The Six Writers You Become on a Cruise Writing Retreat

Let’s say you’re considering taking a cruise to work on your writing. You imagine restful nights and contemplative days making progress on your work as you sail across the sea. What a pleasure it would be to get away from your regular life/work/responsibility for a week, with your meals and fresh towels provided daily so you can devote your attention to your writing.

You are not wrong! A cruise writing retreat is a wonderful way to invest in your writing and yourself. It’s also an adventure: you get to experience living and sailing on a ship! If you have not done it before, or are new to taking cruises as a way to get writing done, you may find yourself evolving into a seasoned cruise writing retreat participant through these six discrete types:

1. The Innocent Traveler

It’s all so exciting and wonderful! You’re on a ship! It’s so grand and luxurious! The three-story grand lobby with arcing staircases! The two-deck art deco dining room! The warm, wood-paneled library with 10,000 books! So many spaces you can sit and write. You’re planning where you’ll eat and drink during before and after your writing times. But first, you want to get your cabin set up for maximum productivity.

2. The Mysterious Recluse

Who’s that person who hardly leaves her room? Why does she have pens, Post-its, and paper strewn about her cabin? Who brings so many books on a trip? You wonder what your cabin steward thinks of you. He wonders why you’re always in your room when he needs to get in to refresh your sheets and towels and remove your writerly detritus.

3. The Consummate Observer

Well, a writer can’t stay in seclusion all the time! You do “research”: You eavesdrop listen to naturally occurring conversation at lunch, while partaking in Afternoon Tea, and in one of the bars during happy hour over canapes. And you can’t help but wonder what goes on behind those crew-only doors?

4. The Hardy Seaman

You hardly even feel the motion of the ocean by now. You don’t walk in horizontal lines any more. Instead of leaving your chapstick and vitamins on your nightstand to roll off during the night, you use the drawer to keep them close at hand. You know to never whistle because it is said to invite stormy winds, and to never clink glasses because it is said to disturb the watery graves of drowned sailors. Those who still break these traditions will learn from more experienced travelers, as you did.

5. The Salty Wise Consumer

You and the staff are on a first-name basis. You know what time the breakfast buffet is less busy (get out of my way, tourists!) but you prefer to start your day quietly on deck with your coffee. You have “your” seat in the library and table in the lounge. You know you can catch the replays of interesting lectures in your cabin on your schedule instead of rushing to make them during the day, which is when you are writing, of course. The bartender knows you like your gin and tonic with three olives (never two, because serving olives in even numbers is considered bad luck). You know which desserts are worth their calories.

6. The Experienced Retreater

You’re already dreaming of your next trip. How soon can you do this again? You’ll take a separate notebook just to record what you did, saw, and heard each day, because you know you’ll want to capture the details in an organized way, as a good writer does. You vow you’ll explore even more of the ship next time to find new little nooks to read and write in, and you hope to not get turned around every time you take an elevator. You swear you’ll be more mindful of how much food you eat. Best of all, you know how much you can accomplish on a cruise writing retreat.

(inspired by Peter Moore’s guest post on Oldster)

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I love writing while cruising so much I’m offering a cruise writing retreat September 3-10 from NYC to Southampton on the QM2, for those who want to spend a week dedicated to their writing projects with 1:1 support from a book coach. (Reserve now – cabins are likely to sell out! Deadline to book is May 1.)