This writing project was run earlier in the summer, with some wonderful entries submitted. You’ll find the full list of entries at the end of this post, with some excerpts to tempt you and go and read the original articles.

I’m very sorry that it’s taken us so long to do the round up and announce the results.

Co-ordinating activities over a summer of house moving and house building in different countries didn’t prove to be the best timing from a practical point of view – though it did prove invaluable from a planning perspective.

We’ve listened to and learned from the ideas in these submissions to develop a brand new service for next year: writing retreats in Sardinia.

We’re very excited about the potential of these writing retreats to help you unleash your creativity and free up your words.

Anyway, back to the competition results.

Ideal Writing Weekend

I’m delighted to announce that the winner was Isabella Mori from Change Therapy with a piece written as part of a blogathaon: my ideal writing weekend. Here’s an extract:

oh, and the stars last night! haven’t seen that many for ages. so beautiful against the black moonless night, right over calm little waves licking against the cliff along which we were driving (was that really an old butler in an even older but still oh-so-buttery bentley?)

before i pad to the bathroom, i grab my notebook and write down a few words. that’s what the pamphlet said. write something down as soon as you wake up. ok, here we go:

thick walls, old sandstone
hold me up while i fly off.
my pens are my wings.

aaah. haiku is good, any time of the day.

twenty minutes later, i stand by a copse of olive trees, looking down into the water.

This is what our competition judge Lea Woodward said about her contribution:

Isabella’s entry was compelling and captivating from start to finish. Isabella walks us through her ideal weekend from waking up, to making the first entry in her diary, to making friends with other writers throughout the experience. Her vivid imagination describes the sights, sounds, smells and feeling of the weekend. If you look closely, you can extract all the elements that come together to create an ideal writing weekend, not just for Isabella, but for many people – and I know that’s something Emma and Joanna will be able to take away and put to good use for Absorbing Writing.

The second place winner was Shari Smothers at Blog About Writing with this piece on my ideal writing weekend.

Lea said:

I liked the structured and practical nature of this post – from the tools and resources Shari uses to the criteria she uses to select her ideal location.

In third place was Jasmin Tragas at Wonderwebby with a futuristic piece: 48 Hours, 5000 Words and 12 Cubes of Ice.

The comment from Lea:

A fun, slightly wacky entry – which nonetheless contains some useful gems which we can all relate to when thinking about how best to coax those precious words out from our heads and onto the paper.

Prizes in the form of Amazon gift vouchers ($100, $50 and $10 to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively) go to the winners.

Thanks go to our competition judge, Lea Woodward, for her help in assessing the entries, to everyone who joined the competition and shared so many wonderful ideas, and to all of you, for your patience!

Full list of entries

Shari Smothers at Blog About Writing: My Ideal Writing Weekend

People: I like people-watching, imagining their stories. There are times when I just want to be around people, to watch them and hear the hum of life in my solitary work

Dawn Goldberg at Write Well Me: My Ideal Writing Weekend

In the mountains, I feel at one with nature, and maybe even myself, as silly as that might sound. Of course, there’s the whole idea that one is away from distractions: work, kids, laundry, e-mail, maybe even phones in general. All that exists is the writing. And I’m wrapped in the mountains’ arms as I write.

Brad Shorr at Word Sell: What’s Your Ideal Writing Weekend?

It starts with stimulating conversation. I’m not much good at drawing inspiration from nature, and can’t create ideas in a vacuum. But a lively exchange of ideas can open up all sorts of writing possibilities. Chemistry, that hard to define quality that makes certain conversations click, is all important.

Isabella Mori at Change Therapy:
My Ideal Writing Weekend,
My Ideal Writing Weekend Part 2,
My Ideal Writing Weekend Part 3

this is what i write into my diary. it’s a beautiful diary, and i’m delighted, because that’s important. writing, to me, is a sensual experience. i love the feeling of paper, and what happens when pen (pencil, brush, marker, quill) touches down and starts moving.

Lillie Amann at A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye with My Ideal Writing Weekend

I wasn’t tempted to spend all day in the casino – a few hours in the evenings were plenty. What made the experience ideal were the days totally focused on writing interspersed with good times with good friends. By the time we returned to San Antonio, Dream or Destiny was ready to submit to a publisher.

Joanna Young (a non-competitive entry!): 5 Essential Ingredients of My Ideal Writing Weekend

Space: That includes creating the space to get away for the ideal weekend, and to switch off from normal concerns, but I’d also want enough time and space to walk off and do my own thing, read, write, not write, soak up experiences that I could write about later

Jasmin Tragas at Wonderwebby: 48 hours, 5000 words and 12 cubes of ice

I’m using a combination of voice recognition, typing and a slightly manic hand waving gesture with my LifeWriter. The words find some form and characters begin to bloom, but the words come to a screeching halt as it hits 3pm and I hit a wall.

Alina Popescu at Words of a Broken Mirror: My Ideal Writing Weekend

It was March and it was still snowing in the mountains. We were staying at this cozy little hotel and being alone in my room felt amazing. I needed some time to finish my novel and quite a lot of inspiration to do so.

Keith Andrews at Comic Book Day: Comic Book Retreat

It will give me the time to decompress, so I can give the best to those that have sacrificed a year away from me. Comic Books are an outlet for me. Writing is an outlet for me. What a wonderful respite I will have when I step away from everything, and read and write for just a single weekend. Who knows, it may become a habit.

We’ve had some great entries in so far – why not join them?  It’s very easy to contribute and there are prizes on offer for the best entries.  You’ll find out more about how to take part on this introductory post.

Happy writing!

To help put the finishing touches on the programme we’d like to hear your ideas, thoughts and suggestions on the ingredients of your ideal writing weekend.

To get you talking we’ve launched a writing competition to get your most inspiring suggestions.

Take Part In Our Writing Competition: Here’s How

My Ideal Writing Weekend

Tell us about the ingredients of your ideal writing weekend. That might be a weekend you’ve already enjoyed, one that you’ve got planned, or one that you’re hoping to take part in, some day.

You might talk about how this relates to the writing process: getting past writer’s block, finding the right words, tapping into your muse.

Feel free to relate your piece to your writing or blogging purpose

You can include a mixture of pictures and words, with a word limit of 500 words.

Posting Guidelines:

1. Post your entry on your own blog by midnight Friday 1st August Monday 1st September (your time) Please note extension to deadline!

2. Link back to Absorbing Writing: Writing Workshops In Italy

3. Send us an e-mail at info@absorbingwriting.com to make sure we’ve got your entry

4. Let your readers know it’s part of a competition – who knows, they might want to join in!

5. Keep it G rated please

Competition

The winning entry will be the most convincing description of an ideal writing weekend.

Entries will be judged by Lea Woodward of Location Independent … whose decision will be final.

Prizes on offer

1st prize: £50 ($100) Amazon gift card

2nd prize: £25 ($50) Amazon gift card

Runners up: 3 x £5 ($10) Amazon gift card

Link Love for Participants

We’ll post a round up of entries on our 3 linked blogs, which means a link from:

Absorbing Writing

Confident Writing

How to Italy

Last but not least

To spread the word, please give this a stumble? Many thanks

Emma Bird and Joanna Young

We’re planning around various workshops between 17th April and 2nd May 2009. If you’ve got a strong preference for spring time dates, please do let us know (info@absorbingwriting.com)

We’d like to get your views on the shape and content of the workshops we run in the spring. Please do take just a few minutes to complete this customer survey and let us know what would work best for you.

Many thanks. You can follow this link to start the survey, or click on the picture below to open it.

You can keep in touch with us:

1. On Facebook

We’ve got an Absorbing Writing page on Facebook that you can join as a ‘fan’ to keep up with news, dates, posts, listings and meet other people who are interested

2. On Twitter

You can find me on Twitter @joannayoung and Emma @emmabird – follow us and say hello to let us know you’re there!

3. Direct to your inbox

You can get all the updates from this site direct to your inbox. It’s free to use – you just need to provide your e-mail address and remember to click the link once you get the opt in confirmation from Feedburner. Follow this link for updates on the workshops direct to your inbox.

4. Through this blog

You can get all the news from the ‘news’ section of this site. You can bookmark if you’re coming back often for news on the writing workshops, or get updates by free RSS feed.

5. By signing up to our newsletter

You can get news and updates on future workshops – dates, themes, venues – by signing up to our free newsletter.

These are 5 of the best ways we know to keep in touch. Which one works best for you? Are there others we should add to the mix?

Photo Credit: Small Town Italy 3 by Austin TX on Flickr

We’ve moved to this new site to make it easier for you to find all the information you need, quickly and easily, on the writing workshops that we’re running this autumn (and next spring).

We’re pretty pleased with how it looks – hope you’ll like it too! Please do let us know if you notice anything that’s a little wonky… we’ve only just finished moving the furniture around.

If you want to get future updates on the workshops we’re running you can grab the RSS feed or get updates direct to your inbox.

See you again soon!

Joanna in Edinburgh

Photo credit: Welcome by storem on flickr

Thanks

Joanna Young and Emma Bird

A word on e-mails:

Your privacy is important to us and we will never (ever) pass on your details to a third party.

We’ll only contact you when we need to, but if you decide at any time you don’t want to receive further updates you’ll find an unsubscribe option at the bottom of each e-mail you get from us.

Here are some of the things that people have been saying about “Absorbing Writing” so far:

From Business Blog Angel:

Joanna has teamed up with another BusinessBlogAngel client – Emma Bird of HowToItaly.com – to create a most wonderful proposition…

a writing workshop cum holiday in sun-drenched Sardinia. If you want to hone your writing skills and benefit from the talents and knowledge of these 2 brilliant minds, get yourself over to Absorbing Wiriting In Sardinia fast – I have no doubt that places are being snapped up fast!

From Location Independent

Emma Bird from How To Italy and Joanna Young from Confident Writing have joined together (having met through blogging) to run the Absorbing Writing workshop later this year which is “a writing workshop in sun-drenched Sardinia…aimed at expats, nervous writers, business writers wanting to inject some oooph into their writing and bloggers who want to make their posts much more readable”.

From Success Rocks!

Emma Bird from How To Italy and Joanna Young from Confident Writing are joining together to run the Absorbing Writing workshop in sun-drenched Sardinia. Sort of knowing these two ladies from their blogging exploits, a couple of Twittersations and some emails, I am sure the workshop will be fabulous.

“Twitterstations” by the way refers to conversations taking place via Twitter. If you’re on Twitter you can follow Emma @emmabird and me, @joannayoung

Writing on Twitter is an art form in itself (great for improving your skill in brevity) but it’s one that we’ll probably need to save for another day! We will be working on blog writing skills in the workshop though, and you’ll get the chance to post your own material on to this site… so if you want to “inject some oomph” into your blogging…why not sign up now?

from Joanna in Edinburgh
January 2008