In late November, the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) hosted members of its community for a 3-day writing retreat at The Burn. To facilitate communal writing, I travelled alongside 25 fellows and affiliates to this country house near Brechin. Tucked away in 200 acres of woodland, The Burn offered all the essentials to enable what Rowena Murray has termed ‘social writing’ (2015, 12). ‘Knowing that we were all in this together, combined with having the whole space to ourselves,’ reflected one of the participants, ‘created an atmosphere that felt both comfortable and highly conducive to working effectively.’

What does social writing involve?
It involves sharing and discussing writing goals. Ahead of the retreat, I had invited attendees to set a writing goal with a nod that “I will write on a chapter” would not be precise enough. To have a sense of progress, it’s important to set achievable goals. This meant that participants had to think about and plan their writing tasks. When we gathered in the drawing room upon arrival, everyone got to introduce themselves and share their goal. This not only offered insights into what people are working on, but how people approach writing. And it highlighted some shared writing habits (such as working towards a fast-approaching deadline).
For IASH’s transient researcher community with current, out-going as well as in-coming fellows and affiliates, this sharing offered an opportunity to make new connections and strengthen existing ones:
- ‘Connecting with other fellows and learning about their work was truly inspiring and became the highlight of my fellowship at IASH.’

Social writing means to write with others in real-time increments. Across the three days, we had 60 and 90-minute focused writing slots that provided us with a structure, interspersed with coffee and lunch breaks as well as time for walks. A structure ensures writing is the primary activity, but also attends to physical aspects such as needs for breaks and exercise. Two of our participants describe the multi-varied benefits of a writing retreat that includes the creative inspiration a different environment can bring alongside the freedom to just focus on the task at hand without any other responsibilities:
- ‘I was also very pleased that it was a writing-focused retreat, yet with space for socialisation with colleagues and connection with nature. Not having to think about preparing food, along with easy access to tea and coffee, added to the joy I felt from truly being in a retreat away from everyday responsibilities.’
- ‘I really enjoyed the peer-support (not peer pressure!) of working alongside one another on research projects, without the distraction of emails or teaching prep.’
A crucial part of social writing is talking about writing in progress and the writing process. Those new to writing groups or retreats are often surprised how productive they are when writing in a social space. Part of the reason for the productivity is knowing that at the end of the session the facilitator will ask: ‘How did you get on?’ Apart from creating that sense of accountability, though, the end-of-session writing conversation also makes the writing process more visible. It allows reflection on what works and what’s challenging, sharing different approaches and methods for starting, editing, or developing a voice alongside adjusting goals where necessary. By giving time to those conversations, it creates “a collective space of writing where one gets inspired by ideas and work of other colleagues”, noted one participant in their feedback.
As many of the feedback comments suggest, writing retreats – as well as writing groups – are effective activities and initiatives to build community, whether for research centres, cohorts, research groups or teams, research clusters or networks, or researchers who share writing projects (e.g. book; article; thesis) or research interests. In this instance, the retreat connected transient research community members of an Institute for Advanced Studies. “I built some stronger relationships with my fellow Fellows over this weekend,” one participant commented, “and a few of us have talked about carrying the writing sessions on.”
From writing retreat to writing community
Prior to departure, we all once again assembled in the drawing room to exchange reflections, any lessons learned, or changes participants might wish to make to their writing practice and habits going forward:
- ‘I will be imitating the Writing Retreat back home.’
- ‘I plan to organise and participate in mini-writing retreats at work, as I found the collective energy of working together on writing to be incredibly effective.’
- ‘I plan on joining a writing group and/or having a writing buddy.’
Writing together was experienced by many as greatly beneficial not only to their productivity but also to their sense of community. Thus, the idea emerged to continue writing together regularly once back in Edinburgh. For such an idea to take fruit requires leadership; someone needs to step into the role of creating that social space, holding people to time, facilitating the writing conversations (Murray 2015, 115-126). The week after the retreat, Dr Kelsey Granger invited the IASH community to join on Tuesday mornings for focused writing with a goal-sharing start and a progress-sharing at the end before they all can head to the Fellow’s Lunch afterwards. Thus, this new initiative is built into existing social structures and further enhances community building.
It’s always exciting to hear when an initiative plants the seeds for new initiatives.
Are you interested in establishing social writing as a community building activity? You can read our Writing Retreat Facilitator Guide that includes structures for full-day and half-day retreats as well as lunchtime writing sessions.
Are you already using social writing as a community building activity and would like to share your experience in a blog? Get in touch via email iad.researchers@ed.ac.uk
References
Rowena Murray, Writing in Social Spaces: A Social Processes Approach to Academic Writing (London/New York: Routledge, 2015).