An article, in the Irish Times, on writer’s retreats in Ireland.

So how’s that book going, the one you started writing back in January? Finished? All edited, polished, ready to send off to agents and publishers and take the literary world by storm? Unfortunately, the chances are high that your half-written masterpiece is languishing in a drawer somewhere. Perhaps you wrote yourself into a plot corner that you couldn’t see a way out of. Maybe you fell out of love with the characters? Perhaps real life intervened (the vegetable garden doesn’t look after itself, a demanding new boss at work, summer holidays). It would be a shame to let your manuscript join the thousands of unfinished novels that will never see the light of day. Now that autumn seems to have arrived with a bang, why not kick-start your creative enthusiasm with a spell at a writer’s retreat?

Ireland is blessed with a thriving support structure for writers that attracts both home-grown and international talent. There are well-established retreats with a worldwide reputation, and a couple of relatively new kids on the block offering something different. What they all offer is peace, headspace, and, unlike just booking a week in a remote cottage in Connemara, some degree of editorial help with your writing that might just be the thing you need to break through that creative choke-point.

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co. Monaghan

Link to the web edition:

Writer’s retreats.