Lately, every time I open my Facebook feed or my Instagram timeline, it feels like I’m bombarded with pictures of and short video reels by writer friends who are doing that most writerly of activities: attending a retreat. Maybe they got accepted to Yaddo, the Highlights Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, or some other beautiful, scenic, calm and quiet retreat space. 

Their job while they are there is to simply write. To create. To allow their imagination to match up with their discipline and to produce pages. Some retreat centers will even deliver meals to your door so you can write uninterrupted.

If you’re not a writer, you might think this sounds like some kind of indulgence, especially when you hop online and view the scenic places where these retreats are held. I’m talking little cottages, fireplaces, front porches, rocking chairs! 

I’ve only heard about it because I’ve never attended one of these myself. The reason is simple: I’m a mother of three children, and I have a full-time job. There’s no conceivable way I could escape my life for two weeks or more to attend something like this.

Writers are surprised when they hear this because I’ve been quite productive the past twenty years:  two short story collections, a novel, and a children’s book series, among many other published essays and work-for-hire books. I often tell people that my strategy is simple: since I cannot be in a place where people will not interrupt me, I instead write during the times when nobody can – and that means early in the morning. That is not feasible or even desirable for a lot of people, which is understandable. And I do believe it’s not an indulgence to get away from your life for two weeks to write. I do think it’s a necessity.

But for those of us for whom it is impossible, what do we do? Over the past few years, I have developed a system of creating my own retreat. I first started to do this during the pandemic, when I heard that hotels were so desperate for customers, they were renting rooms out by the day. The Marriott close to me, for example, rented out a room with a desk and Wi-Fi and a TV by the day for something like $60. It could be an office away from your house, so why not book a space like that to go and write? 

My immediate thought was that it was a tremendous waste of money, but the fact is, I cannot sit at home and write throughout the day. In addition to the risk of being interrupted to drive someone to baseball practice, pick up a prescription, or attending a parent-teacher meeting, there are too many distractions in my way: there’s laundry to be done, there are the dishes in the sink, there are papers waiting to be filed, and bills screaming at me to pay them. Perhaps going to one of these hotels for a day or two would be a good idea, and during the pandemic when I was worried about safety, it seemed relatively safe as well.

In fact, it worked so well that, ever since, I have made it a point to create a little hotel writing residency for myself several times a year. Call it the Marriott or Hilton Garden Inn Writer-in-Residence program, or whatever you like. There is something about having a room to myself that is clean and empty and devoid of all distractions. I will sit at the desk for hours, breaking only to eat, or go to the gym (another plus!) or to take a brisk walk. The amount of work I produce during this time is amazing and satisfying. My last novel, Behind You Is the Sea, underwent two full edits while I was at the Marriott Residence In for a week. 

Below are some tips for you if you would like to create your own hotel getaway residency. 

Have a specific project on which you want to work. I only book a hotel when I have a draft to revise, or I’m trying to complete a first draft of something. This will give your residency some structure and a clear goal. Bring your favorite drinks and snacks with you. Most hotel rooms will have a small refrigerator if not a small kitchenette. Bring snacks and food with you so that you are not tempted to leave the hotel to go get food from the outside. It’s not just the cost, but also the time away from writing that will be expensive.Hold yourself accountable. Write down the goal that you have in mind and put it up above your writing space. Create different zones in the hotel room. Maybe you can sit on the bed to read your drafts, sit at the desk to type out revisions, or sit on the couch to work on your outlines every day. Hotels often have several lovely spaces you can often find, such as outdoor benches, big tables in the breakfast areas, or comfortable chairs in the lobby. Use these spaces so you don’t feel tired just sitting in your room all day long.Print out everything that you write using the hotel’s business center, if they have one. I like to end my day with a stack of pages that I have just printed, so that I feel like I have tangible proof of what I accomplished during the day. Sign up for the hotel’s reward point systems that you can collect points during your stay. I often will cash in my points to add extra days to my stay. Try to stay at least two nights if possible. The longer the better, but two nights is a minimum. You will need the first night to organize yourself and lay out your laptop and papers. If childcare is an issue, try to find a local event nearby where you can drop off your child. For example, whenever my son must join me, I find a local baseball clinic where I can take him. Win-win.Attempt to make it a true residency. Let people know that you will be away for a few days. Nobody has to know why. Set your work email with an auto response that you were out of the office until a certain date and then try to really stick to that. You are here to work on your novel and not to work at your job away from home. If you are able to use vacation time from work, use it, or at least some of it. If your job gives you a week’s vacation every year, maybe two days of that can be used for your own writer’s retreat.

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