I'm doing Inkhaven
Inkhaven is a month-long writing retreat in Berkeley, California. It runs for a month; residents have to publish 500+ words a day or they get evicted. A bit like Big Brother but for blogging, I guess.
They ran their first batch in November and it seemed to be a resounding success. The next one is coming up in April; a friend encouraged me to apply and I got a place. After a lot of hemming and hawing (is it worth the price? do I care that much about writing? is it just going to be a stressful nightmare?) I pulled the trigger this week.
I figured I was already planning a trip to the Bay anyway, to spend some time around me-shaped weirdos and absorb the local memeplex or something. The counterfactual cost isn’t so large. So why not add some structure to it?
For my friend Hauke who was in the first batch, Inkhaven made total sense. He’s an independent researcher; he lives and dies by his written output. Building his personal brand as a public intellectual is obviously important. So being in a supportive environment where he was pushed to do that and was around other people doing the same thing, as well as a bunch of famous bloggers to help workshop his writing, was robustly good.
For me, it’s not so clear. I mean, I always have “write more” as one of my goals for any given year, with varying degrees of success. (My annual goals tend to be pretty boring and nebulous though.) I enjoy writing, people commenting on and interacting with my blog, having a body of work out there for people to explore. I’m not sure any of it is really all that insightful or will stand the test of time, though I would like it to be both. I’m not even really sure what I want from writing, other than a creative outlet. Perhaps that’s enough.
I’m trying not to be so literal. Maybe it’s a brilliant networking opportunity in disguise. Or a chance to meet some amazing people, and new friends. Maybe it’s co-regulation as a mental health intervention disguised as a place where you write blog posts. Maybe it’s just a fun way to see the Bay with a bit more structure than ‘I sofa surfed and ate tacos.’ Maybe it’ll show me something I’m missing: “spending thirty days with >50 people on a single campus is not an experience most people get to have after their undergraduate studies.”
Insofar as writing is a tool for clarifying your thinking, maybe I’ll come out with some clarity about what I think.
And regardless, the reviews were pretty glowing. I’m excited to attend.
“What a terribly wonderful month. I loved it all and never wanted it to end.” —Jenn