THE COCOON IS FOR YOU

  • If you're longing for a writing retreat
  • If you need distraction-free deep focus
  • If you want to practice protecting time for your writing
  • If you want to jumpstart a project
  • If you need to get better at setting boundaries
  • If you want to improve your craft
  • If you want to find more freedom on the page
  • If you want to fall back in love with a project
  • If you like yourself better when you're actually writing (and so does everyone else)


ABOUT THE

WORD COCOON


WHAT: This 4-day self-paced writing retreat is a time for you to focus on your creative work, wherever you are, with support and accountability
WHEN: Whenever works for you and your schedule and life

WHERE: Anywhere

WHO: Writers of all levels and all genres ready to go deep, listen to their ideas, break through blocks, and remember why they write

WHY: Because you know, deep down, your art matters and is worth protecting (but sometimes you need help remembering that)

Plus, once your purchase the WORD COCOON, it belongs to you forever. You can use it again and again, whenever you need to give yourself a retreat and protect rime for your creative work. Magic!


INSIDE THE WORD COCOON:

Four Days of Protected Time: A flexible retreat structure that honors your schedule and protects your energy. You choose when to cocoon—and once you're in, the world can wait.

Preparation Guide: You’ll receive materials to help you set yourself up for success. This includes guidance on:

  • Claiming and setting up your creative space
  • Clearing your calendar and setting expectations with others
  • Staying offline and away from distractions
  • Setting a clear and powerful intention
  • Structuring your days for flow and momentum
  • Reclaiming your attention
  • Setting boundaries that protect your time and your voice

Daily Generative Writing Prompts: Four prompts per day, designed to spark new ideas, deepen existing work, and reconnect you to the pleasure and freedom of writing.

Daily Love Notes: Each day, you’ll receive a message from me to inspire, support, and nudge you gently forward. It’s like a love letter to your creative self.

Tools You Can Use Again and Again: This isn’t just a one-time experience—it’s a model. You’ll learn how to create a self-guided writing retreat anytime you need one, again and again.

The Option to Cocoon Together: While the retreat is self-paced, you’ll have the option to sync up with a writing buddy or small group to create shared accountability, encouragement, and celebration.

Permission, Power & Practice: Most of all, you get this: full permission to take yourself and your writing seriously. And you’ll get to claim a powerful practice for making space for your creativity in a world that constantly tries to take it away.

The Magic of THE WORD COCOON:

Self-Paced Sanctuary

Two decades of teaching and writing have shaped my approach to THE COCOON, which is rooted in my belief that when we make art, we're exercising the muscles we need to help repair the world. I love to hold space and foster transformation, both on and off the page.

Personalized Writing Prompts

I create generative writing prompts that propel writers forward and feel like magic. They offer inspiration and direction, helping writers clear blocks and take more risks on the page. Every day in the COCOON, you'll have access to four prompts to get you going if you get stuck.

Daily Love Notes

Every day, you'll have access to a message from me designed to help connect you to your most creative self. I believe our projects choose us and trust us already. My messages will help you remember to trust yourself.

Mindful Preparation

When you register for THE COCOON, you'll find instructions for clearing and claiming space, setting intentions, making boundaries, collecting readings, and readying food to tend your body. Mindful preparation will ensure that your time in THE COCOON is exactly what you need it to be.

Immersive Focus

To take back our focus at this time is a radical -- and healing -- act. To turn off social media and email and the news and obligations. To listen to our own ideas. To reclaim our internal landscape. To read and write. To be still. To tend our bodies. Four days of uninterrupted writing can lead to significant progress and breakthroughs.

Boundaries & Permission

To make and keep boundaries is a generous act. When we protect what matters to us, we give the people around us permission to protect what matters to them too. In THE COCOON, you'll find support for your boundaries and permission to take up space in the world and on the page.

Buy Your Cocoon

(and get ready to write)

WHY THE WORD COCOON?


I created the WORD COCOON because I know firsthand how important it is to protect time for your writing. I've been creating my solo writing retreats for myself for decades now. They are the primary way I make progress on my manuscripts. So I thought: Why not share this resource with you, writers I love?

What's more, my virtual retreat, THE WORD CAVE, sells out fast. This makes it possible for more of you to get more retreat support. Plus, people kept telling me the same thing: I need something like this, but on my own time. I need a way to protect my writing life without having to fit someone else’s schedule.

So, I built THE WORD COCOON, a four-day, self-paced writing retreat that wraps around you whenever you need it.

The COCOON is a refuge and a recharge. It’s a place to rest, create, and get real momentum on your work, on your terms. Whether you're just starting out or years into your practice, whether you're writing poems, memoirs, novels, or hybrid unclassifiable magic (yes!), this space is yours.

Because sometimes what you need most is a quiet, fierce commitment to your own voice.

Come cocoon up. See what emerges.

Cocoon Together

Invite a friend to join you!

Writing doesn’t have to be so lonely. Invite a friend, writing partner, or fellow creative to cocoon with you. Just knowing someone else is showing up too can help you stay committed. You can check in, share intentions, hold each other accountable, and celebrate what emerges.

And even if you cocoon solo, you’re never truly alone. At any given moment, someone else is picking up a pen, pressing a brush to canvas, shaping clay with their hands. When you enter the Cocoon, you join a vast, ongoing community of makers—a creative lineage that began long before you were born and will continue long after. You’re part of it now. How beautiful is that?

HOW TO REFER YOUR FRIEND TO JOIN YOU

(AND SAVE $)


If you're an existing student with me on Teachable, and you're logged into your account, click here to see a link to share with your friend to give them 10% off on WORD COCOON. When they register, you'll receive a 10% off coupon to use on a future purchase. Invite as many friends as you'd like! Collect coupons!

(You'll also be able to see and use this referral option inside the WORD COCOON curriculum page.)

Meet Sarah Sentilles


I’ve been leading WORD CAVES for eight years, and they always sell out fast. Because I want to support as many writers as possible -- and because making art matters now more than ever -- I created THE WORD COCOON. It’s all about practicing how to protect your time, claim creativity as your birthright, and set deadlines you actually keep. The COCOON helps you build the muscle to protect your writing life, so your work can finally get the attention it deserves.

I've been writing seriously for almost 30 years. And in that time I've learned how important it is to stay connected to my biggest vision. To be intentional about boundaries. To protect time for what matters. I've also learned writing is primarily about listening. Which means we need to slow down and trust ourselves and the ideas that visit us. I designed THE WORD COCOON with that in mind.

Here's a little bit about me: I'm the author of five books, including Draw Your Weapons, which won the 2018 PEN Award for Creative Nonfiction. My most recent book, Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours, was published by Random House and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Idaho Book of the Year. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications. I've had residencies at Hedgebrook and Yaddo. I earned a bachelor's degree at Yale and master's and doctoral degrees at Harvard. I'm also the co-founder of the Alliance of Idaho, which works to protect the human rights of immigrants. I live in Idaho's Wood River Valley, with my family.

Praise for THE WORD CAVE