Unbound Writer Paris
May 3 - 6, 2027
Attendee Update #2
September 2026
By Carter Wilson
Welcome to our second monthly retreat update. I’m pleased to report that we have officially sold out (we capped our attendee list at 25 attendees). We have an amazing group of writers coming from all over, with a wide range of experience, backgrounds, and goals, which should make for some fantastic conversations in Paris.
Please read through the full update. We’ll be asking for your feedback on a possible addition to the retreat.
Over the next few months, each of your instructors will take a turn introducing themselves a little more personally, sharing what they’ll be teaching in Paris, and giving you a better sense of what to expect from your time together.
I’m up first.
In this month’s update:
A little more about my path as a writer
What I’ll be teaching in Paris
How your one-on-one meetings will work
Something I’d like you to start thinking about
A possible opportunity to pitch a literary agent
An important note about plus-ones
A Note From Carter
I’ve been writing novels for nearly twenty-four years, been published for the past fifteen, and my path into publishing was anything but fast or predictable.
I didn’t come to writing through an MFA program or a traditional literary background. I was a business major who didn’t even read all that much growing up. In my early 30s, I started writing a novel because I was bored one day. I made up a riddle to pass the time during a class, and I couldn’t figure out the answer. I kept working on it and that answer became a 400-page manuscript. That first manuscript never sold. Neither did the next one. Or the one after that.
Eventually, I broke through. Like, BARELY broke through. I finally got published by a company that promptly went out of business six months after my book hit the shelves.
Since then, I’ve published multiple psychological thrillers, navigated different publishers and editors, watched books succeed and books struggle, dealt with rejection at every stage of the business, and experienced the kind of career breakthrough that came far later than I ever would have predicted.
That long road has shaped the way I teach.
Craft matters enormously. So do talent, discipline, and ambition. But a writing career also requires patience, resilience, adaptability, and the ability to keep creating when the outcome is uncertain.
Those are some of the conversations I’m most looking forward to having with you in Paris.
What I’ll Be Teaching
My sessions will cover several different parts of the writing life.
We’ll talk about the psychology of writing, including fear, rejection, confidence, creative uncertainty, and how to build a sustainable relationship with your work. And we’ll talk writer’s block: is it real or not? (spoiler: it’s both).
We’ll also dig into suspense and storytelling craft: creating tension, understanding what keeps a reader turning pages, developing psychologically compelling characters, and making deliberate choices about pacing and revelation.
And we’ll talk about publishing and career development.
What happens after you finish the manuscript? How do you think about agents, editors, publishing paths, career momentum, setbacks, reinvention, and the reality that no two writing careers unfold the same way?
My goal is not to give you a formula. There isn’t one.
I want to give you tools, perspectives, and practical ways of thinking that you can apply to your own work and your own career.
Your One-on-One Meeting
Every retreat attendee will receive an individual 30-minute one-on-one meeting with one of the instructors.
We want these conversations to be useful to you specifically, which means they don’t all need to look the same.
You might want to discuss:
Pages from a manuscript
A story idea you’re developing
A plot or structural problem
Querying or finding an agent
Publishing strategy
Career questions
A creative obstacle you’ve been struggling with
What you should be working on next
You do not need to arrive with a polished manuscript or a perfect pitch.
The time is yours.
As we get closer to the retreat, we’ll send more information about how the one-on-ones will be scheduled and how you can prepare so you get as much value from the conversation as possible.
Something I Want You to Think About
Here’s a question I’d like you to think about between now and Paris:
What do you want to be different about your writing life one year from now?
Maybe you want to finish a manuscript.
Maybe you want an agent.
Maybe you want to be published.
Maybe you already have a publishing career and want to take it somewhere new.
Or maybe the goal is less tangible. You want more confidence. More consistency. A healthier relationship with writing. A better understanding of what kind of writer you want to be.
There’s no correct answer.
But the clearer you are about what you’re trying to build, the more useful our time together can be.
Would You Be Interested in Pitching a Literary Agent?
We’re exploring one possible addition to the retreat and would love your input.
We considering adding a literary agent to the retreat who would meet individually with interested attendees for private pitch sessions.
This would be completely optional and would be separate from the one-on-one instructor meetings already included with your retreat.
Because bringing an agent in would involve an additional cost, there would be a separate fee for anyone who chooses to participate. We would not be looking to make money from these sessions. We envision a reasonably small fee, hopefully sufficient to offset the cost to cover the agent's time and travel from New York to Paris.
Before we pursue it further, we want to know whether this is something you would actually find valuable. We’ve set up a poll to get your feedback, so please vote at the button below.
A Quick Note About Plus-Ones
We know some of you will be traveling to Paris with a spouse, partner, friend, or family member who won’t be registered for the retreat.
We hope to make it possible for plus-ones to join us for two of the retreat’s social experiences:
The opening-night cocktail reception
The optional Paris literary walking tour
Both of these experiences are included in retreat tuition for registered attendees.
There will be an additional charge for any guest who participates, since retreat tuition only covers the registered attendee. Guest participation will also be subject to space and availability.
We don’t have final pricing yet, and there is nothing you need to reserve now. We simply wanted to make this clear well in advance so no one is surprised when we begin collecting guest information closer to the retreat. And, of course, this applies only to the formal retreat activities. We are hoping for lively and fun informal gatherings in cafes and bars with participants, plus-ones, and faculty throughout our time together in Paris.
We’ll send complete details as soon as those arrangements are finalized.
Looking Ahead
In the months ahead, you’ll continue hearing directly from members of our retreat team as they share more about their backgrounds, what they’ll be bringing to Paris, and what you can expect from our time together.
We’ll also continue sharing practical updates as plans are finalized, including travel recommendations, accommodations, Paris logistics, and additional programming.
As always, if you have questions, reach out anytime.
We’re getting closer.
See you next month.
