I recently returned from a writing retreat adventure on The Scilly Isle off the coast of Cornwall in the UK. When I was little, my dad and I used to play a game where we rearranged the cushions of the sofa into a boat and a car and a plane and a train. Getting to Scilly is the only time in my life I have done all four in one day.

While this is a rare opportunity, I had a very different writing retreat last week, once that didn’t require nearly as much planning, and cost almost nothing.

I spent a week in London writing for the cost of groceries.

Yes, you read that correctly. I paid nothing to stay there, nothing to fly there and all I had to do was buy myself food when I arrived. How did I do this?

• Trick 1: I am fortunate enough to have a friend who lives in London who happened to be traveling for a week and was looking for someone to watch her beloved cat. I have three cats and a dog, so I know well that petsitting is expensive. It was a better deal for her to give me the house to stay in than to hire a sitter. A better deal for the cat, too, who got a friend in the house while she was gone.

• Trick 2: I have a credit card that gives points for travel. I’ve had it for years and we put every expense on it we can, and then pay it straight off. As a result, I can book short hop flights to London from Berlin for nothing and without depleting my points completely.

So… how can this work for you? Yes, you may not live as close to London as I do, but I am sure you live close to a city that is different than the one you call home. And, if you’re serious about a writing retreat, you’re not going to leave the house much so it doesn’t matter very much which city you go to, as long as it is far enough from where you live that you won’t have to deal with your day-to-day responsibilities and can focus on writing.

And, if you start now, you’ll likely have enough points before long - especially if you put this into practice before the holiday season- that you can make a writing escape trip for nothing.

While here, I did zero tourist things. I set a writing goal of about 2,000 words a day, which I hit 90% of the days I was here, before switching to reading and research mode. My big treats were having dinner with a few friends in town and outings to my two favorite bookstores. (Foyle’s and Hatchard’s) If I hadn’t made those trips, my retreat would have been even cheaper!

If you need time and space to write, it’s possible to have it.

Send an email to all your friends, especially those with pets or.a lot of plants. Let them know you’d be happy to talk about staying to petsit while they travel, if scheduling works out. The fun truth? If you’re in the same country, you’ll have the same federal holidays off work, and could make a 3 or 4 day weekend into an escape for both of you. Just make sure your points don’t have blackout days that prevent you from getting that free flight.

Even though I’ve been looking forward to the novelty of writing in an inn off the coast of Cornwall for months, it may be this DIY retreat that got the most word count in for me… we’ll see how the numbers add up once I’m back home. The point is, don’t dream about having a writing retreat and then sigh, “must be nice” and give up ever having one.

You deserve time to rest, read, replenish, and write.

The world is not good about giving this time to anyone, especially in today’s constantly connected world where we never stop staring at a screen or piling items on the to-do list.

You probably need a break more than you know. It doesn’t have to be 4-star hotel to feel like a truly delicious escape.

Don’t leave your writing dreams for someday. Think of five friends who might need someone to watch their home in the next year and email them. Bonus points if they are friends you haven’t seen in ages- go a day before they leave and stay a day after they come home to catch up.

I hope this gets you thinking and planning and, most of all, closer to some solid time to write. Having that space has made a huge difference to me these last few months as I hurtle toward the finish line of this draft.

You've got this. Just. Keep. Writing.