Deep in the Scottish woods, something is stirring…

The line is from a Herald article on places to see snowdrops in Scotland. One of the best places to go is Cambo House, venue for the June writing retreat on telling your story.

Of course the snowdrops will be long gone by the time we’re there but the article made me think about our writing lives, our creative lives. Oh I know it can be a bit cliched but there is something about the snowdrop that moves us so.

Snowdrops

Reminds us of things that lie dormant, for a while – but not forever. That carry a determination to surface, to show their colours. To tell their story.

Even in the darkest coldest parts of the winter… things can still be stirring.

~~~

The June women’s writing retreat ‘Tell Your Story’ takes place at Cambo House, on the east coast of Fife (Scotland), June 14 – 18 2010. More on the retreat here.

You most certainly do not need to be a professional writer or published author to come on the writing retreat in Sardinia.

The week away will be perfect if you:

• Enjoy writing, and want the time and space to indulge it, or develop it

• Write in one style, and want to stretch and explore a different writing form

• Have always wanted to write, but never had the encouragement or support to do so

• Enjoy blogging, and wonder what other kinds of writing might be fun or exciting to try

• Write as part of your job, and want to take it to another level – a book about your business perhaps

• Are making changes in your life, and think writing will be part of your future

• Are making changes in your life, and know that writing, creativity and self-expression is part of your transition

• Have a writing project that’s been on the backburner for ages, and you want to push it forward

• Enjoy holidays where you can learn new things, and develop your creativity

Convinced now?  I hope so

Some other questions we’re asked:

Are you going to focus on one particular writing genre?

No.  We’ll give you some prompts and exercises to get you writing but the form that takes will vary on who you are and how you like to write.  There’s plenty of space in the programme for you to work on your own project (if you have one).

What kind of writing programme can I expect?

The daily programme will include around two-hours of group conversation, exercises and writing in the morning with free time in the afternoon to do whatever you want.  We assume that will include writing!  But you might also want to siesta, walk, explore, daydream, go shopping..  There’ll be a chance for feedback and conversations about your writing over  dinner at night.

English isn’t my first language – can I still come?

If you write or want to write in English then… why not?  Our emphasis is on making you feel supported and confident in what you do and the words you want to share.  Emma teaches English as a second language (with one of her many hats on) and her experience will certainly help you to get the most from the week with us.

The prospect of a week in Sardinia in early May is pulling me forward through the dark winter months. It’s the prospect of:

• Sunshine and big skies
• Spring flowers emerging on the road sides
• The chance to explore some more of the Costa Smerelda
• A week of good food and drink
• Intelligent, thoughtful company with a group of people who love to write

Holidays are a great way to stretch, breathe out and emerge into the light. But maybe sometimes we need to do the same thing with our words and writing too.

Take The Wraps Off Your Writing

It’s all too easy to find that your writing is buried in layers too. There are lots of reasons why this might happen:

• You’ve run out of time or creative space to move something from the concept stage
• You’re covering a fear of criticism with excess words, or procrastination techniques
• You’re not letting yourself start, because you don’t believe ‘you are a writer’
• You’ve got stuck, and bored, and need something that will kick start your motivation and enthusiasm again
• You’re tired and stressed out, so writing has been moved to the back burner

The writing retreat has been designed to help you get past those blocks.

To give yourself the time, the space, and the environment to write.

To soak up inspiration from your surroundings – including the gift of great conversation with people who are interested in and supportive of your work.

To recharge your batteries – and to unleash your creativity again.

If any of this sounds like you… and you know you’re ready to take the wraps off your writing: please do get in touch. There are still places available for our May writing workshop in Sardinia (May 4 – 11)

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• Writing Retreat in Italy: May 2009 (confidentwriting.com)
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Photo Credit: For He’s a ‘Jowly’ Good Fellow by Pete Zarria on Flickr

It’s the time you make plans, daydream, set resolutions and intentions, and work out what places you want to visit in the 12 months ahead.

Maybe “writing holiday” or “writing retreat” has determinedly made it to your wish list for 2009.  Maybe you know this is the year when you need:

1. Time out from your work, busyness and routines to recharge your creative batteries

2. The chance to meet some interesting and like-minded people

3. The affirmation that you’re a writer (yes you are)

4. The freedom to walk, talk, write, eat, drink, laugh, cry, learn… and write some more

5. A place that will make you feel restful, safe, at home

6. An environment that will make you feel optimistic, energised, inspired

7. A burst of sunshine (without frying in the heat).  Light and warmth to write.

8. Time, support and feedback to get that writing project moving.  Or done.

9. Decent food and drink, washed down with good conversation.  To make you feel human again.

10. The journey to an island, signalling, always, the start of something new.

If any of those sound like the things on your writing wish list for 2009 then a week with us at Ca’ La Somara in May 09 might be just what the doctor ordered.

Find out more here or get in touch to register your interest.

Thoughts inevitably turn to holidays at this time of year.  Places you want to go.  Things you want to study, learn about, do.  Dreams you want to turn into a reality.

I wonder if 2009 will be the year to indulge that dream of going on a writing retreat?

If so then Ca’ la Samara, near the Costa Smerelda, Sardinia… might just be the place for you.

May 2009 might just be the time you’ve been waiting for.

Find out more here: accommodation, food, workshop details, what’s included, how to sign up…

We hope to hear from you soon.

If you’re anything like me you might have noticed it subconsciously or intuitively. I tend to feel more creative when I’m walking near water, even if it’s the quiet urban canal near where I live in Edinburgh.

But it’s definitely more inspiring when I’m out and about near moving water: watching a waterfall, walking along the shore watching the waves roll in or sitting by a harbour and watching the movement of people, water and boats.

Henriette Anne Klauser in “Write It Down, Make It Happen” suggests changing your environment and getting near water to write.

Being near water, especially moving water, gets ideas to flow… Streams, showers and waterfalls stimulate creativity. To create aha! moments in your life, to capture and expand your insights, for inspiration about the shape of your dreams, get near water, especially moving water.

Going across water, especially by ferry, has a similar effect for me: waking me up and signalling that I’ve moved to a ‘different’ place, not just geographically but the way things feel and the way my creativity starts to flow.

This is just one of the many reasons why Sardinia is the perfect venue for our writing workshops. It’s the journey to the island. The sense of movement and transition. Oh, and of course, the sea.

I’m hoping we can tempt Emma into writing a bit more about beaches, rocky shorelines and the Sardinian seaside in a post coming soon…

What impact does the environment have on your creativity? What kind of environment would you choose to help get the words to flow?

Joanna in Edinburgh

Photo Credit: Colori della mia Terra by goodintention on flickr

It’s partly because I hear Emma talking about ice-cream on Twitter, and I’ve started associating ice-cream with Emma, with Sardinia, with the warmth of Italian sunshine.

Partly because we’ve got some plans to include a little bit of people watching with an ice-cream theme in our writing workshops.

And partly, of course, because we’re sure to find enough time to indulge in some ice-cream eating too.

But when I read Emma’s most recent piece on Italian ice-cream she got me thinking about some of the reasons you might feature food and drink as part of your online marketing strategy. I’d say it’s because it’s:

Colourful: the pictures of ice-cream – on a web page or in our mind – are colourful, vivid, enticing

Universal: everyone’s eaten ice-cream (and most everyone enjoys it) so there’s a universal point of connection

Personal: sharing information about the food & drink you enjoy helps to make you seem like a human being, real, authentic, human

Simple: you don’t need to use a lot of words, just a simple idea, some pictures, and repetition

Enticing: start to use some of the language of ice-cream, even its historical form: “snow with fruit, wine & honey…” and our mouths start to water

Creative: ice-cream is universal, but how we enjoy it is personal and specific. We create our own mental pictures & remembered tastes when we hear the words (and yes my mouth is watering as I type this!)

By the way it’s even more creative when enjoyed Italian style: this is how Emma describes choosing ice-cream in a shop:

Ice cream-eating in Italy is a total sensory experience. First you look at all those freshly-made ice creams and, while your mouth waters, make a shortlist of the ones you’d like to eat. Then, if the shortlist includes flavours that you’ve not tried before, you ask to sample them. Cue more mouth-watering and anticipation at savouring the new flavours. Two or three flavours is the norm rather than one so you’ve got to choose flavours that go together. Finally, you get to experience the taste explosion in your mouth…

Irresistible: need I say more?

I think we’re hooked on ice-cream: not just as a sensory delight but as a way of talking about Sardinia, of describing the kind of experience you can anticipate on the island.

But I’m sure there are even more compelling marketing benefits that I’ve missed off the list. What other delicious reasons could we add to make this a #1 marketing strategy?

Joanna Young in Edinburgh

Photo Credit:pink goes good with green by something started crazy on flickr

Maybe it’s things: words, people, teachers, places, music, a poem, a mood, a painting

Or maybe you’re fuelled by a writing purpose, the intention that lies behind your words: to tell your story, to promote your business, to express and communicate something powerful and important.

I know some of the experiences we’ve built into the Absorbing Writing workshops and retreats are things that inspire me to write – new places, the chance to sit outside (all day) and soak up the sun, people watching, the sensory explosion that comes from good food and drink, time out from my routine, the journey to a new destination. Especially the journey, on every level.

How about you? What inspires you to write?

I’m enjoying pub lunches, brisk walks along the beach, dipping my feet in the icy sea off Sandbanks, and listening to the woodpecker as he pecks away outside my bedroom window. It certainly beats waking up to the irritating ring tone on my mobile.

But what I didn’t expect was the effect this different routine would have on my writing. I’ve been jolted out of my ordinary every day surroundings of granite cliffs and kingfisher-blue sea that hug the soft, sandy beaches of the Costa Smeralda and thrust into the no less stunning scenery of Dorset that I took for granted when I was growing up.

And I’ve noticed my writing has changed as a result. It’s softer. More introspective. A reflection, certainly, of what’s going on in the outside world. Just as you’ll do when you join us for Absorbing Writing in Sardinia, I’ve shifted perspective and am now telling a different story to the one I left behind.

from Emma in Dorset
February 2008

Photo Credit: Hungry Woodpecker by Steffe on Flickr

Sometimes it’s the opportunity to sit, dream and wonder. Sometimes it’s the chance to people watch, to pay attention, to be truly mindful of what’s going on – and then write what we see. Perhaps it’s something to do with the ‘time out’ signal we get in a café – away from our routines, deadlines, things we’ve ‘got’ to do.

And I don’t know about you but there’s something about the environment of a café – the sounds of the coffee machine, smell of the cakes, light streaming in through lettered windows, the hubbub of conversation – that makes me want to write.

Natalie Goldberg describes this in Writing The Bones:

“Writing in a café can work… to improve concentration. Instead of reducing stimulation, the café atmosphere keeps that sensory part of you busy and happy, so that the deeper, quieter part of you that creates and concentrates is free to do so.”

It’s one of the reasons we’ve set aside ‘café’ time in our programmes – time to relax, to take time out, to people watch, to be mindful, to find the creative space to write.

Notes From The Elephant House Café

Edinburgh’s full of literary cafés and pubs, places where famous authors have sat and penned their works.  I popped into one on Saturday, partly because I was thinking about just this – the relationship between cafés and writing – partly because I wanted to record a message to share with you all here, oh and partly because I wanted to do some writing

The voice thread below has some pictures from the Elephant House Café, one of the cafés where J.K.Rowling wrote Harry Potter, and a thread of my voice. Just press the arrow to start it playing,and it’ll then scroll automatically through the three ‘pages’.

Although I believe we can use our written words to create a powerful connection – and that’s one of the things we’ll be working on in the conversation – it can only take us so far. We depend on other things – photos, the sound of someone’s voice, to create a fuller impression… until, that is, we get the chance to meet in person.

If you like the sound of café writing in Sardinia, let us know! Just drop us a line at info@absorbingwriting.com and we’ll take it from there.

from Joanna in Edinburgh

February 2008