# Building a Powerful Novel - A Guided Retreat with Bestselling Novelists Lisa Genova and Jacquelyn Mitchard in France

Find yourself in the countryside of Occitanie, southern France, at a transformative writing retreat in the company of two novelists who between them have sold millions of books and changed the way readers think about what fiction can do.Jacquelyn Mitchard and Lisa Genova will work with you on the novel that has been living in your head. Every session will move your manuscript forward, from finding the true heart of your story to understanding how structure and plot function not as technical concerns but as emotional ones. You will leave with powerful writing tools, new insights on writing craft, and a confidence in your ability to complete your project. The week moves between one-on-one sessions and focused writing exercises that you will return to long after the retreat ends. Pitch your story directly to Jacquelyn and Lisa and walk away knowing exactly what your novel needs next.Stay at an elegant rural estate, where carefully prepared meals and an inspiring, supportive atmosphere create the perfect setting to dive into your writing process. Savor authentic French flavors, connect with your fellow writers over a glass of wine, and leave with unforgettable memories.

## Details

- **Dates:** October 1 - 8, 2026
- **Location:** Teyssode, Occitanie, France
- **Starting Price:** $9,850
- **Category:** Painting

## Program

### Building a Powerful Novel - A Guided Retreat
What does it take to turn a story that lives in your head into a novel that lives in the world? Find out in the countryside of Occitanie, southern France, writing alongside Jacquelyn Mitchard and Lisa Genova. Whether you write fiction or memoir, the week will meet you where you are and move you somewhere new.The retreat will help you find the heart of your story and understand how to build it. Jacquelyn and Lisa bring the full weight of their careers into every session, and the work they do with you is specific, direct, and focused on what your writing actually needs.The topics covered during your time with Jacquelyn and Lisa include:How to find the true heart of your story and build it with structural confidenceHow to translate lived experience into characters that feel authentic on the pageHow to create scenes that carry emotional weightHow to write dialogue that rings true, drives plot, and reveals characterHow to pitch your story with the clarity and conviction the industry demandsWhat the road from manuscript to publication (and film adaptation) actually looks like, and how to navigate it…and much more!The week takes you beyond the page too. Half-day trips to the medieval towns of Castres and Lisle-sur-Tarn feed directly into the writing work, with exercises that use place as a storytelling tool. A visit to a nearby vineyard estate marks a more celebratory turn in the week, and the retreat closes with readings, a mini-exhibition of the work produced, and a farewell dinner around the table.Your home for the week is a restored estate in the French countryside. Outside of classes, you’ll enjoy wholesome French cuisine, relax by the pool, and connect with your fellow writers in a welcoming, supportive atmosphere.Come with the story you most need to tell. Leave knowing how to tell it.

### Day 1: Arrival
Arrive at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport and join the 3:00 PM transfer to your retreat venue. After settling into your room, take a moment to unwind and absorb the tranquil surroundings. Meet your fellow artists and get acquainted with novelists Jacquelyn Mitchard and Lisa Genova, your instructors for the week. As part of an orientation tour, explore the estate’s charming garden, the historic watchtower, and inviting communal spaces. In the evening, toast to the start of your creative journey with cocktails and bite-sized canapés, followed by a delicious three-course dinner prepared by the private chef and complemented by local French wines.

### Day 2: Classes at the venue
Morning light and the aroma of fresh coffee set the tone for the day as you gather for breakfast before meeting Jacquelyn and Lisa for the opening workshop of the retreat.The morning will open with introductions that focus on building community and supporting each other. Who are you beyond writing? What hobbies or skills are a big part of your life? Jacquelyn and Lisa will also take part in this exercise, with insight into the experiences that shaped their paths as authors. Share your dreams and goals for the week and the projects you have brought with you. Why have you chosen to tell this story? Who is your audience?Discussion will then turns toward the books that shaped you. What is your favorite book? What do you love most about it? What is the book you wish you had written?From there, Jacquelyn and Lisa will guide the conversation toward the writing process itself. Start focusing on how a project begins, how momentum is sustained, and how writers continue forward when the work becomes difficult.A midday pause will brings everyone together for lunch before the afternoon work begins. Take part in dedicated 1:1 slots with Jacquelyn or Lisa, focusing on your work and your direction as a writer.Building on the morning session, turn toward the people who inhabit your pages. Explore who your characters are and how your own experiences inform them. How do you incorporate what you know about yourself and your life into the characters you create?A descriptive writing exercise will follow, centered on translating real people into compelling fictional characters. Learn to identify the traits that make characters fully realized on the page. Continue writing, engaging in a flash writing exercise that applies these ideas in practice. Share your work with the group and encourage each other!As the afternoon settles into evening, walk through the estate gardens or return to your room to recharge. Enjoy a three-course dinner prepared by the in-house chef, accompanied by a glass of fragrant wine.

### Day 3: Trip to Castres
A filling breakfast and a freshly brewed coffee wait for you as the morning opens with a short brainstorming session drawing from the previous day's writing. Return to the scenes, observations, and questions that stayed with you overnight.From there, make your way to Castres for a half-day trip into a town that has been accumulating stories for centuries. Colorful half-timbered houses cling to the edge of the River Agout, their balconies suspended above the water, remnants of a past as a thriving textile hub. The Renaissance mansions built for magistrates settling cases between Catholics and Protestants are personal statements that still decorate the city nearly four centuries later.Move through Castres with observation and imagination as your primary tools, practicing how to take in what you see and turn it directly into writing. Sit at a cafe and people-watch with purpose. Invent backstories for the people passing by, place your own characters into the scenes unfolding around you, and ask how the streets, the river, and the weight of this town's past might shape the people who inhabit it.Building on the character work you did on Day 2—where you explored who your characters are and how your personal experiences influence them—take this exploration further here. How do you incorporate what you know about yourself and your life into the characters moving through a world like this one? Use writing exercises to test those questions against what you observe.After lunch, sit down with Jacquelyn or Lisa for your individual 1:1 slot. Come with the pages that are troubling you most and use the time without hesitation.The afternoon continues the thread of observation and imagination. Through focused writing exercises, work on scene and setting as active forces in your narrative. Consider how a location shapes what your characters feel, how it can reflect or contradict their interior states, and how you can make the scene itself carry emotional weight. How does setting drive plot forward? How does it deepen or complicate the emotions your characters move through? Explore these questions in your writing, and bring what you have to the group for feedback as the afternoon draws to a close.Enjoy some well-deserved time to rest, and gather for a well-earned dinner with wine.

### Day 4: Classes at the venue
Start your day with a short brainstorming session about the previous day and a delicious breakfast.Lisa will lead the conversation toward emotional honesty in storytelling. Focus on how to engage deeply with your material and craft emotionally authentic content that lends your narrative both weight and integrity. Examine how emotional truth will shape character, dialogue, and interior monologue. Writing exercises will follow, based either on the work you will be developing during the retreat or on personal projects that feel closest to you.Consider how you might place your characters (either from your personal projects or created during the retreat) in various stories, what they want, and what could stand in their way.Midday brings everyone together for lunch and conversation about the work unfolding throughout the retreat. The afternoon opens with one-on-one slots with Jacquelyn and Lisa, creating space for focused discussion about your manuscript and your direction as a writer.Jacquelyn will guide the discussion toward understanding cause and effect in a story. All prose unfolds through a sequence of events, where one larger event leads to a series of smaller developments that shape the direction of the narrative.Place this idea into perspective through a narrative breakdown and careful diagnosis of your chosen written work. Jacquelyn and Lisa will work alongside you to troubleshoot structural challenges and identify opportunities to strengthen the narrative. Additional exercises will follow, focusing on narrative structure and encouraging you to refine the architecture of your story.Later in the day, take a refreshing break from writing. Stroll through the gardens or immerse yourself in thoughtful reflection on the ideas sparked during the workshops. As evening falls, gather around the dinner table with Jacquelyn, Lisa, and fellow writers to enjoy a delicious three-course meal crafted by the in-house chef, accompanied by a glass of fragrant wine.

### Day 5: Trip to Lisle-sur-Tarn
Over breakfast, gather your thoughts and bring the previous day's writing back into the room with a short brainstorming session.From there, make your way to Lisle-sur-Tarn for a half-day trip into one of the most storied bastide towns in the south of France. The town itself appears in Tracy Chevalier's novel "The Virgin Blue," and its streets carry the kind of layered, inhabited history that fiction is made of. The central square is one of the largest covered squares from the Middle Ages in Occitania, magnificently preserved, its facades richly decorated, and its arcades full of life.Move through it and notice how people occupy space or how a street corner can hold an entire backstory. Use the town as raw material for structure exercises guided by Jacquelyn and Lisa, working with place as a narrative tool and practicing how a setting can do the work that exposition cannot.After lunch, the afternoon turns inward. Sit down with Jacquelyn or Lisa for your individual 1:1 meetings and bring whatever needs the most attention, be it your characters or a scene that refuses to work.Reconvene for an afternoon focused on dialogue. Through specific exercises built around arguments and charged discussions, work on making your characters' traits, personalities, and emotions come alive through what they say and how they say it, without relying on description or narration to do that work for you.Push further into driving conflict and plot by dialogue alone, letting the tension between voices carry the story forward. The afternoon closes with group feedback on what you have so far.Dinner will bring the day to a close, a three-course meal accompanied by wine.

### Day 6: Trip to a French vineyard & wine tasting
Begin your morning with a wholesome breakfast, then settle in for your individual 1:1 meetings. Take advantage of this dedicated time with Jacquelyn or Lisa to speak directly about your project.Once the group comes back together, a short brainstorming session about the previous day will reconnect everyone with the ideas and discoveries that emerged during earlier writing. Revisit scenes, narrative choices, and questions that surfaced during the retreat, using the shared conversation to generate new possibilities for your work.The morning will continue with a Q & A panel led by Jacquelyn and Lisa. Take part in a wide-ranging conversation about both craft and the professional realities of publishing. Drawing on their own experience as working authors, Jacquelyn and Lisa will speak candidly about the path from manuscript to publication: how relationships with literary agents develop, what agents look for when evaluating a project, and how manuscripts are presented when they reach publishers.Jacquelyn and Lisa will also speak about the commercial life of a book once it enters production. Topics may include how cover art is approached, how publishers think about audience and positioning, and how a novel is introduced to readers through catalog copy, endorsements, and publicity. You will have the chance to explore how a manuscript can reach a broad readership while remaining faithful to the voice and story that brought it into being.Enjoy a refreshing lunch before stepping away from the venue for a leisurely half-day visit to a nearby vineyard, complete with a wine tasting. Strolling through the peaceful vines offers a gentle change of pace and a chance to soak in the beauty of the surrounding landscape.Gather once again for a delightful dinner with Jacquelyn, Lisa, and the other writers.

### Day 7: Classes at the venue
Wake up to a relaxed breakfast and a fresh cup of coffee, ready to soak up every last moment in France with pen in hand.Bring the previous day's writing back into the room with a short brainstorming session, returning to the ideas, scenes, and breakthroughs that surfaced on the page. Jacquelyn and Lisa will guide the conversation as you review the week and the progress you've made.Continue with readings where each of you will take the metaphorical "podium" to share a short excerpt of your proudest work. Receive supportive feedback from your fellow writers and celebrate your achievements!Following a delightful lunch, it is time for your individual 1:1 meetings with Jacquelyn or Lisa. Take this opportunity to ask any lingering questions!The afternoon will continue with a second round of short readings. Carry that spirit of celebration forward as you acknowledge the work completed and the momentum each of you will take back into your writing life.Dinner, accompanied by wine, will mark the retreat’s closing celebration. Around the table with Jacquelyn, Lisa, and fellow writers, you’ll share toasts and stories, honoring your creative journeys ahead.

### Day 8: Departure
After enjoying a satisfying breakfast with Jacquelyn, Lisa, and the group, it's time to bid farewell and exchange any last contact details. Prepare for your transfer to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, scheduled for 10:00 AM, with an estimated arrival time of 11:00 AM.

## Instructors

- **Jacquelyn Mitchard** - #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
- **Lisa Genova** - New York Times Bestselling Author & Neuroscientist

## Accommodation

### Historic French Estate

### Shared ensuite attic room

### Shared standard ensuite room (female only)

### Shared superior ensuite room

### Single room with shared bathroom

### Single room - adjacent bathroom

### Single standard ensuite room

### Single superior ensuite room

## Book This Retreat

Visit [https://uptrek.com/retreat/building-a-powerful-novel-retreat-bestselling-novelists-lisa-genova-jacquelyn-mitchard-france](https://uptrek.com/retreat/building-a-powerful-novel-retreat-bestselling-novelists-lisa-genova-jacquelyn-mitchard-france) to make a reservation.

*Provided by [UpTrek](https://uptrek.com)*