Copywriting Captain’s Log: Making Your Own Writing Retreat

I love writing retreats, and I love seeing old friends. Recently, my friend and I used an Airbnb apartment and our own desire for warmer weather to create a trip that was part vacation, part writing marathon, and all fun.

Here’s how we made it work:

• We figured out lodging, flights, and a rental car really early; I was able to snag a really good deal on the rental car specifically because it was so early. We picked a destination based on cheap flights, and the lodging, being an Airbnb apartment, was also very affordable. I also find that, even far out, you can get better Airbnb deals if you work with someone who doesn’t have a lot of established reviews yet. Clearly, not everyone will be comfortable with this option, but most early Airbnbers are looking for the chance to earn your trust and will start out with lower rates as a result. You can also pick Superhosts, for added reassurance that everything is going to go great.
• The week before the trip, we set some itineraries. For us, the priorities were: get some exercise, eat well and cheaply, write at least 4 hours a day, and see some authentic aspects of the city. This meant that nearly every day we went to a yoga class early, wrote for two or three hours at a coffee shop, went on a walk and made lunch at the apartment, wrote for another two hours, then went to see a play or go out for live music or some other activity in the evening.
• The first day we got there, we went grocery shopping! We saved a lot of money by always having snacks on hand, and we got ingredients for super-healthy salads so that we could enjoy the less-healthy options when we ate out once a day or once every other day.
• We didn’t do any crazy nights out, but we tried to spend some time at a museum or somewhere not related to our writing every day; I think it kept us from feeling like our work was getting stale.

The week went swimmingly, and we both generated a ton of work; despite doing a lot of writing for our jobs, we were able to take this “time off” in order to pursue creative projects, and even if you can only take a “one day” retreat where you leave your house and go to a coffee shop 20 minutes away, I can definitely recommend the change of scenery! My friend and I also live in very different places and see each other once every two years or so, so the extra expense of travel was also to see her and reinforce that friendship.

Airbnb link is an affiliate link, which gives you a discount and me some credit if you use it, but I recommend the site even if you don’t follow my link!