Write It Out® Retreat

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Tuesday, August 28 to Friday, August 31, 2012

“More than Fish”

What: This small writing retreat is for writers who yearn for freedom to write and work on projects in progress as well as interact with exercises in workshops that are focused on sensory experiences of Cape Cod. The exercises guide you in techniques of expressive writing and enhance all genres of fiction and memoir writing as well as personal essays and creative journaling. Simple yet powerful exercises from the Write It Out program have helped thousands of writers discover insights, connections and understanding that is valuable for their own personal growth. Suggestions for publishing and the art of query letters, pitch and platform are offered. Early evening salons provide entertainment and an opportunity to share creative work. Private appointments are scheduled for editorial consultations. Early evening salons provide time for all to share creative work.

The retreat begins Tuesday morning August 28, 2012 when times for workshops will be discussed, as well as appointments made for private manuscript consultations. The retreat ends on Friday morning August 31st.

Where: Wellfleet-By-The-Sea, a New England village of fishing boats and art galleries, is the Cape Cod background for the retreat. The Holden Inn on Commercial Street, once a sea captain’s home is where the retreat is held. Clean and simple rooms at the Inn help to transport one back to the mid twentieth century when a visit to the sea meant sun, sand and fresh fish to eat from the source just beyond the shore. “The feel of the crispness of fall in the air mixed with the warmth of sun in late August has drawn me here for decades,” said Ronni Miller in her article “Cape Cod: In Wellfleet MA, Get Your Fill Of Oysters And Art”. (Style Magazine, Sarasota Herald Tribune, May,1996). Tables and chairs on the lawns of the Inn that overlook Cape Cod Bay and screened and unscreened porches with rocking chairs offer a nostalgic sense of a seashore home to nudge the imagination and write.

From the Inn it’s a short stroll past the protected harbor for fishing and sailboats and the Bay beach where Wellfleet oysters are farmed. Take pad and pen and record the sight of the farmers who row out to their “plots” from pick-up trucks parked on the beach at low tide. The Atlantic Ocean beaches and famed dunes are dramatic places for sensory experiences to write about and are only a short car drive or bike ride away. Provincetown, a center of literary, artistic and American colonial history at the tip of the Cape, is a half hour drive away with it’s small airport, ferry to Boston, fishing ships, daily whaling trips, boutiques, galleries, and restaurants. Suggested accommodations are at The Holden Inn 140 Commercial Street, Wellfleet, MA. 508-349-3450. (www.theholdeninn.com, e-mail: striper@gis.net).

Who: Ronni Miller, facilitator.

“A moonless night with explosions that erupted below the edge of the dune I stood at high above the Atlantic Ocean, initiated my love affair with the area,” Ronni said. Because of that defining moment, she has facilitated writing retreats here for many years to provide students the opportunity to write about sensory experiences of rugged beauty cradled in fishing and seafaring history. Wellfleet is also the setting for several of her published short stories, travel articles and performance theater pieces. Years of experience as a writer, educator, editor, copywriter and publisher created her Write It Out® program, a motivational and expressive writing program for individuals of all ages in 1992. Dance With The Elephants-Free Your Creativity and Write and Cocoon To Butterfly - A Metamorphosis Of Personal Growth Through Expressive Writing, published by Robi Jode Press, are the texts connected to the program. As a facilitator of expressive writing, Miller lectures and runs workshops in hospitals, medical offices and private locations to help individuals cope with life altering events through writing. In her private practice she guides individuals to express their stories in writing and edits fiction and nonfiction manuscripts. The taste of lobster, Wellfleet oysters, clams and smell of salt water combined with the sound of the surf on this rugged Atlantic coast is reason enough to imagine, document and write.

REGISTRATION: To register, include a short bio, reasons to attend the retreat and writing experience. Payment by check made out to Write It Out and mailed to Write It Out P.O. Box 704 Sarasota, FL 34230. Questions? Contact RMillerWIO@aol.com or 941-359-3824.

Registration and payment of $425 tuition is due by June 10, 2012. A cancellation is available less $100 before July 20, 2012. Contact us to see if there are openings after that date.

CANCELLATIONS: Tuition refund will be paid in full if the retreat is cancelled by May 16, 2012 due to low registration. Thereafter a refund is dependent on the minimum required for registration.