Firm friends through their overlapping adventures in publishing, a group of high-flying female writers and editors have masterminded a next-generation writing retreat \u2013 Silk Road Slippers \u2013 in an exquisite boutique hotel on the outskirts of Marrakech. OutThere Editor at Large Zack Cahill signs up for a skills workout.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Elmore Leonard\u2019s rules for writing always struck me as both interesting and like he dashed them off after realising he\u2019d missed the deadline. \u2018Never carry dialogue with anything other than \u201csaid\u201d, Elmore opines, didactically. Another of his rules is never start a chapter with a description of the weather, so I won\u2019t begin with the welcome heat that blasts me after my short flight from a London so grim it had started to resemble Blade Runner<\/em>. We\u2019ll skim too past the traffic \u2018system\u2019 that would make a German vomit in their hat. Forty-five minutes to get out of the car park. Immobile, bumper to bumper. Men leaning on their horns, cursing phlegmily. Welcome to Marrakech, baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the trip I\u2019ve been waiting for. The ultimate writing retreat. I will think deep thoughts by a sparkling pool. I will fill notebooks with ideas to a soundtrack of lark song and the call to prayer. Come the cocktail hour, I will set up at the bar to talk of Nabokov and plot devices with people almost as wildly interesting as myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s been a long time coming. See, we like to keep things to a certain lavish standard here at OutThere, and a lot of what\u2019s on offer literarily just doesn\u2019t quite cut it. Sure, you can pay a few quid for a week at a cottage where another unpublished author will tell you to ditch your adjectives. But it\u2019s hardly the stuff writerly dreams are made of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enter Silk Road Slippers Masterclasses. Not only is the location spectacular, but the teaching, led by a team of three impeccably credentialled women all at least partly based in London, is also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alexandra Pringle has played the publishing game on hard mode and completed every level. She has edited bestsellers, Booker and Nobel prize winners, served as editor-in-chief at the mighty Bloomsbury Publishing and co-founded Virago Press. Hair in pixie crop, always in chunky sunglasses, she has the reassuring cut-glass diction of Julie Andrews, who would surely play her in the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there\u2019s Alex Von Tunzelmann. Her latest book Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History<\/em> was a book of the year in The Economist<\/em> and The New Statesman<\/em>, and she wrote the screenplay for 2017\u2019s Churchill<\/em>. She hosts a topical daily podcast with culture journalist Miranda Sawyer and has a sideline in juicy royal gossip. She also has the highest scoring Scrabble name. Finally, Faiza S Khan is a former consulting editor at Bloomsbury, now freelance. She is small and ebullient with curly black hair and an accent that makes King Charles sound like a Millwall fan. All three bring to the table, alongside creative coaching, deep practical insights into the workings of the publishing world, another aspect that sets Silk Road Slippers Masterclasses apart from other writing retreats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each masterclass features a guest \u2018star writer\u2019, and on mine this is Booker prize-winning international bestseller Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane<\/em> and Love Marriage<\/em>, who will be visiting us for an in-depth workshop and to give a reading (at time of writing, confirmed star writers for future masterclasses include Maggie O\u2019Farrell, Esther Freud and Alan Hollinghurst).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWho attends a gathering like this? The guests are mainly female, as are most literary agents and new fiction authors \u2013 and indeed most readers. Fourteen attendees. Middle-aged, well-spoken, and well-dressed. The kids are grown up and the husband has finally learned to feed and clothe himself. They\u2019re doing something, at last, entirely for themselves\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The setting is Jnane Tamsna, a traditional Moroccan<\/strong><\/a> villa turned luxury boutique hotel with five swimming pools, cool reading rooms and a sprawling, immaculate garden. You couldn\u2019t ask for a better location for a writing retreat. Which, it transpires, this isn\u2019t. \u201cIt\u2019s not a retreat,\u201d says Alexandra. \u201cThink of it as a bootcamp. You\u2019ll all be knackered. This is going to be bloody hard work.\u201d A \u2018bootcamp\u2019 then, but instead of grinding out push-ups and pounding green drinks we\u2019re refining our characters and developing our authorial voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our first night we sit around a long, candlelit dining table as the garden perfumes the cool night air. Alexandra suggests we each in turn give our names and share our favourite character from literature. I first want to say Miss Havisham, who has lived in my head rent-free in her tattered wedding dress for the last 30 years. Instead, I say Pechorin, from the Russian classic A Hero of Our Time<\/em>. Pechorin is a cowardly piece of shit who coasts through life on charm, screwing over women and generally being a bastard. Why I thought that would be better I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who attends a gathering like this? The guests are mainly female, as are most literary agents and new fiction authors \u2013 and indeed most readers. Fourteen attendees. Middle-aged, well-spoken, and well-dressed. The kids are grown up and the husband has finally learned to feed and clothe himself. They\u2019re doing something, at last, entirely for themselves. They\u2019re working on memoirs and historical fiction and murder mysteries. There are GPs and PRs. MFAs and PhDs. There\u2019s a Disney executive working on a piece of magical fiction and a non-binary Chicagoan working on a multi-character state-of-the-nation tome set in Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chicagoan, Branston, is currently a writer-in-residence at Jnane Tamsna, living here for a few months before a planned move to London. Residencies are offered to artists here, another way Jnane Tamsna weaves art and creativity into its DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there\u2019s me. I\u2019ve written two novels and three screenplays, none of which anyone\u2019s heard of, which should tell you a bit about my success. My latest novel has been getting dusty on a hard drive for a year, maybe this trip will blow the cobwebs off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a famous, probably made-up story about James Joyce. The other great Irish writer Flann O\u2019Brien found Joyce at home, prostrate over his desk, weeping after a day\u2019s writing. \u2018What\u2019s wrong, James?\u2019 says O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Seven!\u2019 Joyce wails. \u2018Seven!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Seven pages, James? That\u2019s fantastic.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018No\u2019, said James. \u2018Seven words!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you call it \u2018writer\u2019s block\u2019 or plain old procrastination, it affects all of us. One solution is \u2018morning pages\u2019. Popularised by Julia Cameron\u2019s highly influential self-help book The Artist\u2019s Way<\/em>, morning pages are a foundational part of the Silk Road Slippers programme. The team give us a prompt. Something simple like \u2018childhood memory\u2019, or maybe a picture postcard. Then we just write, without stopping, thinking or self-criticising for 15 minutes straight. The key is not to look back. If you absolutely can\u2019t think of something, just write the same word over and over till something else kicks loose. It\u2019s designed to blast through the peculiar urge all writers get to simply not write. And our morning pages are private. All other writing during the masterclass is shared and open to critique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDiscussion over, a task is set. A prompt is given along with an intimidatingly short time limit. This time you read your work to the group. The second the last word leaves your lips, Faiza, Alexandra and Alex are locked and loaded with feedback\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing is unique as a creative pursuit. We are as compelled to avoid it as we are to pursue it. Or as my idol (and Faiza\u2019s, as it turns out) Dorothy Parker once said, \u2018I hate writing. I love having written.\u2019 It\u2019s not just \u2018the tyranny of the blank page\u2019, it\u2019s the fact that while a piece exists in your head, it\u2019s perfect. But the act of pouring it on the page dilutes it. And in doing so confirms every writer\u2019s worst fear \u2013 that they are a talentless fraud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So every morning we gather by the pool as the wood fire crackles, drink sweet mint tea and write our pages. The mornings are cool in Marrakesh. You learn to layer up, then gradually disrobe as you write. Often Tha\u00efs and her affectionate dog Smoky will attend. Tha\u00efs is the daughter of Meryanne Loum-Martin and Gary Martin, Jnane Tamsna\u2019s owners. She is young and chic, a musician, with a languid manner you\u2019d expect of someone who lives here year-round. Gary dips in and out of our group too, talking proudly of the xerisphere (need no irrigation) gardens he has cultivated here and his family\u2019s vision for the place as a luxurious creative hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morning pages are followed by a couple of hours of discussion. Topics include character, creating a sense of place and most of all, developing a personal voice. These are the things that make novels sing. These are the things that get literary agents excited. The watchword is specificity. Tattoo it on your forehead. Specificity of place, character, motivation. Alexandra, Alex and Faiza hammer this into us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussion over, a task is set. A prompt is given along with an intimidatingly short time limit. This time you read your work to the group. The second the last word leaves your lips, Faiza, Alexandra and Alex are locked and loaded with feedback. They are fast, direct and specific. You realise that while good books are subjective, good writing is less so. There are right and wrong ways to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monica Ali arrives on our third day. She is friendly and unpretentious. She has an extremely likeable habit of turning your questions back on you. When you ask if she writes outlines or how she develops characters she\u2019ll give you an answer and then ask, \u201cWhat about you, how do you do it?\u201d And she\u2019s genuinely interested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She is funny but also informative. Concise yet conversational. Like good writing. My notes are a scrawl of pithy exhortations. Beware the weak protagonist. Never miss an opportunity to characterise through action. Avoid montage on the page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That evening in the bar \u2013 the ultimate writer\u2019s bar, candles, walls of books, low cosy sofas, lavish drinks menu, cocktails made with herbs from the garden \u2013 Monica reads from her second book Love Marriage<\/em>. The novelist Jane Green arrives, a glamorous riot of grey hair and earrings, and listens, rapt, with the rest of us. Monica\u2019s effortless, unfussy prose distils characters into a couple of lines of dialogue. A world you want to inhabit, constructed in a few paragraphs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are all the kids who stayed up past bedtime reading an extra chapter, and who were never without a paperback stuffed in their coat pocket in those pre-smartphone days. It\u2019s a great pleasure to be able to talk about a favourite author and discover everyone else has read them too. It leads to fast-forward bonding and is deeply inspiring\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We get a break from writing one afternoon. Lunch on a rooftop in town. One delicious dish after another brought without warning or request until plates are piled tectonically, threatening to crash to the floor. A walk in the medina. Narrow alleys, high walls to keep things cool. Vivid stacks of minerals. Pyramids of spices standing sentry at shop doors. Men crouching in low plastic chairs playing cards or joking with neighbouring vendors. Grubby cats padding between plastic chair legs. A toddler straddles a parked motorbike, legs spatchcocked, blowing raspberries, lost in unfathomable reveries. We walk single file, jumping from shadow to shadow like frogs on lily pads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I get the cab back with Patti. She lives here and is attending the course with a man about 30 years her junior who I assume is her lover. We wait at the taxi stand at a raging intersection. I guess we\u2019re about to be ripped off. But world-wise, carefree Patti gives stern directions, finger raised, and we are brought home for a reasonable fee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at Jnane Tamsna the garden is bathed in low afternoon light. Sparrows\u2019 song fills the citrus-scented air. The four-day workshop is nearly at an end. We\u2019ve all become friends, drinking lavender cocktails at the bar with Smoky offering us his belly for pats. We digest the day over drinks. Pulling apart the critiques. Talking of next steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are all the kids who stayed up past bedtime reading an extra chapter, and who were never without a paperback stuffed in their coat pocket in those pre-smartphone days. It\u2019s a great pleasure to be able to talk about a favourite author and discover everyone else has read them too. It leads to fast-forward bonding and is deeply inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My final review is with Alexandra. She\u2019s read the first 1,000 words of my novel and her advice is as surgical as ever. I took part in a well-regarded novel writing course last year that ran for three months. The hour with Alexandra is more helpful. As I write this, I am 30,000 words into a rewrite, with a clear sense of what I need to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am further along with my book than many of the others. Liz, a veteran political journalist for The Washington Post<\/em>, arrived with barely an idea. Just a character sketch of an Evelyn Waugh-ish reporter she would plunge into situations during the masterclass\u2019 writing exercises. So, anyone can do it. If you\u2019re one of those people who read the extra chapter at bedtime and kept a paperback in your coat pocket, you\u2019d be at home here. If you\u2019ve ever had the compulsion to write, even if (especially if) it was paired with the urge to avoid<\/em> writing, come to Jnane Tamsna. Do the morning pages. Have deep thoughts by the pool. Rub Smoky\u2019s belly and listen to the call to prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then\u2026 cut out the adverbs, define the characters and develop that authorial voice, he admonished, emphatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n www.silkroadslippers.com<\/strong><\/a> | www.jnanetamsna.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photography by Salaheddine el Bouaaichi and courtesy of Silk Road Slippers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Firm friends through their overlapping adventures in publishing, a group of high-flying female writers and editors have masterminded a next-generation writing retreat \u2013 Silk Road Slippers \u2013 in an exquisite boutique hotel on the outskirts of Marrakech. OutThere Editor at Large Zack Cahill signs up for a skills workout. Elmore Leonard\u2019s rules for writing always struck me as both interesting and like he dashed them off after realising he\u2019d missed the deadline. \u2018Never carry dialogue with anything other than \u201csaid\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":56544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2562,2526,4],"tags":[2474,2475,3389,3531],"class_list":["post-56533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-topography-homepage","category-tp-morocco","category-topography","tag-marrakech","tag-morocco","tag-retreats","tag-silk-road-slippers","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n