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# Rehab for writing
- URL: https://www.howardgray.net/rehab-for-writing/
- Published: 2026-08-05T12:57:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-06T12:58:10.000Z
- Description: Four days in rural Cantabria. Population: not many.
- Author: Howard Gray
- Tags: Howard's Riffs

I've forgotten how to write.

I don't do retreats. You can't expect me to be silent for ten days - come on now. Retreats are weird. I can't switch off, and when I do it only makes things worse: I come home all anxious and odd.

So I’ve gone on a... I don't know what it is. A break? A work-ation? Writing rehab? I’ve disappeared to a random village in northern Spain for four days. Population: about 40 people and 6 cats.

I felt a lot of guilt about it. Real money, no plan. But I had to leave the house.

Did it work? Sort of.

I got distracted. I indulged in too many riffy posts, and too much cheesecake (they serve it for breakfast - you really expect me to pass that up?). The owner of the one and only bar invited/demanded me to be a guest at an impromptu street BBQ at 11pm on a Tuesday.

But the words came back. Via laptop, notepad, and restaurant napkins, from time to time they flowed. I cant really say when or how or why. Which is frustrating, but in a strange way also reassuring.

P.S. It was also the first time I'd driven a car in three years. An experience - especially on the Cantabrian mountain roads.