A much-needed retreat for budding writers

When I arrived in Campeche, I came to Jon as a published journalist with a proven ability to string words together for an audience. But writing for myself, to communicate bigger ideas, remained excruciating. The stories I wrote fell short of their potential and I struggled to find a process that compelled me to write better.

One afternoon, with all thirty pages of my drafting, splayed out in front of us, Jon began to teach me to be my own editor. I learned to take space from my writing and read it more critically. Together, Jon and I would review each sentence I wrote for not just its word choice and grammar but for its cadence and tone–the features that make some writing sing where others drone on. Jon taught me that we write, not in service of our idea but in service of the piece itself. That I must listen to the direction of the piece as much as I define it.

In a world where writing is so often taught as a science, with its grammar laws and formulaic sentence structures, I believe there is no place better for the budding writer to hone your craft than a few weeks in a small Mexican city under the guidance of Jon and Ninth Wave.