What Makes Jess Lourey Retreats Different?

According to a study conducted by the Jenkins Group, 81 percent of Americans believe they have a book in them. That’s over 70 million people who want to write a great book but aren’t sure how. My retreats are unique because they walk women through the process of transforming what you already know—your life experiences—into a powerful novel, self-help book, short story, or memoir.

I call this process rewriting your life.

Rewriting your life is personally transformative but also—if you decide to publish—the key to creating writing that resonates with readers. It's absolutely why my books have sold over 400,000 copies in the last four years.

I’m not the first writer to discover the magic of turning your life into story. In fact, I'd argue most—if not all—successful writers do it.

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield is his public grappling with some of his more haunting childhood experiences. Nora Ephron’s first published novel, Heartburn, is a sharply-funny fictionalized account of Ephron’s own marriage to Carl Bernstein. In addition to being a bestseller, her screenplay of the book was turned into a box-office hit starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

Isabel Allende was the first writer to hold me inside of a sentence, rapt and wondrous. It’s no surprise that her most transformative writing springs from personal revelations. Allende’s books have sold over 56 million copies, been translated into over 30 languages, and made into successful plays and movies. Such is the power of mining your deep.

And don’t get me started on all the wonderful memoirists and self-help writers who pull directly from their own hard-won life lessons to write books that heal themselves and others.

So, my writing retreats have all the wonderful food, relaxation, exploration, and instruction you'd expect (I was a writing professor for 22 years, after all), but they've got a secret sauce woven throughout: all the workshops are geared to accommodate and strengthen your voice, your experiences, your skills, and your goals.

Whether you have a vague desire to be more creative, a specific idea for a book, or a partial or complete draft, you'll be gently directed to the heart of the story you were born to write. It's from that uniquely powerful spot that you'll then be shown how to create or tighten characters, setting, and structure.

For those who would like their writing to reach a larger audience (as well as those who are simply curious), there will also be a workshop that covers the various paths to publication. Finally, in addition to the writing and publishing workshops, there will be a session covering how to bring all the creative juiciness of the retreat back home into your regular life.

On top of that, there’s friendship and laughter, a shopping excursion to the breathtaking medieval village of Montepulciano, a wine tasting at the famed Fattoria dei Barbi winery, a truffle hunting tour, and all sorts of downtime to relax, daydream, write, nap, or hang out by the pool or on your patio overlooking the gorgeous Tuscan countryside.

If you join Allison and me in Tuscany this September, I guarantee you’re going to surprise yourself with what you create on paper, inside yourself, and in the world, whether you’re writing humor, fantasy, memoir, romance, self-help, or anything in between.

So come on. Pack what you need. We’re in this together.

p.s. As of 12/21, there are four spots left on the Italy retreat. It’s filling fast!