Retreat in Shenzhen

June 19, 2023 Off By Inkwell_Admin
 

by Ryan Thorpe

This retreat started the way most Inkwell events start: someone reached out to me and told me that they wanted to host a retreat. I immediately said that I was in. For three days and two nights, eleven writers gathered near the beach in Shenzhen in the small community of Xichong.

The retreat started rather late on Friday with a community dinner of local food, and then we stayed up late talking right before getting up in the morning for breakfast.

After breakfast, we gathered around for our first writing session which played with imagry, dialogue, journals in fiction, point of view, and word choice. After two hours of writing and sharing we were off for some local lunch and some wandering in the village before getting together for a poetry writing session. There we explored character in poetry, shattering cliches about love, and how the subject of poetry affects word choice.

After an hour and a half of writing, we got ready for beach bbq, which we got to by taking a short golf cart ride. Dinner and drinks were amazing, and afterwards we gathered on the first floor of the hostels to talk writing and bond.

Sunday had a few writing activities planned, but due to our late rising, we did not quite get to them in time. That will be something to work on next retreat. Overall, everyone had a great time at the retreat, some solid writing was done, and I was very pleased with the entire experience.

After talking with participants, I think we will plan on another Shenzhen beach retreat next spring at a new hostel, and I think it will be a great experience. Look forward to seeing you there.

CategoryEvents Retreat Shenzhen