BFS Retreat: It’s Not All About Chasing Word Counts!

About a dozen brave souls gathered at Gladstone’s Library over the first weekend in March to bask in the smell of old books and seek inspiration for works in progress. One of those souls was Russell A. Smith, and this is his experience. Make sure to read the review of Dan Hanly, too, over here.

I was fortunate enough to have successfully applied for a sponsored place at the recent BFS writing retreat, so when Lauren (McMenemy, BFS Marketing person) asked about writing a blog post about our time there, I thought it might be nice to say thanks by saying a few words.

First off, a note that you might get a bit of a tour blog from me as well, because a few things happened along the way that were relevant. Second, if you’re skipping ahead to find out what my total word count was for the weekend, I’ll save you the trouble and give you the answer, “no idea!” And that’s okay, for reasons I’ll get into a bit later on. But let it be known that it was quite an adventure!

I set off from my base in Glasgow around 8.30am because I had a lunch appointment too, at Chocks Away Diner, itself under ten minutes from Gladstone’s Library. It wasn’t a feature of the day, but for those in the area who are into their aviation, the celebrity aircraft that is the Airbus BelugaXL (A330-743L, to be precise for the writers and aerial enthusiasts) does land there on the regular. Even when not, it’s a fine spot to go catch some lunch and have the occasional helicopter pretty directly above you. If you’re super lucky, you can even have a couple of hours like mine whereby one of the local garages were testing an old Kenworth truck up and down the complex—and not only that, I got to say hi to one of the YouTube content creators I follow, the excellent Tyrell’s Classic Workshop, who I discovered at that moment keeps his host garage on that same complex. His channel is one of my favourite things to have on while I’m writing, so it totally merits a mention here, okay? 

After I’d finished there, I checked in. Gladstone’s Library is a wonderful site. It’s a very pretty place for book lovers, has an excellent restaurant, and is a venue packed with fun history—which the site warden gave us a rundown on once the majority of us had arrived and began to settle in. Being introduced to scholarships, and the various methods in which you can donate, the library is a very worthy cause. 

It never takes longer than making your lovely choice as to what to do and when. You can either go sit at a desk in the library if that’s what you like, where you might find some quality research as well as a peaceful writing session. Or for more ready hot drinks access and the comfiest seating (which isn’t always as conducive for writing as you might think!), the Reading Room is a quality location. It was also our social hub outside dinnertime gatherings, and with better listening acoustics than the dining room as well! There’s ready access to a bar and a lovely log fire—perfect for…well, a bunch of writers who might fancy grabbing a wee dram and cosying up for a live reading session or two.

We had spoken in advance about possibly doing such readings, but I remember spending a while wondering whether I’d even have anything available for this, so this is my small confession that I was a bit of a late adopter to the plan. In the tradition of advertisement opportunities, I can tell you the nearest thing for me to reach, which also happened to be my most recent release, was a part of my Spacefunk! anthology entry, Per Ardua ad Astra. For those of you wondering where you think I got the title from is exactly where I got the title from. Having not done a reading in a little while, I took a step out of my comfort zone and read! It was only a small step, thanks to the group being a great, relaxed bunch who were also sharing their work, so a pleasant environment to be getting on to that task. And as I said, who could resist that log fire, eh?

(Pictured: Russell’s reading)

One of the fun parts of being at such a wonderfully relaxed retreat is that you can individually set your own pace for the time spent there, with no pressure or shade about it. Some came with plans to finish a particular piece of work, some decided to start them here, some worked from the moment they had their first mouthful at breakfast and some took afternoon shifts. It’s all very different, and that’s part of the fun. Same as how we could chat over our meals about what we’re working on, what we’ve been working on, our various successes and trials, and all else in between. I had personally pulled a few unrelated writing tasks into a folder, with the hope I could get to work on at least one of them in some way. I actually managed, in some capacity, to work on all of them in the end! But the beauty of that for me was that I never felt like I was racing a personal best on word counts or anything like that. With that said, the option is absolutely there if you want to; it is just a very rare thing for me to centre my retreat experience around, so long as I’m satisfied with what I’ve done by the time I’ve handed my key back in. In this case, I’ve really appreciated the space, and it will stand me in good stead for progressing with the rest.

The final thing I would say is that as lovely as the venue is, you can take some time out to do other things really easily. It’s a long, but not too long, walk to the Co-Op if you want to stock up on snacks and the like whilst getting some very fresh air on the way and waving to the vintage technology shop and several dogs you’ll pass there and back. There’s three pubs nearby, and Sunday lunch at the Glynne Arms was a particular mission of mine, in part to honour a relatively recently absent friend, but also because they do really good food. You might want to book ahead though if going over a weekend. And there is also the park over the road, which is a great walk if you need to touch grass over your stay. If you’re driving, of course, you can go a little further out and options are too numerous to mention in one post. 

Overall, I can’t recommend this retreat enough for the positive effects it’ll have on you regardless of approach. I look forward to a return visit to Gladstone’s soon enough!

The BFS Retreat will return next year; keep an eye out for application details.