. My memory of sitting in a circle, cocooned in a deep leather chair in the tartan-inspired first-floor sitting room at the Castle of Park, enrapt by learnings and conversations going on around me will stay with me forever. It’s magical. But it’s more than that. It’s intense. How many other times in your life can indulge your hobby or passion to the extent that you live, work, eat and learn it all day, every day for a week? All while forging new and meaningful relationships.
A few years after that first experience of a residential writing retreat my novel, Sunshine Soup, was indeed finished and published. Anita Burgh wrote me a review for the back cover – another bonus of getting to know a published writer. A couple of years after that Bill and Lois invited me to teach not novel-writing but the topic I have been teaching for a few decades – writing life story. No longer in Scotland, their retreat business has moved to the tiny hamlet of Posara in a glorious spot, deep in the Tuscan landscape. Almost every year since, I find myself there, sitting in a circle, cocooned in a squishy damask chair, with ten, twelve or more eager students clinging to my every word. Just like in The Traitors, everyone pays attention, learning all they can before dispersing into sunny corners. In Posara this could be The Vine Verandah, the terrace, beside the mill stream or on a lounger on the lawn where they chat with new friends and, of course, write.
There really is no experience as lasting, deep and absorbing as spending time away from all other distractions to focus on what matters. In recent years, while I am delighted to return to The Watermill at Posara each year, I also hold a small number of short retreats of my own.
The goal for the folk taking part in The Traitors, is to identify and banish those cruel and sneaky Traitors. For the students taking residential writing retreats, it’s to learn how to be better writers and to give themselves time to absorb and write and share.
If you haven’t yet considered taking a writing retreat, maybe it’s time you did?
I’m sure there is no danger of being banished.
