Write In?
Right On!
Spend a day or two at The Studio writing without distractions, interruptions or lessons. We supply the space, the bagels, the coffee, the instructions and the community. You share your writing hopes and intentions for the day, then work on your piece/s as you see fit.
Various workspaces accommodate your needs: comfy chair or stiff-backed, isolated or around a community table, dreaming out the window or staring at the screen. Maybe a combination of all. You decide. We can accommodate you.
Feel free to bring your own lunch or have us take care of that as well ($15 per day extra).
Arrive by 9:30 a.m. for bagels, introductions and intentions. Writing time begins at 10 a.m. sharp. You may sign up for one day or two days.
Tuesday, Aug. 15, and/or Wednesday, Aug. 16
Limited to 15 writers per day.
From writer Alex McNab, who attended the 2016 Writing Retreat at The Studio:
A country songwriter once wrote, “If the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s me.”
When you spend six-and-a-half hours at a one-day writers’ retreat at the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio, the phones don’t ring. The dog doesn’t need to go out. The refrigerator doesn’t beckon. And, if you say “No” when Carol or Tessa asks you if you want the wi-fi password, the internet doesn’t lie in wait.
The result? You get a lot of writing done. I’ve spent two days on retreat this summer at the FCWS and am planning to spend a third. The uninterrupted time has enabled me to make important progress revising the troublesome third quarter of my novel.
On a recent edition of NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, author Delia Ephron said, “The third quarter of a book is so hard. It’s like being in the desert with no water. . . .You’re just like crawling through the sand. I think I’m never going to get out.” Me, too. Until I visited the oasis that is the FCWS on those one-day retreats.
Paying a reasonable fee to work away from home is a commitment to getting my novel completed. Working where other writers nearby are doing the same thing—writers to whom you stated that day’s goal at the beginning of the retreat session—is an energizer and an incentive. Spending six hours alone with my book (Carol makes sure we take a 30-minute lunch break) is an investment in myself as a writer that already has paid meaningful dividends of refinement of my story and satisfaction in my psyche.
—Alex McNab
Thanks, Alex!!