High Desert Center Writing Retreat

The purpose of the Writing Retreat is to support budding writers in accomplishing an ambitious, self-paced writing challenge. This program is modeled after National Novel-Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo: the challenge to write 50,000 words in one month) with a community of like-minded aspiring writers. This is your opportunity to set your sights high and expand the limits of your creativity. The goal of the Writing Retreat is rapid production of a first draft—not the careful editing and refining of a final draft. Everyone at the Writing Retreat (including staff) chooses a specific numerical goal for what they’ll write during the month. Then they turn off their inner editors and focus on hitting their daily word count. That’s how we roll at the Writing Retreat.