The Story Path Retreat

 The Story Path Retreat blends the craft of writing with the science of learning: purposeful workshops, reflective walking, pre-retreat work-in-progress review, personalised feedback and uninterrupted time to turn ideas into a workable story plan. 

Many writers are not short of ideas. They are short of quiet, uninterrupted time to follow those ideas properly. This retreat gives you permission to pause the ordinary rush and concentrate on one thing: your writing.

With a private room, nourishing home-cooked meals, small-group workshops and dedicated writing time, the retreat creates a rhythm that helps you settle, think, write and return to your work with fresh attention.

Think fresh air, maps, notebooks, secret paths, cliff-top questions, hidden histories and the faint possibility that your plot has been waiting for you in a cove all along.

As well as optional massages and sea swims to focus your inner tranquility, you will use Dorset’s landscapes as creative prompts for structure, suspense, character motivation, setting and atmosphere.

You will stay in a private room at Upwey Manor House, with space to rest, write and gather with the group. The retreat draws on the story-rich landscapes of Dorset: the lanes, hills and skies of Thomas Hardy country, the drama of the Jurassic Coast, smugglers’ coves, ancient droves and Iron Age hill forts.

These are landscapes made for imagination: weather, cliffs, footpaths, ancient routes, sea air, long views and half-hidden histories. They offer a natural way into setting, mood, mystery, character and plot.