Wellspring House is a writing retreat located in remote Ashfield, MA, a quiet town out by the Berkshires with no cell phone reception. It was the perfect spot to spend a week unplugged and focused on radically revising my Thoreau-inspired coming-of-age novel last autumn. I’ve been telling everyone since that I’m pretty sure there’s a spell of productivity cast over this house.
Part of the charm of Wellspring House is its simplicity. There’s truly very little to distract you. I stayed in the Wheatley Room (named after Phillis Wheatley), which had a basic yet comfy bed, a desk, reading chair, and a dresser. The other rooms housed fellow writers, as well as two Writers-in-Residence and the house’s Director. Most hours were quiet, nearly silent, everyone plugging away on their individual projects.
The house’s kitchen was the main shared hub of activity to grab meals, coffee, and chat with fellow writers, who often (like me) had a glazed look of someone spending hours in another world of writing. One night, we had group reading in the living room.
Each morning, before hunkering down at my desk for the day, I went out for a walk around Ashfield. I rarely encountered anyone, often having Ashfield Lake—its little beach and its park—all to myself. Sometimes I’d walk by Ashfield Town Hall and the churches, and a couple times I walked around the cemetery. Peaceful, if not a bit Twilight Zone-y.
In one week at Wellspring House, I wrote/re-wrote 190 pages, well exceeding my original goal of ~20 pages a day. For such a short span of time, I worked out so many plot and character issues and learned a lot about myself as a writer and about my creative process.
I’d absolutely recommend Wellspring House to anyone looking for time, space, and solitude to focus on a writing project.
On my last day I treated myself to a tasty breakfast at Elmer’s Store, a main restaurant in Ashfield, where I encountered more people than I had seen all week long. Back to society!