We’re gradually updating the site, so it will evolve over the coming weeks and months, but we have posted dates for 2023 so you can begin to plan your writing time with us this year! We’ve condensed the information into this post and updated travel and other details around the site. But it’s possible some things are missing or not as detailed as they eventually will be. So if you have a question, please just get in touch.

Along with residential retreats, we’re also offering Virtual Retreats. Any residential retreat can booked as a virtual retreat if you want to take us with you somewhere else, or your residential can be turned into a virtual if you suddenly find you cannot travel to us.

For a good sense of what it’s like to join us for a Circle Misse creative holiday read what’s been said about us in The Australian, The Observer Magazine and take a look at the interior and our rooms.

Residential Writing Offerings

For your comfort and enjoyment on residential offerings, we are doing one intake of writers every two weeks. You can book for 7, 10 or 14 days (you can stay even longer if you wish). 

This allows us to be flexible to anything that arises, gives you plenty of time to write and also sort out any required pre-travel requirements before departure and also means we form a bubble of sorts during your stay, and gives us ample time to do all the required procedures before the next group arrives. For these reasons we can’t alter the arrival days on the DATES AND COSTS page. As the situation changes and this approach is no longer required we’ll add more 7-day stays.

We are offering two types of residential retreats (Studio and Mentored) and two types of courses (A Writer Prepares and A Writer Progresses) this year, along with Virtual Retreats.

Studio Retreats

The classic Misse retreat experience with some amazing online enhancements. You come with your own agenda and a sense of what you want to accomplish. We provide a comfortable room, excellent food and drink, the odd mind-clearing diversion, country walks, markets and chateaus, a sense of community and support. But otherwise, we stay out of your way and let you create. As always we are there with optional group discussions and progress check-ins and the usual social activities of literary salon, special topic wine cocktail hour, movie night and open mic at the end so anyone who wants to read their work can. You’ll also have access to online daily prompts and goal-setting exercises which you can do if you want at whatever pace you choose. You also have free-access to an asynchronous lesson of your choice from our online Reading Like A Writer series where we reverse engineer a book to see how the writer accomplished what they did. There’s currently a choice of six titles. We add a new book every month.  You’ll have access to your online content for 3 months post-retreat. 

You can book Studio Retreats for 7, 10 or 14 day increments. We are unable to start/stop on dates other than those listed on the calendar page.

Mentored Retreats

All of the creature comforts and activities of a Studio Retreat with the addition of coaching, mentoring, strategy-setting and feedback directly tailored to your writing goals and manuscript. You can be well stuck into a project (with a partial or complete draft) or just a few chapters into it.

This experience 

• Pre-Retreat reading of a large section of your project by your writing coach/mentored.
• Pre-Retreat individual goal-setting and strategy roadmap document for your project.
• Individual monitoring and advice on your goal-setting and strategy roadmap document during the retreat week.
• Daily one to ones.
• Written and Verbal Feedback on daily writing submissions.
• A live discussion about your Reading Like A Writer selection with Wayne exploring ways to implement the lessons from that module directly into your work (if people select the same book, we may do this as a group as it creates a good synergy).
• A Post-Retreat online follow-up and feedback session to keep the progress going.

You can book a Mentored Retreat in 7, 10 and 14-day increments. You can also add a 3 or 7 day Studio retreat extension to a 7 day Mentored Retreat to continue writing and implement the fruits of your mentored experience. We are unable to start/stop on dates other than those listed on the calendar page.

A Writer Prepares & A Writer Progresses

These classic Circle of Misse courses meet you where you are and combine craft lessons and discussion with one to one feedback sessions on your specific projects. Prepares is for when you are just getting started with your project and aims to help you deliver an outline, a plan and a chapter or two during the week to get you stuck in and send you home motivated to carry on to a first draft. Progresses is aimed at those of you with a minimum of a few chapters and basic outline all the way to those with a full first draft. We look at a large-ish sample in advance and tailor the lessons to help you problem-solve the key challenges in your manuscript and devise a plan for completion and/or revision. Both courses include daily feedback sessions on your writing.

We’re very excited this year to bring our new online tools into these residential courses which will not only allow us to offer them any week you choose to come, but also means we can do some pre-course planning, streamline lessons while you are here to give you even more writing time, and do a follow-up session or two post-course to keep you on track with the progress you made. You will also get access to one Reading Like A Writer lesson which your course leader will use to help you apply its methods to your own work. We will discuss with you which available book best fits your project. We add new titles every month. (You retain access to all digital content for 3 months after your course).

A Writer Prepares & A Writer Progresses are available in 7 day sessions. You can also add on a 3 or 7-day Studio Retreat extension to allow some more writing time post-course.

DATES 2023

Check here for costs and other details.

Make your booking now!