What to Bring to a Book Writing Retreat (And What to Leave at Home)

People email me about outlets and dietary restrictions. Fair questions. But the thing that actually determines whether your retreat weekend works has almost nothing to do with what’s in your suitcase, and everything to do with what you decide to leave behind.

What to Actually Bring

• Your laptop or notebook, whatever you actually draft in, plus a charger
• Any existing pages, notes, or research you already have, even messy ones
• Comfortable clothes. Nobody is impressed by an outfit, they’re impressed by finished chapters
• An open mind about being told your favorite paragraph isn’t working
• A backup of your work — cloud sync turned on, or a copy on a USB drive. Losing three days of writing to a dead laptop is a heartbreak we can prevent
• Noise-cancelling headphones, if silence is how you focus. Writing rooms have a hum, and some people need to switch it off
• A refillable water bottle and any medications or supplements you take daily
• A physical notebook and a real pen, even if you draft on a screen. Longhand unsticks a stuck brain in a way typing sometimes can’t
• Layers. Rooms run cold, evenings run cool, and you’ll be sitting still and thinking for hours at a stretch

What to Leave at Home

• The idea that your book has to be figured out before you arrive. It doesn’t. That’s what the weekend is for
• Perfectionism, at least the version that keeps you rewriting sentence one instead of writing sentence two
• The assumption that everyone else in the room has it more together than you do. They don’t

What We Already Handle So You Don’t Have To

Every meal is provided and built around any dietary needs you flag early. Accommodation, the workspace, the schedule, and the coaching structure are already sorted before you walk in. Your only job is to show up ready to work on the book, not to manage logistics.

Packing for the Location Itself

Createcations run in different countries and different seasons, so a little location-specific prep goes a long way. Victoria in October is crisp coastal autumn, so pack warm layers and something waterproof. Christchurch in November is Southern Hemisphere spring, mild but changeable. Melbourne in December is heading into summer, so lighter clothes and sunscreen. If you’re travelling internationally, bring the right power adapter for the country you’re flying to (and a small power strip so one adapter charges everything), and give yourself a buffer day to shake off the jet lag before day one, your first morning of writing will thank you.

The One Thing That Actually Matters

Bring the draft you’re embarrassed by. That’s the one that actually needs the room, not the polished excerpt you’d read out loud at a dinner party. The unfinished, awkward, real version of your book is exactly what a Createcation retreat is built for.

Crystal Adair-Benning

4x NYT bestselling ghostwriter · Founder, Createcation