The Writing Gym ONLINE Retreat
November 3-5, 2023
Join us for a writing event like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.
You struggle to find the time to write, away from distraction, to find the inspiration to get the writing done and get it done well.
Wait no more.
We’ve been given the gift of time, quiet, and solitude. Let’s use it!
If you want to be a writer, this where you need to be.
You’ll write every morning in a group guided salon, lead by the Writing Gym’s seasoned writing coaches
Spend 3 days getting inspiration, finding community with other writers, and getting QUALITY feedback on your writing.
Sit in a small, intimate fireside chat with a top achieving author and ask all the burning questions you always wanted to know.
What is it like to write with Annalisa?
Here at the Writing Gym we believe that every writing experience should integrate your body and mind, to bring you into a place of full inspiration.
Afternoons will be spent working on your novel or getting inspiration during a sprint session. Each participant also gets a 1-1 session with Annalisa.
You can also sign up for our pitch slam, and pitch directly to LMBPN Publishing (specializing in sci/fantasy) or Literary Agent Anna Termini (Specializing in general fiction multi-media rights–think book AND movie deal)
We limit our online retreats to 20 participants to create a safe, nurturing space in which your writing can flourish and you can experience true community.You’ll work in small groups, and bond with your fellow writers.
Every online retreat includes a Saturday Night Fireside Chat. This is your chance to meet in an intimate setting with the writers who have blazed a trail before you. They will share their journey, top tips, and pitfalls to avoid.
You will laugh, ask questions, and enjoy the company of those who love the written word as you do.
For the summer 2023, we welcome back New York Times bestselling author John David Mann. He will give us an exclusive sneak peak of his upcoming novel sequel, and chat with us about the writing life.
John is an award-winning author whose writings have earned the Axiom Business Book Award (Gold Medal, for The Go-Giver), the Nautilus Award (for A Deadly Misunderstanding), and Taiwan’s Golden Book Award for Innovation (for You Call the Shots). The Go-Giver was also honored with the Living Now Book Awards “Evergreen Medal” in 2017 for its “contributions to positive global change,” and cited on Inc.’s “Most Motivational Books Ever Written” and HubSpot’s “20 Most Highly Rated Sales Books of All Time”; The Go-Giver Leader was listed on Entrepreneur magazine’s “10 Books Every Leader Should Read” and Forbes magazine’s “8 Books Every Young Leaders Should Read.” His 2012 Take the Lead (with Betsy Myers) was named Best Leadership Book of 2011 by Tom Peters and the Washington Post. His first full-length novel Steel Fear (with former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb) is coming out in August 2021.
His books are published in 35 languages and have sold more than 3 million copies. John coauthored the international bestselling classic The Go-Giver (with Bob Burg), the New York Times bestsellers The Latte Factor (with David Bach), The Red Circle (with Brandon Webb), and Flash Foresight (with Daniel Burrus), and the national bestsellers The Slight Edge (with Jeff Olson), Among Heroes (with Brandon Webb), Out of the Maze (with Spencer Johnson) and Real Leadership (with John Addison). He also ghost-wrote the New York Times bestseller The Answer, by John Assaraf and Murray Smith. He has written for American Executive, CNBC, Financial Times, Forbes.com, Huffington Post, Ivey Business Journal, Leader to Leader, Leadership Excellence, Master Salesmanship, Strategy & Leadership, and Wired.
The Online Writing Experience
What will the group writing time look like?
We will meet through Zoom. We will be able to see and hear each other, share documents, write on a white board together: this is the closest approximation we can have to being in the same physical room.
You will break out into smaller groups for discussion, sharing, feedback, and more–then come together for large groups sessions.
“I haven’t written this much in 21 years. The prompt, the feedback. It tapped into something new for me.” Rick, recent salon participant
Create Time AWAY
We’ve been given this amazing gift of quiet and time. While at the Writing Gym Online Retreat, you will give yourself the time away, the sanctuary, you need to get the writing done, and to nurture your best writer.
Come find the calm in the storm with us.
The Writing Day
Each day begins
with a writing salon.
At the retreat you will also have afternoons to work on your writing in quiet, and to get professional feedback on your writing from professional writing coach, Annalisa Parent.
Sample Schedule
Highlights
Enjoy the camaraderie of positive writers, doing what you’re doing, with the same goals.
Come away refreshed, revived–and with the pages DONE.
Friday
Highlights: Meet your fellow participants.
Laugh in icebreakers.
Write in your first salon of the retreat.
Saturday Morning
Ease into creativity by creating flow in your brain with our morning meet.
Prime the creative pump by putting your inner critic where it belongs.
Writing Salon. Unleash your full creative potential in a guided writing session.
Tension is a phenomenon that results from the structure of a scene.
Tension can be a difficult aspect of a story to get right. Proper application of Tension in a scene will force the reader to keep turning pages. This Craft element puts the Author where they need to be: in control of the flow of the story and the reader’s experience of it.
Saturday Afternoon
TIME TO WRITE Work on pages, with the accountability of a group writing session.
Heads down, fingers on keyboard, chapters written 
Join Annalisa for a 1-1 session to discuss pages, your publishing career–anything you’ve wanted to talk to your writing coach about.
Professional Roundtable: Every year we invite a publishing professional to join us and talk about what’s happening in the publishing industry NOW, and how that impacts your author career. Past guests include Editor at large of Writers Digest; literary agents, and New York Times bestselling authors.
This is a golden opportunity to get top-notch writing advice and personalized feedback from publishing professionals, published authors, and expert writing coaches, all from the comfort of your home.
Pitch Fest: Past pitches to LMPBN, Sibylline Press, Talcott Notch Literary Agency, Writer’s Digest, and more.
Saturday Evening
Fireside Chat with prolific & successful authors who will share their journey to publication. This will be a laid-back discussion where you can chat and ask questions.
Sunday
Salon and Neuroscience-based feedback.
Craft Discussion
Writing Time
Sharing and Celebrations