2018 will be our sixth Writing Excuses Retreat:
Join us for a cruise in the Caribbean, September 22-30th 2018!
Registration is now open!
The full details are available on the registration page, but here’s a quick overview:
- We will board in Galveston, TX, and spend a week at sea, stopping for excursions in Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. The event actually begins the day before we board, in a Houston hotel, where we’ll register and get to know each other.
- Prices are Double Occupancy, which means you’ll share your room with another person. If you bring your own roommate, awesome! If not, we’ll put you with another writer from our group. Spouses and significant others who want to come with you but are not writers will get a discounted rate. Children get a hugely discounted rate. Imaginary friends are FREE.
- If you’ve never done one of our cruises before, they’re a kind of magical mix of class time, writing time, and screwing-around-in-a-cool-place time. We don’t know how it works, but it does, and you’ll love it.
- We’ll have one or two classes a day, taught by our amazing guest instructors, as well as live Writing Excuses episodes with the hosts of the show. Brandon won’t be joining us this year, but we’ll be joined by Amal El-Mohtar, Piper Drake, Maurice Broaddus, Kathy Chung, K Tempest Bradford, Valynne E Maetani, and more. And of course you’ll still have Mary, Dan, and Howard.
- For each stop, we’ll pick three “official” Writing Excuses shore excursions and announce them this Spring. You can sign up with us for one of those and know that you’ll be with our same group of awesome writers and instructors. If you want to do an excursion that’s not one of our official picks, you can arrange it directly with the cruise.
- As before, we will have a number of scholarships available. This year that number is “5.” The application process will be announced in January at Writing Excuses.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: I have a registration question. Should I leave a comment here?
A: The best way to contact us for WXR 2018 purposes is to use the “Contact Writing Excuses” link at the bottom of the Registration page. Scroll all the way down to “Contact the Organizer”. We’d have linked it directly here, but it’s an embedded thingy. You can also email questions to assist@maryrobinettekowal.com with the subject line “WXR: Registration Question”.
Q: Brandon’s not going to be there? Does he not love us anymore?
A: Brandon is already spending a few weeks this year on tour, and there was no way for him to do both. In future years, there might be other hosts who can’t make it. You’ll still get an amazing writing conference with a ton of amazing instructors and classes and experiences. Plus, as all of our alumni will tell you, the single biggest benefit of the cruise are the connections you make with the other attendees, and this promises to be one of the best years ever for that. And yes, Brandon loves you with all his heart.
Q: I’m an introvert who doesn’t do well in big groups of people. Will I survive an event like this?
A: One Of Us! One Of Us! Honestly, most of our attendees are introverts too, including all of the hosts and most of the guest instructors. Some of us are better at faking it than others, but we know where you’re coming from, and we feel your pain. We’ll make sure to have lots of quiet little hidey-holes all over the ship where you can go when it all gets too much. It’s not called a “retreat” for nothing.
Q: You keep saying it, but will I really have time to actually write while on this cruise?
A: You will definitely have time, but it’s up to you how to use it. We give prizes every year for the Most Words Written, and last year the winner had more than 40,000. We also have a proud history of boardgame nights, dancing, karaoke, and impromptu martial arts demonstrations. Whatever you want to do with your free time, you can probably do it at this event.
Q: What level of writing expertise should I have attained prior to attending?
A: “Level of expertise” is far less important than your desire to improve. The workshop is structured to be accessible and useful for new writers with a passion for learning, and to be challenging and rewarding for seasoned professionals looking for refinement, or additional perspectives. Different classes will be designed for different levels of experience.
