Revision is a practice of transformation—of seeing text, and therefore the world, with new eyes. Done well, revision returns us to our original love. This week-long immersion, based on Elizabeth’s latest book, Living Revision, will reframe writing as a spiritual practice. “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader,” Robert Frost wrote. How can we continue to open our hearts to surprise through revision?
This retreat will provide writers with three things they need in the messy middle of a project: tools for seeing with new eyes, support from peers, and time to write.
Each day we’ll spend 2 ½ hours together learning a life-giving relationship to revision and using exercises to gain clarity and direction for our projects. We’ll connect informally with one other during lunches and small-group conversations. The bulk of our days will be given to independent writing. An hour-long one-on-one consultation with Elizabeth is included. If you would like Elizabeth to review up to 40 pages of your project in anticipation of this consultation, please contact her at Elizabeth (at) spiritualmemoir (dot) com by August 27th.
This retreat is for writers of creative prose (fiction and creative nonfiction—that is, memoir, personal essay, travel writing, nature writing, and literary journalism) who are comfortable with long stretches of solitary writing time. If you’re uncertain whether your project qualifies as creative prose, please contact Elizabeth. Participants must be committed to moving their project through multiple revisions.
