Ink Retreats
Clarity, Community, and Creative Flow for Writers Online
Take a retreat from the daily grind.
This is your opportunity to say “no” to what drains you and “yes” to your passion—writing.
Say no more—SIGN ME UP WRITE NOW
We all begin somewhere.
This may be your first draft or your very first book you’re planning to self publish.
It may be your 17th draft of your 10th book under contract with a publishing house.
It may not even matter where or how we started, but that we started.
And sometimes, writers need to know they’re not alone on their journey.
Sometimes, writers need a supportive space in which they can ask their burning questions. Where they can talk about their book without eyes glazing over. Where they feel excited about the potential of their book instead of drowning in self doubt.
Sometimes we need to break up the monotony of writing scene after scene with some fun.
Sometimes we need to break through a creative block—or five. Sometimes we just need to figure out what comes next in order to get our character (our ourselves) taking action and achieving their goals.
Book Dragon Ink was made for this.
You can find all of this inside one of our Ink Retreats.
Our accessible, online, writing retreats for people just like you, are designed to help you show up, get words on a page, and enjoy the process. Click here to find the retreat and a date that works for you.
Most book ideas start with a “what if,” but now it’s your job to write what comes next.
It’s time to take up your pen (or keyboard) and start taking the time for your manuscript that it is worth to you.
Small Groups. Big Breakthroughs. Focused Support.
“I’m a slow writer (not a bad thing!) and an even slower editor, and my current project is complex enough that a few short sprints once or twice a week, while nice, wasn’t enough.
Hours in [to our first retreat], I felt recharged, instead of let down.
With the structure we’d developed–writing sprints interspersed with moments of inspiration and learning, plus short bursts of connection-driven conversation–we got more actual writing done.”
—Sage Moreaux on our first Ink Retreat that we hosted for ourselves ❤️
If your creative well is running dry…
If your plot or characters are lacking umph, if you are feeling lonely on your writing journey, or if you simply can’t seem to keep yourself on track with your writing goals all on your lonesome...
We need you!
We need feedback to help us iron out the kinks, testimonials to help us tell others about our events, and attendance to help us remember that we’re not alone out here.
Upcoming Events
NOVEMBER
Cavern - Inaugural Event
7th - 8th
*This event is fully booked, but check back in later to see what events we’ve added!
On Friday the 7th, we will begin at 9am PST and close at 12pm PST
On Saturday the 8th, we will begin at 9am PST and close at 4pm PST
Here is a link to a time converter (or use one that you prefer) to find the times in your timezone.
This is one of our beta experiences, so all feedback is welcome (and desired), and available spaces will be very limited so that we can maintain an intimate atmosphere.
RSVP Here to Save Your Seat!
December
Cavern - (There’s still space!)
5th - 6th
On Friday the 5th, we will begin at 9am PST and close at 12pm PST
On Saturday the 6th, we will begin at 9am PST and close at 3pm PST
Here is a link to a time converter (or use one that you prefer) to find the times in your timezone.
This is one of our beta experiences, so all feedback is welcome (and desired), and available spaces will be very limited so that we can maitain an intimate atmosphere.
RSVP Here to Save Your Seat!
The Cavern
Day 1:
We host a 3-hour session to get you and your manuscript prepared for the following day so that you don't get stuck in the weeds.
This includes 2 mini workshops from Sage and Katherine created to do two or more of the following: help you identify areas of your book to work on, create a clear plan for your writing the following day and beyond, figure out how to talk clearly about your book with others (no more glazed over eyes when you tell people what you’re up to), help yourself understand where the book starts and where it ends, and make friends with your inner critic.
This is where we will introduce you to your fellow retreat attendees, so if you want to chat, come ready to introduce yourself and your manuscript!
Finally—permission to put your manuscript first for a whole day.
One and a half days of complete support and community to help you find clarity on your next steps and take action so that you end your day satisfied about where you are in your manuscript.
Get what you need all in one place: community, coaching, and creative flow.
Day 2:
This 7-hour day is full of inspiration, accountability, and most importantly, writing.
While your bum is not required to be in a seat, this is the day where we will help you kindle your motivation fire and stay obsessed with your story.
You will have access to book coaches for all of your burning questions—from brainstorming plot hole fillers to implementing revisions—and for accountability should you want it.
We will also host a creative-block-busting game to bring back some creativity during the time of day when it often wanes for most of us. This has been helpful for reconnecting writers with their stories, figuring out a good plot twist, and developing a new character for readers to fall in love with.
Currently scheduled Cavern retreats:
November 7th-8th - *FULL*
Friday the 7th: 9am - 12pm PST
Saturday the 8th: 9am - 3pm PST
Link to time converter
December 5th-6th
Friday the 5th: 9am - 12pm PST
Saturday the 6th: 9am - 3pm PST
Link to time converter
-
We have several retreat formats we are offering. The Cavern is our 1.5 day event.
The Forge is our half-day session, included with The Cavern retreat.
We chose this name to symbolize the feeling we want writers to embody for this part of their writing journey. Together we are stepping into a creative space of discovery and progress.
-
The Forge is our half-day (3 hour) session designed to help writers prepare themselves, and their manuscript, for the following day of writing.
-
Aww, we’re sorry to miss you this time! But please, keep checking back with us because we will have more dates in 2026 coming up very soon!
Sign up for our newsletter, Letters from the Lair, and our Ink Retreats waitlist to get updates as soon as we share them!
-
You will receive a confirmation email in your inbox (check your spam or promotions tab if you don’t see it immediately)—please confirm, add us to your approved email list, and await our next email.
You get a link when you sign up and in your inbox to fill out a Google form. This is CRITICAL. Please fill it out, then sit back and await our emails in your inbox.
We will be sending out information such as “how to be prepared” via email.
-
Event information, links, and other details will be sent to your inbox.
However, they will also be available in the Vault.
We highly recommend checking out the Vault before your event and keeping it open during your retreat for easy access to all of the goods we have in there for you!
The Vault is your event dashboard. We open it for a couple of days leading up to the retreat, and during the retreat, but it will close by the end of day after the event ends.Inside you will find direct links to our Zoom room for the day, information and details regarding your specific event, and other resources we want to share with you.
-
Awesome! Click this link to go straight to our more in-depth Ink Retreats FAQs in case your question has already been answered.
However, if you don’t see the information you’re looking for, please reach out to us. Follow this link to our contact form to get your questions answered directly from one of the Book Dragons.
What's included at our Ink Retreats?
Intention-setting exercise
Inner-critic taming tips
Accountability check-ins to keep you on target and/or adapting to your manuscript's needs
Book-coach access for advice as-needed
Story Seed game to invigorate creativity
Dedicated, structured, writing time for getting your words on the page
Breaks - both silent and chatty options are available
Permission to say "no" to anything other than writing
RSVP Here!
Settle into your favorite cozy spot at home, at a BnB, or wherever suits your creativity best, and join us for an elevated writing experience.
We will gather online for structured writing sprints, creative break-times, optional book coaching, and community connection with your fellow Inkwrights.
Be ready to write your heart out; however, we care more about you making progress on your manuscript than about what draft you're on, where you begin the day when you arrive, or where you finish at the end the day.
What you need to work on is whatever serves your story best. First draft, revisions, world-building, plotting, brainstorming—all counts as progress on your manuscript.
Whilst Book Dragon Ink is oriented towards fantasy, we are not a fantasy exclusive retreat. If our vibe, coaches, and additional activities sound like a fit for you, then please join us! All genres are welcome.
The coaches on board for these first two events, Sage Moreaux and Katherine Suzette, specialize in early drafts, revisions, and character driven plots, so bring your manuscript, and your questions to get help as you need it, and make the progress you've been dreaming of.
At just the right moment, Zinzi Bree will lead an optional Story Seed game for those who need a break, are experiencing creative block, or who are lost in their story and need some inspiration to help them reconnect with their story.
We need you!
We need feedback to help us iron out the kinks, testimonials to help us tell others about our events, and attendance to help us remember that we’re not alone out here.
How do we know what you need?
Book Dragon Ink is founded by writers who are also professionals in the editing + publishing industry. We simply figured out what WE needed, tried it out on our community, then grew and revised our process into something truly marvelous.
YOU are the cornerstone that we have built ourselves around.
To learn more about your hosts and founders, follow this link.
We’re pretty convinced that at least a few of these things will apply to you:
You are writing a book or have a clear idea for a book and need an excuse to start it
You want others to take your book seriously
You are ready to take yourself, and your manuscript, seriously
You write on and off—when inspiration strikes in the middle of the night or alongside your morning coffee—but never seem to make substantial progress
You feel guilty when you take time away from “life” to write
You just need a reasonable excuse to say “no” to distractions and “yes” to your book
You might be working on your first draft of your twentieth book, or first short story draft ever, or even revisions for he third book in your series
Same! We (Sage, Zinzi, and Katherine—AKA, the Book Dragons) all realized in 2024 that in order for us to write more, we needed to give ourselves permission to ignore other tasks and responsibilities for a time, or the book would never be written.
An hour a day just wasn’t cutting it. We would spend half that time just getting started, then be off to “life.” That didn’t make those hours less valuable, but we couldn’t keep our minds in our stories long enough to make truly transformational progress.
By early 2025, we were designing online writing retreats just for ourselves.
Our key desires were to:
Save money on editorial and coaching support
Stay in our personal creative zones (at home)
Have time to chat and give our brains, and bodies, timely breaks
Be able to claim what felt like a legitimate excuse in order to not see to distracting “life” tasks during our sacred writing time
Find our flow and stay in the zone, if not completely obsessed for a whole day - or two
Write, write, write…
Those desires boiled down to:
Accessibile
Affordable
Fun
Motivating
Professional advice on-demand
So here we are, all of the above, and striving to be what we needed, but for you.
Access these retreats from your at-home writing lair, or, take a step further and attend the retreat from your favorite sanctuary at a hotel, BnB, or even local library.
And you’re helping Book Dragon Ink build a community that will support writers just like you for years to come!
Choose your retreat dates here!
“I was mentally energized and excited about my book that evening. It was a long day—but satisfying.
Before committing myself to a retreat with Sage, I wasn’t sure I’d ever make enough time to make real progress on my book. Most of the one-hour sprints I join are just enough for me to get stuck in a research loop.
Our first retreat changed that for me. I saw substantial progress in my book and I finally felt like a real writer.”
—Katherine Suzette on our first Ink Retreat that we hosted for ourselves ❤️
Nitty-gritty details:
All updates, information, and links will be sent out via email!
Once you sign up, go find our welcome email from dragons@bookdragonink (check spam if you don't see it pretty quickly) and save it to your approved contact list.
We will send a form that you MUST fill out to guarantee your spot.
You must be 18 or older to attend.
You will need: reliable internet, a Zoom-capable device (computer, tablet), and whatever you use to write (laptop, Word/other writing program, etc.).
All times listed are PST / PDT unless otherwise noted. Here is a link to a time converter for you to find the time of our events in your preferred time zone.
You do not have to be writing fantasy to join our retreats or to join in the mini-workshops or activities.
The half-day session (also called “The Forge”) is 3 hours and Cavern days are 7 hours of structured time (with breaks!), designed to give you focused writing without burnout.
Whilst we would love to have you for the full experience, life happens—we get it. If you need to leave and come back, or leave early, just send us a private message to let us know all is well, then do what you need to do.
However, access to all vault content will be restricted from all participants at the end of the event regardless of whether you were present for the whole event or only part of it.
What happens in the lair, stays in the lair. Unless we get explicit permission to record for our own training purposes, there will be no recordings. Participants are not allowed to record any portion of the event for any reason. Bottom line: you are safe here to write, share, and grow.
We may ask to take a group photo for our social media, but you are welcome to opt out. No photos or screenshots taken by participants may be taken, used, or shared publicly.
We do not offer refunds, however in relevant circumstances may be able to devise an agreeable solution to participants. Please read our policy regarding refunds and returns at this link.
Ink Retreat FAQs
-
No. All resources located in the Vault (your event dashboard) will be unavailable when the Vault is locked again.
Some resources will be sent via email before the event and we welcome you to use those for your own writing processes; however they cannot be shared, duplicated, or otherwise misused. See our Terms and Conditions for further information.
-
What a thoughtful gift!
Contact us through this form or by using the email dragons@bookdragonink.com and we'll set up a gift registration.
-
Absolutely! Our community celebrates writers at every stage—whether this is your first manuscript or your twentieth. We're here to support your story, wherever you are in the journey.
If you’re a quirky human, please join us! We love our fellow oddballs. -
Nope. Progress looks different for everyone. Whether you write 5,000 words or spend the day solving a plot problem—both count. We're here to support your story, not judge your output.
-
Yes! As long as you have solid internet, you can join from home, a hotel, a coffee shop, anywhere that works for your writing.
-
Zinzi's signature creative exercise using a game designed by Story Engine Deck. She uses it to help participants break through creative blocks and spark unexpected inspiration. Writers consistently report breakthrough moments—it's one of our favorite parts!
-
Yes! Our coaches and developmental editors are available throughout the day for one-on-one support. Plus, our intentionally small size means you're never just another face in the crowd.
If you have a question already, that you know you want to ask our editor-on-call for your retreat, please fill out the form you will receive via email after registration. This not only confirms your participation, but there is a space for you to ask your question so that we can be sure to answer it for you!
-
That's exactly what we're here for! Access our coaches during the retreat, try Zinzi's Story Seed game for creative breakthroughs, or chat with fellow writers who might have fresh perspectives.
-
Not at all.
We create space for connection, but you control your level of engagement. Many introverted writers love the parallel writing experience—together but focused on individual work.
-
Check out our Ink Retreats Prep Guide and Packing List sent to your email after registration, or find it in the Vault, after you sign up—we cover everything from physical space setup to mental preparation.
-
Please do! Keep snacks and drinks nearby. We build in breaks, and you're always welcome to step away briefly if you need to.
We need you!
We need feedback to help us iron out the kinks, testimonials to help us tell others about our events, and attendance to help us remember that we’re not alone out here.
Book Dragon Ink
We believe in magic. We believe in dragons. We believe in you.
Book Dragon Banter PODCAST
© copyright 2025 Book Dragon Ink (Sage Moreaux, Zinzi Bree, Katherine Suzette). All Rights Reserved.