A writing retreat offers you an ideal opportunity to explore the ideas and the inspirations that move you to write. You can do real work for the week or two that it lasts, revelling in the company of people who take the problems of creating compelling sentences and scenes as seriously as you do. You don’t have to explain to them why a plot problem keeps you up at night. You don’t have to explain why words are of such extraordinary importance to you. But the retreat ends, and your return to...