Are you in the middle of your latest great novel? Are your professors wondering when you will finally finish writing your dissertation? Do you have songs and poetry swirling about your head requiring a quiet spot in the world that they may settle into place on paper? It may be you are in need of a writing retreat at Sea Ranch!
Land falls away to sea. What is it about this coast that is so potent? Somehow standing on the precipice looking outward makes me more aware of what I want, what I need to be.
Lisa Rizzo, The Sea Ranch
The Perfect Writers Retreat and Escape
We invite you to escape to Abalone Bay for your perfect writer’s retreat and escape. Our oceanfront location could be your answer to jump-starting your creative project or revitalize one that has been languishing in the back of your desk. The quiet and magnificent surroundings of Sea Ranch help release you from your writer’s block, finish that chapter, revise your short story, or begin that project you’ve had in the back of your mind for so long.
Getting to Your Sea Ranch Abalone Bay Writer’s Retreat
The drive to Sea Ranch is inspirational in its own right. Located three hours from the San Francisco airport, the drive that winds seemingly along the edge of the world overlooking Sonoma’s craggy northern coast will either inspire you to wax poetically or bring frightening images of how your antagonist kills the unsuspecting ingenue.
Either way, your writer’s retreat road trip is the perfect first step to revitalizing your creative literary processes.
Once you settle into Abalone Bay’s zen, the only thing that will punctuate your thoughts will be the sea breezes and the ocean waves crashing along the rocks below. And even though you’ll find television sets at the house, they really are no match for the views outside seen from the windows. Whether you are escaping for a weekend, a week, or even a month, Abalone Bay will quickly become your writing sanctuary.
If writing alone is not your cup of tea, consider inviting up to 5 more writing buddies, coaches or teachers to join you (Abalone Bay sleeps 6). You can even bring your four-footed literary critic if you’d like as Abalone Bay is dog-friendly.
Your writing partners have access to three bedrooms. The two guest rooms provide queen beds separated by the hall bathroom and the master has a king bed with an en suite bathroom. Together you can plan your perfect writer’s retreat or perhaps a writers craft class among fellow supportive authors and friends. If you find that your writing coach or fellow writing mate is unable to join you, our internet Wi-Fi connection is fast and can help you set up a virtual conference. Telephone service for calling nationally with limited international calling is also available.
Pointers for Planning Your Perfect Writers Retreat at Abalone Bay
Below we have listed a few pointers that may help you plan for your perfect writer’s retreat at Abalone Bay.
Decide to Write in solitude or in the Company of Others
Sharing the costs of renting Abalone Bay may be an added bonus to sharing your writing time with others. However, it’s recommended you feel comfortable with your writing partners. Determine how you feel about sharing meals, bathrooms, kitchen space with your writing partners. Will they be supportive or intrusive? Make sure all of you are agreed on the goals of your retreat, that everyone has similar goals and all have agreed to the importance of meeting them. Remember the point is to get away to focus on your writing.
Set your Creative Intentions and Goals
Setting your creative goals or intentions up front will help guide you towards your endpoint and help you remain focused on your writing. This will also help keep you from drifting off-task once there. Listing your goals with the intent of accomplishing them will help you refrain from straying too far along the bluff trail, or star-gaze too long in the hot tub when you should have finger-tips on the keyboard.
Book Your Writing Time Directly
Whether for a weekend, a week, or even a month Abalone Bay awaits to serve as your muse. You’ll be able to write away in nearly any corner of Abalone Bay. Our Wi-Fi connection is strong, fast, and has been tested to work outside our house as well as inside. Our decks have electrical outlets so your laptop will never be without power. And if you like to spread out while writing, our dining room table expands to fill up the room.
Outline Your Schedule
Now that you have booked your stay, outline your writing agenda. Whether loosely sketched or measured to the minute, a schedule can help you maintain or regain structure in your day to assure you don’t get lost in Abalone Bay’s surroundings. Here at Sea Ranch your usual distractions will be gone. But do be warned the deer grazing in the back, the blue heron peeking in the window, the bobcat looking for a gopher snack, the horse riders on the trail, the whales spouting off in the ocean’s distance can readily replace those mundane nuisances. Your schedule will be your guide to getting back on track.
Allow for Free Time
Allow for free time, getting lost in time, and dreaming time too. Surprise and serendipity can also become your muse. Be ready to let Sea Ranch’s surprises stimulate your creativity. Rent a bicycle and tour the miles of trails keeping your mind open ready to capture the inspiration caused by watching the flock of turkeys making their way along the roadside. As the sun dips below the horizon, allow its golden hues mixed with red flares of color ignite your mind in your creative project’s process.
Celebrate Your Accomplishments
Even if you didn’t get the first couplet to rhyme, let alone make it to the last period in the last chapter of the next great novel allow yourself to exhale to relish the time you took for your retreat. It was a retreat after all and most likely it has helped you move to a much better spot in your creative life than you were at your trip’s outset. Don’t beat yourself up at not making all your goals. Rather embrace your new found zen, bringing it back home with you to help take you to completion of your writing project.
Who knows just jotting your comments in our guest book may be enough to break that writer’s block of yours.
And don’t forget–Book your NEXT Writer’s Retreat
Yes, you do deserve it! The return back to your daily grind can offer up plenty of excuses for delaying a return retreat. Without booking your stay how will reconnect with your muse at Sea Ranch? Take note of what worked while on your retreat and what needs to be changed for improved productivity. Then put your next writer retreat on the calendar to help keep your momentum going. How about next weekend! Your muse awaits!
And now for pros well versed in writers retreats…
Do you have other suggestions for developing a perfect writer’s retreat? What were your best writers retreat? If you shared your retreat with others how did they inspire and inform you? And if you spent time alone we’d love to hear how that went.
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[…] Are you also a writer? Then you may want to consider writing about the ocean at our Vacation Rental in Sea Ranch, Abalone Bay. Learn more about how to set up a writer’s retreat here. […]