In January 2025, I had the pleasure of hosting a vibrant group of writers at my Open Beach House, held during my annual Island Time writing retreat. This Special Event provided the perfect chance to introduce attendees to the retreat space with a virtual tour of stunning Waiheke Island.

Following the tour, we jumped right into a workshop on how to simulate your own retreat mindset for pleasurable writing. What would the ideal writing retreat look like for you? What are the ideal elements of that retreat? How can we bring those elements into our daily writing routines?

Here is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ personal account of the live event:

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This wonderful event invited participants on a shared adventure into the joy of writing and how to simulate your own perfect retreat-like conditions for productive and, most importantly, pleasurable writing.

Helen began the session with introductions and then launched straight into a creative exercise. This session perfectly resonated with the spirit of the Pleasure Catalyst, as the exercise centred on designing a pleasurable writing retreat. Helen encouraged us to measure our retreat ideas against her SPACE model—that is, a space that’s Socially balanced, Physically engaging, Aesthetically nourishing, Creatively challenging, and Emotionally uplifting.

In my mind, Waiheke Island is a retreat venue that attunes to all of these five aspects. Waiheke, tucked away in the Hauraki Gulf of Aotearoa New Zealand, is a laid-back paradise with its serene bays, lush vineyards, scenic bushwalks. I was lucky enough to attend Island Time this year and meet all the kind and interesting writers who came along. For me, Helen’s workshop highlighted the importance of bringing elements from the Island Time retreat into my own daily writing space.

Our vineyard lunch at Island Time 2025

I encourage you to try Helen’s interactive Retreating at Home workshop, which will challenge you to compare the SPACE of your ideal retreat to the SPACE of your everyday writing life.

A big thank you to Helen for this inspiring special event, and warm wishes to all the writers who joined us. I hope to see you all again at the next Live Writing Studio or Special Event!

WriteSPACE and WS Studio members can find the recording of the Special Event in their Video library.  

Not a member? Register to receive an email with a link to the video.

Better yet! Join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources as part of your membership plan.

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In celebration of the 4th anniversary of the WriteSPACE, we have been savoring the joys and pleasures of notebooks. Recently, I was honored to be featured in Jillian Hess’ exceptional Substack Noted. We spoke about all kinds of notetaking practices and notebooks, from diaries to process notes, post-it notes to color-infused spreadsheets.

Below I’ve reproduced Jillian Hess’ wonderful newsletter post about our conversation. Enjoy!

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Helen Sword’s Pleasurable Notes

“Containers for chaos”

Among the many joys of writing this newsletter is getting to meet some of my writing-heroes—not least among them, the great Helen Sword. It is not an understatement to say that Helen taught me how to write academic prose through her books such as Stylish Academic Writing, Air & Light & Time & Space, The Writer’s Diet, and most recently, Writing with Pleasure.

Writing with Pleasure helped me understand why I love note-taking so much: it makes writing pleasurable. In fact, for this book Helen asked nearly 600 academics to describe pleasurable writing experiences. 60% of the responses included “writing experiences that involved some form of writing by hand.”1

Helen is also a wildly creative note-taker. So, pick up your pen and join me on an exploration of Helen’s methods. I hope they add a bit more pleasure to your note-taking practice—they certainly have for me!

Helen’s Life Notes

We began our conversation with Helen’s life-long diary habit. Here she shares a selection of diaries.

Helen’s Diaries

Notice how the diary open at the far right of the above image begins “Part II” — this is because a teenage Helen tore out all the diary entries from 13-14 years old, explaining:

Today I ripped out and threw away the first section of my diary from basically the age of 13-14. I feel that my entries during that time did not really express my actual feelings, and thus sounded corny and immature. So I have gotten rid of them and to hell with posterity!

In a diary entry from her mid-twenties, as Helen developed into the literary critic and writer that she is today, she casts a critical eye on her diary practice, explaining,

I realize and have long realized that my pleasure in diary writing is threefold, at least. First, it helps me crystallize my thoughts, clarify my positions, and as a side benefit, hone my writing skills. Secondly, it provides a written record of thoughts, attitudes and experiences that I can (and do) look back on with pleasure…

And then, a young Helen wonders about the third utility of these journals: leaving a record after her death. In lines that recall the Brontës, she writes,

Some great-grandchild will find this book at the back of the closet. And I will, at least as a pale apparition, come briefly to life.

But when she became a mother, Helen explains, her diaries became boring as she self-censored, realizing that she didn’t want one of her children to accidentally pick up a journal and read about themselves.

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Helen’s Process Notes

For the last fifteen years, Helen has carried around small notebooks wherever she goes. These “process notes,” she explains,

…are just me thinking all the time.

Helen’s Process Notes

Her process notes record raw ideas, to-do lists, and diagrams that help Helen think through ideas. She hasn’t indexed them but she does go back through them. If there are ideas or quotations she’d like to capture, she records them in the next notebook or on a digital file. She’ll also cross out things she’s already done.

Helen explains that she struggles with “neat notebooks” because she’s always drafting and editing and changing ideas as she goes along. After all, the notebook is not her finished product; she keeps them in service to her teaching and published books.

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Helen’s Purposeful Notes

Then, there are notes Helen keeps for particular ends. Each records a different note-taking practice, so I’ve added numbers to Helen’s picture. The descriptions below correspond with each numbered notebook.

Helen’s “Purposeful Notes”

One of Helen’s teen commonplace books, recording lyrics from favorite songs.

1. Helen’s contribution to the September Commonplace Book Club. She picked a tarot card everyday, found a quote to match it, and then wrote a reflection.

2. Helen’s attempt at morning pages. As she explains, she unwittingly picked a very large notebook for a practice that requires three pages of writing every day.

3. Helen’s gardening journal.

4. “Memories and Dreams”: A commonplace book filled entirely with Helen’s original poetry

5. A dream journal from Helen’s early 20s. Rereading this journal, Helen says, is like encountering “a foreign self.”

6. The Email Trail, which is Helen’s game for making email more enjoyable by turning it into a coloring exercise. She charts different aspects of her email exchanges. For example: How many people did each message go to? What was the gender of each person? Did Helen reply or delete the email?

7. Helen’s original teen poetry against an illustrated background.

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Helen’s Book Notes

Helen has been writing books since the mid 1990s.

Helen’s book notes

1. Academic Research

Helen’s first books were academic (Ghostwriting Modernism and Engendering Inspiration). At this time, she kept notes on a yellow legal pad as she did research in the British Library. (Back when it was housed in the British Museum and there was actually a “pornography room” where scholars went to read books like D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.)

2. Color as an Organizing Principle

For her books on writing, Helen used an entirely different method of data collection.

I asked Helen to share one of her spreadsheets for Stylish Academic Writing—it’s the book that first made me fall in love with her writing. Here, she analyzes over 1,000 peer-reviewed articles across several disciplines to discover the styles that work. In the following spreadsheet, she tracks examples of jargon, abstractions, titles, and “show and tell.” She explains:

The top section shows which authors and topics actually ended up in the book, while the bottom section lists possible alternates.

Helen’s spreadsheet for Stylish Academic Writing

Looking at this spreadsheet, you will not be surprised to learn that color is one of her “key organizing principles.”

As she worked on her most recent book, Writing With Pleasure, she realized just how valuable color can be as an organizing principle. She explains,

…color and writing by hand in notebooks and all of those things are actually really important and valuable forms of thinking and of organizing knowledge. I think it’s really easy to get acculturated into thinking that color is frou-frou. It’s not serious; serious scholarship is black and white print. And so over the years, but especially with that book [Writing with Pleasure], I just went back and said, no, color is good, because it actually helps me think.

For a look at how Helen uses color in her Scrivener, watch her conversation with Margy Thomas on Secrets of Structure.

Screenshot from Helen’s conversation with Margy

3. “Containers for Chaos”

To visualize the structure of Writing with Pleasure, Helen created post-it notes for each section of the book (chapters and chapter sections). Then she recorded each section’s main point followed by its supporting evidence.

With these post-it notes, she was able to play with the book’s structure and move parts around. Along the way Helen also wrote a haiku for each chapter as a way to further crystalize her ideas.

Helen’s post-it notes for organising Writing with Pleasure

Helen describes her Scrivener files, these post-it notes, and her haikus as “containers for chaos”—ways to reign in the messy components that she will ultimately wrangle into a finished book.

As Helen explains:

I’m a paradox of a really messy mind that is also very structural.

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Helen’s Handmade Notebooks

Given that color is so important to Helen, it makes sense that she also creates her own colorful art in the form of collages. She uses these collages in her newsletter and WriteSPACE courses, and to decorate her notebooks.

Helen’s handmade notebooks

When we met last May in Brooklyn, Helen gifted me with one of her handmade notebooks and it remains one of my most prized possessions. There’s no gift quite like a handmade gift.

The notebook Helen made for me!

Notes on Helen’s Notes:

Master your Notebook Envy: In our conversation, Helen echoed a comment I hear frequently from readers. Sometimes we look at other people’s notes and wish we could take notes that are as beautiful, organized, tidy, [insert your own adjective here].... I certainly feel this way sometimes! Then, I remind myself that we all think differently, so we all need different kinds of notes. Noted would be very boring if all notetakers were the same!

Experiment with different note-taking methods: Get to know your own mind and the way you think through ideas by playing with different note-taking techniques. Some will work for you. Most won’t. Just remember to stay flexible, and allow your note-taking methods to evolve with new projects as Helen’s have.

Discover your own organizing principle: Helen uses color to organize her notes. I love color, but it doesn’t really work for me as an organizing principle. I find grouping notes under keywords much more useful. I’m also a big fan of diagrams with color added in for fun, not for organizational purposes. What are your organizing principles?

WriteSPACE and WS Studio members can find the recording of Helen’s full conversation with Jillian in their Video library.  

Not a member? Join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources as part of your membership plan.

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In February 2024, I welcomed a group of enthusiastic writers to my free Open Beach House at Island Time.

This WriteSPACE Special Event offered a wonderful opportunity for me to show everyone around my Island Time retreat venue and take them on a virtual walk across beautiful Waiheke Island.

From there, we dove straight into a truncated 60-minute Live Writing Studio session so that participants could experience this core feature of the WriteSPACE Studio.

Here is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ personal account of the live event:

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This special event was far from a typical Live Writing Studio. Not only did it celebrate the 3rd birthday of the WriteSPACE, but it also prompted a collective journey into the realm of joyful writing through a metaphorical tour of Helen’s Island Time retreat venue: Waiheke Island. Waiheke is a special place, nestled in the Hauraki Gulf of Aotearoa New Zealand. You could call it a kind of casual paradise, full of unassuming charm, peaceful bays, vineyards and bushwalks, with independent shops and friendly locals. And it has a dear place in my heart, as it was where I was born and raised.

Our journey in the writing studio began with warm introductions and swiftly segued into a creative exercise. This event aligned very well with the Pleasure Catalyst, and for our creative writing warm-up, we turned to the themes of journeys and writing with pleasure.

You can try this exercise too, either by watching our interactive Island Time video or following the prompts below.

1) Imagine you have arrived on Waiheke Island. You have your hiking boots laced tight and can’t wait to discover the island. Your first stop is Rocky Bay. Located in a more remote part of the island, the bays here are pebbled and rough. But they are a great place to launch a sailboat or kayak.
Where are you starting from on your journey across the island? What does your Rocky Bay of writing look like and feel like right now? (3 minutes to write)

2) Next you embark upon a walk through the Nikau palm bush in Whakenewha Regional Park. The light filters through the canopy, the waterfall trickles in the distance, the tui birds chirp overhead.
Walk silently along the Nikau Track. What are some of the sensory details you notice when you clear your mind and focus on your surroundings? (3 minutes to write)

3) The bush path begins to rise steeply, it brings up your heart rate!
What challenges do you face in your current writing practice that you would like to overcome? (3 minutes to write)

4) You come upon a cool, clear cascade of water flowing from a spring at the heart of the island. What song does it sing to you? What music flows from your heart onto the page? (3 minutes to write)

5) Travelling from your bushwalk, you arrive at a vineyard at the top of the island. What sustenance do you need to fuel you on the rest of your journey? Who will accompany you on your way? (3 minutes to write)

6) Refueled and refreshed, you head down the track on the other side of the island.
What do you hope to find there? (3 minutes to write)

7) You’ve arrived at beautiful Onetangi Beach. Immerse yourself in the blue-green waters of the Hauraki Gulf. What does that cleansing, clarifying ocean swim symbolize for you? (3 minutes to write)

8) Your final destination: a little place called Epiphany Point. Reflect on where your journey across the island has taken you and how it has transformed you. What have you discovered or shed along the way? (3 minutes to write)

In the second half of the studio session, Helen guided the WINDOWS session (Writers IN Discussion with Other WriterS). The WINDOWS sessions are usually 2-3 people in breakout rooms, sharing ideas and editing each other’s work sentence by sentence. (If this sounds like a bit of you, I hope to see you there at the next session!) Those writers who wanted some independent writing time joined me for a 25-minute timed Pomodoro sprint.

In our normal fashion, we concluded this wonderful event with a collaborative poem, with each participant choosing one word to sum up something we had discussed or thought about during the session. Here are the poems from our two sessions:

Puzzle

palm tree dictators
motivated guinea pig
bird re-treat
cliff bonfire
olives canopy
boat notebook

Island

black rock glimmering
journey glade
stairs downhill
pohutukawa

A big thank you to Helen for this informative and inspiring special event and a warm welcome to all the new writers who joined us. I hope to see you all again at the next Live Writing Studio or Special Event!

If you would like to know more about the WriteSPACE or WS Studio, we would love to hear from you!

A recording of thisWriteSPACE Special Event is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters. WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $135/year).

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In July 2023, I welcomed a group of enthusiastic writers to my free Open Writing Studio.

This WriteSPACE Special Event offered a wonderful opportunity for me to show them around my new WriteSPACE membership area, where members of my premium WriteSPACE Studio membership tier can access a variety of resources to support them in their writing practice.

From there, we dove straight into a 90-minute Live Writing Studio session so that participants could experience this core feature of the WriteSPACE Studio.

Here is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ personal account of the live event:

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Not only was this special event an in-depth tour of the new website and member’s Studio pages (Hurray! I love the new layout), it was also a generative, interactive Live Writing Studio (LWS) session.

I come to the LWS to find a sense of community with other writers, to be challenged by Helen in some creative wordplay experiments, and to gain perceptive feedback from others on my writing. In fact, even if it’s not about my own writing, I still learn from the feedback of others. I’m always coming away from these events with a new vision for my work or myself as a writer. Being part of a writing community motivates me and keeps me accountable to my writing.

For other WriteSPACE Studio members, these sessions are about:

• Connecting with others across different countries and disciplines — From Spain to Australia! From education to engineering!

• Sharing in a “spiritual, uplifting group that keeps you going … and keeps you responsible.”

• Making yourself a bit vulnerable by showing your writing in a constructive, encouraging space.

• Putting fingers-to-keyboard to finally write that book proposal you have been mulling over.

• Seeing yourself as “a writer practising a craft rather than just a PhD student pushing out a thesis!”

We began the writing studio with some quick introductions before diving into a creative warm-up together (inspired by NZ poet Glenn Colquhoun’s An Explanation of Poetry for my Father). Why not try it yourself?

1. Choose a word (for example, STUDIO)

2. Write each letter on a different line in your notebook.

3. For each letter, write one line of poetry that describes what that letter looks like.

Here’s a compilation of some of the beautiful lines produced by our LWS writers:

S is the shape of a swirl when it’s not done…yet

T is a power pose beforehand, and maybe after!

U is a canopy shielding from the rain or an unprompted grin

D is a bridge of words and connections

I is that very first mark on the page

O is for open mouths and minds

After our warm-up, we were ready for a timed writing sprint, with each one of us working independently in a shared digital workspace.

Then, in the second half of the studio session, Helen guided the WINDOWS session (Writers IN Discussion with Other WriterS). The WINDOWS sessions are usually 2-3 people in breakout rooms, sharing ideas and editing each other’s work sentence by sentence. (If this sounds like a bit of you, I hope to see you there at the next session!) This time, we all stayed together in the main room, where a few brave writers shared a drafted paragraph and received Helen’s expert coaching feedback, as well as insights and advice from other participants.

We ended this wonderful event with a collaborative poem, with each participant choosing one word to sum up something we had discussed or thought about during the session.

Here are our two rather enigmatic poems:

• Miss Rizos: spine diving, light spark, normalize, beggars, closed pictures, celebrating curls

• Crossroads: springboard courage, accordion trampoline, lurking, exhale, champagne heat, soulful barking

A big thank you to Helen for this informative and inspiring special event and a warm welcome to all the new writers who joined us. I hope to see you all again in the 6-week Live Writing Studio “Creativity Sequence” starting in early September. Until soon!

If you would like to know more about the WriteSPACE or WS Studio, we would love to hear from you!

A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).

WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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