Unplug. Exhale. Write.
Sometimes a story needs space. Space to breathe, relax and find itself. 
Write by the Beach is a week-long retreat on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, created for female screenwriters ready to step away from the noise and give their work their full attention.
Each Fall, just four writers are invited to spend a week together in a beautiful home on Long Beach Island, surrounded by wide-open beaches, fresh salt air and the steady rhythm of the Atlantic.
Fall is a favorite season among Long Beach Island locals for good reason. 
The summer crowds have disappeared. The beaches open up. The island gets quieter. And somehow, your mind does too.
There are no packed schedules or endless workshops here. Your time is your own. Write for six hours. Walk the beach. Talk through a stubborn scene over coffee. Read someone else’s pages. Watch the ocean for a while. 
Sometimes the best thing you can give a story is room to breathe.
 
 
A Retreat Built Around the Creative Process
Write by the Beach is intentionally intimate and unstructured.
Bring a work in progress and spend the week developing it in whatever way serves you best.
Alongside your own writing time, you’ll have opportunities to exchange work and ideas with fellow screenwriters, offer feedback, talk through creative challenges and connect with women who understand the strange, exhilarating process of getting a story onto the page.
You’ll also have the opportunity to meet members of the team behind the Lighthouse International Film Festival.
But this isn’t about filling every hour.
It’s about creating the conditions in which something can happen.
A beautiful place. Good company. Time. And nowhere else you need to be.

 
What Your Week Includes

• Seven nights in an oceanfront Long Beach Island home

• Uninterrupted time to write, revise, think and create

• An intimate group of only four selected screenwriters

• Opportunities to share work, exchange feedback and brainstorm together

• Time with Lighthouse International Film Festival organizers

Ocean views, beach walks, shared meals and plenty of room to disappear into your own work

In the Words of a Past Writer
“It was such an incredible experience to truly unplug and just be present in the flow of the creative process.” - Katia Koziara
This past participant left Write by the Beach with greater clarity and breakthroughs in her script, along with new friends and future collaborators.
That’s exactly what the retreat was created to offer: not a rigid writing program, but the time, place and community to find your own way deeper into the work.
 
 
Who Can Apply?
 Write by the Beach is for female screenwriters with professional production experience and a project currently in development.
Applicants must have served as a screenwriter on at least one produced short film, feature film or television project and submit a work in progress, including a synopsis and script or treatment.
Applications are limited to one screenwriter per script.
Only four writers are selected each year.

APPLY NOW ON FILMFREEWAY. 
Current application deadlines, fees and complete submission requirements are available on FilmFreeway.