The Venice
Creative Retreat
Is this the year you want to WRITE THAT THING? (That’s already a great start.)
Have you got a story in you that you really want to tell, but don’t know where to start?
Do you want a creative boost to help your writing, or other creative projects?
Have you already started a creative project but lost confidence/interest/energy to complete it?
Do you feel you are lacking confidence to write, and need some inspiration and personal encouragement?
Do you want to write for magazines, newspapers or online, but need some advice on pitching, commissioning and . . . ever getting paid?
Are you overwhelmed by social media, and what we as writers ‘need’ to be doing online in order to get published and be successful?
Do you have The Killer Manuscript in your bag and want to know about agents, deals, marketing and winning an Oscar for the screen adaptation?
Have you never written for publication before but think you would like to, and are looking for a supportive, positive and nurturing space to learn more?
Are you seeking to spend some time with other writers, and feel inspired, more confident and encouraged for the experience?
Do you want to spend time in one of the most magical and creatively inspiring places in the world, with a best-selling writer who can show you some of the most beautiful, hidden and magical corners of this lagoon, and feel inspired, supported and revitalised?
I moved to Venice in 2018, and have lived here on and off ever since. It was love at first sight, and has a hugely positive effect on my creativity and sense of freedom.
Venice is like nowhere else on Earth. Its surreal quality of ‘City-on-water’, where there are no roads or cars and only water and sky all around, makes it almost dreamlike in every way, and has inspired writers, artists and creatives for hundreds of years.
Venice has a profoundly liberating, stimulating effect on my creativity; it’s a place where I can access a writing voice and freedom that I can’t tap into elsewhere.
I’ve written two books in or set in Venice and every time I set foot here I feel the same sense of unlocking and inspiration.
Creativity is not best served by putting pressure on ourselves to squeeze out as much as we can.
It’s about natural releasing, being FREE to explore a part of ourselves that might not have the space or emotional freedom to be expressed in our everyday lives.
I truly believe that in order to create our best work we need to step outside our normal rhythm and routines and enter a place and space that takes us to another place in our selves and enables such creativity to flow out.
I hope Venice will have a similarly inspiring, positive effect on everyone who comes on my creative retreats here.
As I always say: nobody leaves Venice the same person as when they arrived.
There are hundreds of writing and creative retreats in the world, and several already in Venice. I don't want to emulate any of those, or offer what they already do. We are all different, and what works for one type of creative soul doesn't work for another.
My Venice retreats are intentionally not fixed into a rigid structure or teaching plan.
I think every individual, and each group of guests, will have a different energy and set of wants and needs, so I will make these retreats as tailored to YOU as possible.
Instead of being rigidly organised or prescriptive, I hope to provide an individual experience that stimulates, encourages and provides you with the space, spiritual and creative inspiration to unleash your creativity.
Dates. All dates are inclusive, for 4 days.
MARCH 14-17 - 50% discount on ALL places for this special, pre-launch retreat.
APRIL: 25-28. FULLY BOOKED
MAY: 23-25
JUNE: 6-8
JULY: 4-6
Please kindly note: these are non-residential retreats. Guests arrange their own travel and transport, to suit their own preferences and needs.
This enables me to offer the considerably lower price than most writing retreats in Venice. I want to be as inclusive as possible, and would far rather more people are able to come and benefit in the many ways I hope they will, than push the price impossibly high.
My retreats are also for a particular kind of person; someone whose character and life experiences mean they seek a mixture of creative support and personal contact, but also independence and freedom. Connection and disconnection. Stimulation and peace.
Those who like their own flexibility, and to be able to travel and stay in a way that suits them. It’s all part of the journey of self-discovery and wandering into our creative minds, and of being individuals who all operate differently.
I believe this is very important to creativity: to be free to be who we are, do things our own way - while also taking advice and being taught new things.
To do things at our own pace and not be hemmed in by the constraints of a strict timetable or type of living arrangement; but also to join in with activities and writing sessions that can help stimulate, encourage and achieve our creative goals.
You might want to arrive a few days earlier, stay longer or even tack on some more travel elsewhere afterwards. (Venice is fantastically close to some amazing places!)
You might want to stay in a 5* palace hotel, or a tiny pensione.
I can give advice on both, if you like.
You might even want to bring a friend or family member who is not on the retreat, but is there to share some of your time here.
It’s entirely up to you!
It should be noted that Venice is an island in a lagoon, and the weather can be very changeable and unpredictable. It can go from hot and sunny to cold and foggy in a few hours. Thus, it is sensible to allow for changes of plan, e.g. a bike ride becoming impossible if it’s pouring, or a day planned to be indoors changing to an afternoon outside.
I also know from personal experience that sometimes we need space and quiet, not pressure to attend something. I would like you to feel completely free to attend as little or as much as works best for YOU over the course of the four days.
10 - 12.30: Morning coffee meeting, and Session 1.
12.30-2pm Lunch time. Guests are free to have lunch where you would like.
2pm-4pm: Session 2.
After this, guests are free to talk with me individually if still required, or with others in the group, or head out to explore Venice at your leisure.
Daily morning coffee, in whichever venue we are having the morning coffee meeting.
A trip by private water taxi to The Belmond Hotel Cipriani for coffee and a work session. (Subject to change, depending on hotel events) or to the San Clemente Kempinski island hotel, with poolside work space. (Subject to change, depending on hotel events.)
Discounted room rate at the 5* San Clemente Kempinski island hotel, including free poolside cabana.
Discounted room rate at the beautiful, Hotel Indigo in Sant’Elena, with private garden, and where Session 1 meetings take place.
Ticket to the San Giorgio Campanile for exquisite 360 degree views over the whole of Venice and the lagoon.
Not included:
travel, transfers, accommodation, Vaporetto tickets, extra drinks and snacks not listed above, meals.
A list of possible excursions and Things To Do is below.
Guests can tell me up to a week before their chosen retreat which things they would most like to do, and what particular aspect of writing they would most like to focus on. I can then build this into their specific retreat experience.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Cipriani hotel
San Giorgio campanile
Coffee at Caffè Florian on San Marco
Night walk through the backstreets of Castello to San Marco
Sunrise/early morning walk to Accademia and coffee on Zattere
Rooftop view from Fondazione dei Tedesci (subject to availability.)
Terrace coffee or aperitivo in Palazzina Grassi
Aperitivo on the lagoon front, on each or some of the days
Trip to the bookshop Sulla Luna, in Cannaregio
Night walk to San Marco
Lido bike ride and/or visit to the beach
Running: guests are welcome to join me for (very) early morning running from Sant’Elena to San Marco, a night run around Venice, and/or a longer run on the island of Lido.
Evening meal at local pizzeria Gina’s in Sant’Elena, Dai Tosi in Castello, or the excellent local Trattoria in Sant’Elena - I can book you a table at these places if you’d like to eat there. (Subject to availability.)
The writer
I have been a writer, columnist and broadcaster for over 25 years.
My speciality is non-fiction, especially memoir and narrative non-fiction, and magazine feature-writing.
My books include a Sunday Times best-seller published by HarperCollins, and a No1 best-selling memoir published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
I’ve also written for national newspapers and magazines, as a columnist and features-writer for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, Red, Grazia, Italia! Magazine, Guardian Travel, Glamour, The Daily Mail, Mother and Baby, Marie Claire, Junior, Woman, Runner's World, Women’s Running and others.
My publishing career has encompassed a mixture of some of the biggest traditional publishers, successful crowd-funding publishing, and subscription-supported self-publishing. As a result, I understand the whole process from many angles:
from literary agents, pitching and commissioning to publicity and self-marketing, in-house style requirements, the pain of by-lines and sub-editing and the somewhat important business of actually getting paid.
I’ve also been rejected plenty of times, so I know how that feels and am here to support you if you feel disheartened!
For books, I can give advice and support on aspects concerning literary agents (do you need one? How do you find one? What do they DO? Does anyone like their agent..?), contracts, Rights (including foreign, and TV/film).
For journalistic work I can help you with pitching (who to pitch it to, when to pitch, lead-times, expectations of editors) and what happens when a commissioned piece is not published.
Unfortunately, I have plenty of experience with online trolling - this is now almost unavoidable in the public domain, including any form of published writing - and it’s something I believe all creators and writers should be well informed about and prepared for.
I am happy to share some of my experiences and advise on how to protect oneself against the more damaging personal aspects of publishing, and the sensitive and legal aspects of memoir-writing.
Social media is now a fairly complex, confusing beast, where reels, Substacks and a plethora of new places we ‘should’ be sharing our work and building a profile have come into everyday life.
This is something I can cover in the workshops. Do all writers need a strong social media profile? What’s the best place to be ‘visible’, and how? Where does the balance of private and public lie? Can you be a successful writer with no online presence?
Each course will be very much tailored to the group of people who attend:
the morning coffee hour is to meet each other and for you to outline your writing journey to date, where you’re at with it now, what you would like to get out of the day and the specific issues you are hoping to find answers, support and encouragement with.
The person
Who I am as a person is as important to my own work, and to my writing workshops for others, as the work itself.
As is fairly well documented, I have spent years recovering and rebuilding my health and life following deep trauma, and while living with PTSD and an ADHD-type of brain.
I thus know intimately how hard it can be to do something as apparently simple as ‘sit down and write.’
I am passionate about helping others to find ways to connect with their strongest, most confident and free self; to be released from personal and writing blocks and fears, and thus to inhabit a strong place in themselves where they can create their best work, and enjoy it.
There are many ways to teach writing, and many writing courses out there to suit all wants and needs.
My writing workshops are designed around the PERSON, and your individual character, story and voice.
“YOU BE YOU” is my mantra in life.
‘YOU WRITE YOU” is my mantra for writing.
This applies to all writing, both fiction and non-fiction, whether for magazine articles, columns, blogs or books. Finding our own style - and having the self confidence to write in that style - is key. Some of the best writers of all time threw the Writing Rulebook out, wrote in a style that was criticised, mocked and belittled at the time . . . but which went on to shape and influence writers for decades to come.
Rulebooks are made for restriction and compliance, and true creativity requires the opposite: freedom.
Self-doubt is the death of successful and enjoyable writing, and I seek to inspire and encourage individuality, and finding your unique writing voice.
I believe this holistic and individualised approach, where we as people are central to our writing lives, has a profoundly positive impact on the writing we produce – and thus the lives we live.
I want to work with you to create what YOU want to create, stop fearing criticism, and write freely and confidently. . . .and then have the knowledge, insights and tools to take this forward to getting it published if you wish to.
So let’s do that!
