Strange, weird, feral, laugh, cry, surprise, community— so many of the key words that make my heart beat faster for August.
Speaking of containers, I realize when I write a snippet that I feel excited about I often wonder, “where can I put this.?” ( I do that less often now) The where can shut me down in organizing the scenes of long fiction I am attempting, too- will I ever find this again? What is a safe place to put it so it does not get lost? But I realized today ( warning, incoming Saturday rhapsodic waxing), I am really really good at grabbing the right sized soup container for leftover soup, bread pudding, or that blunt piece of zucchini- not too much air space, but enough to breathe and be recognizable when it is opened again, and no bits leftover.
I realized WITD has become my container for myself in the spirit of all those opening words. My safe space to put those parts of me, along with the rest. I am beginning to see how searching for the right container really stifled my work. But now, I can plop this practically unhinged comment right here and know many of you will understand. I let my soup tell me which container it wants so I am looking forward to new writing Tupperware!!! I have never looked forward to August— it is the month equivalent of a Sunday school night, so this is so welcome. And you are redeeming my back to school feelings on a nuclear level, too.
Oh, I really love this so much, Emily. So so much. Re August, I have a LOT of things to say about August. Might need to write about it--it's a big big month in my biography!
So much of this is true for me, too, Emily. It has been so good to just write and not worry about what it's for or what it might become. It's been enough to see that things have some potential and be satisfied with that. Also, same feelings about August! My least favorite month.
I love hearing this about the writing without attachment, it is--to my mind--CRUCIAL to being able to create work we end up eventually, down the line, actually caring about because it brings us discovery and joy. Right, seeing potential should be PLENTY in the morning of writing. In the afternoon of writing, there's some bigger work to do. But if we go straight to the afternoon, it's all just recycling.
I tend to let some of what I would do in the afternoon happen a bit during my sleeping hours. Our brains work on stuff while we sleep. Often I wake up the next morning knowing what I need to edit, change, rewrite, and so on. It just happens, so I go with the flow of it.
But, I do find I still need to do hard work in the afternoon of writing. Rarely, something just solves itself in the night, but more often what gets resolved in the night is the direction, or part of it--and then I still have to do the actual work. Alas! Or, yay! It can feel both ways ....
Right, that is a whole other process. No one ever has to make it to the afternoon. But if you WANT to (everything must be driven by desire) then we have strategies for that. But the morning really must come first.
Hi, Rita! I am so happy to have found you here! And yes- I look at my empty container for my own Substack and all I feel is an enormous “Not Yet.” I may have to start calling it “ShouldStack.” I am learning so much from watching all of you incredible folks show up and share yourselves and your work in different ways. And learning permission to listen to my gut, to kick perfectionism in its annoying perfect teeth. And that August used to be a stinky month until Jeannine reclaimed it for all of us! Huzzah!
Pay close attention to how Billie and I do things, re-do them, fix them, start again. There's a balance between patience and just doing things and knowing they're just starts, and are going to have to evolve. This is how I move past perfectionism. I send stuff out with wrong dates, missing times, and that's just the beginning. I'm just saying, I work with my perfectionism by being really clear about how imperfect I am. It's freeing.
So true! I am finding that the more I write, the more the projects I start evolve into something completely different than what I had envisioned or started with. As a recovering perfectionist, at first I was confused and disconcerted by this. I am learning to let my muses guide me where they will.
Recovering perfectionist here, too! 🙋🏻♀️ Raised by 2 very precise perfectionists…..it’s been a decades long journey to unravel that particular aspect of my psyche, but I’m pretty much over it. It also helps that I no longer own my own pharmacy - that pressure only reinforced my perfectionist tendencies. Working for someone else has allowed those self-imposed expectations to be relaxed. Cannot let go of them - patients’ lives are at stake, but at least now inventory and returning expired meds and dealing with HR issues are off my To-do list! 🎉💃🏻🎉
Your ability to just go for it and keep going is an inspiration. And I see years of professional experience behind it. I am embracing that in my new gig as much as possible, and my limited energy and willingness to learn to learn new administrative tasks/ systems/ and processes is really maxed out right now. I also know I sustain new habits best when wading in rather then plunging and I really want to sustain whatever I ultimately start here. My sending thing out game has transformed working with you and I am sure my “ ShouldStack” will evolve too- it feels pending now, not impossible. Which is is a place I kind of love!
I resonate with literally all of this--and it's so beautifully stated. The admin stuff is by far the hardest for me. I am just not not not wired for it.
And I have a REALLY hard time learning new admin things. I ask for a lot lot lot of help from Billie in this realm--Billie has an ease with computer processes and tools. I watch them and I am like HOW DID YOU DO THAT.
Thanks! Yep- not factory installed over here either!! I appreciate your sharing all the human parts in your professional capacity. Our culture, and online culture, do not encourage that or model it. I am so surprised by how little people are willing to show that vulnerability except as Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory. I’m like, ok, but tell me how to actually manage that crazy conveyor belt because that is what I am actually trying to do!!
Hahaha thank you, Angela. I have been meaning to respond to your email, too. I know our The Feeling workshop was intense! I get so excited about understanding the language in the work that I sometimes forget--not really, like, I'm actually crying, but--I step into/through that we're also all devastated by it, even though I also am, in order to get hold of the language. I think it is one of those gift/glitch paradoxes. I will say, though, that School will not move nearly so fast. We will have nine months to take our time. I feel like I am going to need to give people a disclaimer about that. xoxo
I actually just had a question/idea come up: I wonder if it would be possible/feasible to have break out groups in which students close read their work alongside a smaller group of writers throughout the 9 months? I’m not sure what the total enrollment will be, but I do know a ton amazing work is generated WITD and it can be a challenge to keep up with all of it! I hope this makes sense.
Yes, actually, that is EXACTLY what we want to help facilitate through School. Not everyone will want that, so we will not do it during our class time, but what we will do is create a process through which people in School can find groups that want to do similar things--whether it's take the close reading farther, workshop/discuss their own work (probably separate groups for book-length vs short pieces), and other aims, as well, e.g., there might be a group that wants to do a book study of an excellent craft book that gets referenced in School, that kind of thing. So, in short, yes! We'll start the sorting hat process during the first month of School.
New writing Tupperware - omg this is brilliant, Emily. Also I was going to buy a croissant today but THEY HAD CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD PUDDING AND I THOUGHT OF YOU WITH EVERY BITE 💛🤎💛
Emily, you know I generally agree with about 98% of what you say, however, this time I must disagree about August - it’s my birth month, so it’s basically a monthlong celebration for this Leo!! Gotta see all of my family and friends, after all! I’m making up for only ever getting 1 pool party birthday my entire childhood, on the one August day too chilly to swim!! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ Guess that could be a topic for a flash piece…🤔
Hahahaha- well, you have made it an even better month! And I stand corrected, and WHAT??! I want to read about all the August pool parties you missed, but the chilly one!
I was the 5th of 5….bday parties for my friends were not a priority but I think in 6th grade my mom finally realized I was always GOING to bday parties, and never ever hosting my own. So I got 1 shot, and as I said the weather gods were not smiling down on me that day. The pool was in our yard, and I don’t recall having a solid Plan B for uncooperative weather. I think we must’ve played Parchessi or Monopoly or cards….really can’t recall! Do recall getting a ceramic bank from 3 of the 5 girls in attendance. The other gifts were a ceramic oil lamp (western motif - cowboy on a horse?!?!) and a cedar wood box that contained my first diary!! It locked!! I may still have that tucked away in my basement!
The downside of having a summer birthday - my friends were always going away on family vacations, too, so even if I tried to host more parties they wouldn’t have been well-attended - such is life! I lived to tell! LOL! 🤷🏻♀️
The more you share, the better it sounds! Looking forward to it! 🐚🦀
I have a hermit crab essay in the form of a recipe I’d love to come back to. I was happy with it at the time I originally called it “finished” and submitted it multiple times with no luck. Reading it now I think it’s missing something!
Yes, yes--you will learn things in this intensive that might help, including the ways that hybrid forms can not work. I mean, there is no magic bullet, but there are pitfalls. We'll discuss, including strategies to revise/reimagine.
Angela I was so moved by the hermit crab essays you posted on Thursday’s thread. The piano, wow. Thank you for sharing. I relate to your subject so much. Excited to learn alongside you in this intensive!
Thank you, Monika! Your words really lifted me up ❤️
In the interest of being a good literary citizen I want to give a shoutout to Christi Craig (@hiddentimberbooks). A few years back she taught about hermit crab essays in one of her classes and it was a turning point in my writing. It provided me with a way to start chipping away at the hard stuff. The first one I wrote was the recipe I referenced earlier, and it was the most raw (it’s called A Child’s Recipe for Comfort). I want to revisit it, but also have so many new ideas….For example, a real estate listing for the house I grew up in…. We shall see what August brings!
Christi is just wonderful. And you know how much good it does my heart to see that our culture at WITD is naturally beginning to embrace this incredibly powerful tradition of acknowledgment. If we continue this, there is no stopping the positive momentum of how we lift each other up, and what that does for every single person near and far in our writing lives. Wow. I really love this.
Oh good! I’m glad I could lift you up. You deserve it 💕
Thank you for the Christi Craig shoutout. I’ll check her out!
And ooooooo, the child’s recipe and a real estate listing for the house you grew up in. I hope to read them soon!! I’ll check out the recipe and wait with bated breath for the listing. Thank you!
While giving credit I should also say that is through Christ Craig that I first heard of Jeannine- she hosted an event for “The Part that Burns.” Very grateful for for that ❤️
I think I first met Christi when she had me in her author series, way back during my book launch. Then, about ... maybe 2 years ago? She had me teach a workshop through her educational series. I focused on, among other things, restraint, I think, some combo of restraint and exteriority. I was at my cabin. Oh, I just looked up my email followup to Christi, and sure enough, yes, lots of restraint and constraint. That might have been the one you were at, or maybe the longer ago one? Either way, so glad our paths crossed! Christi took some sessions of the synchronous WITD too. Back when it was really new and evolving. She is a wonderful writer.
I just looked it up in my email- it was the constraints workshop that I attended in 2022.
Christi posted about your book right when it came out, spring 2021 I think? At least that is when I bought it. I remember seeing the title and being drawn in immediately. Another one of those magical moments 😍
This is the beauty of the writing community. I wrote alone for *so many years.* I can't believe what I was missing. Of course, the evolution of the internet has really made some things possible that simply weren't back when I was younger. I am grateful.
I was just thinking this today! I wrote alone - and avoided social media - for decades, and now I’ve suddenly found my kindred spirit writing community. Today I bought a piece of chocolate chip bread pudding at my favourite croissant shop and thought of you and Emily with every bite. Substack friendships are REAL. 💕
Oh yay! This sounds fantastic and is the first intensive I will be able to put on my calendar and join in on while it’s running. I CANT WAIT. *kermit flail*
Yes! That’s such a gift. I want to go back and work through them all eventually. I’m currently making room in my calendar for more consistent writing time.
I’m really looking forward to this. I have four themes I’ve braided into my memoir and I think this will help tighten what exists and tie together what I can’t see.
Recently I have a burning desire to write fiction on a specific strange topic (Unwed mothers homes) I recently found that there are still 450 Maternity homes in operation. I think writing in flash will be complicated and compelling! Also I have never heard of hermits but every time I see the word, I think of Hermans Hermits and my mom’s crush on Peter Noone. 😆
That’s hilarious!! I remember Herman’s Hermits! My older sisters had their records and I sang right along!! Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, and of course Henry VIII I am!! 🎉💃🏻🎉
Yes. My ambitions are so different from what they once were, and that, too, makes it easier to embrace such a process. Time feels abundant in ways it didn't when I had a lot more of it in front of me!
Soooo true!!! I try not to give myself the added pressure of deadlines since I do work FT, too. Tho I must say, I afford myself so much more grace lately - I do what I can, when I can which is why I’m late responding here. The bottom line is, I’m showing up - better late than never - kinda my mantra here!
Pretty sure there's no late here 🙂 I've given myself permission to show up when and how I can, too. Always grateful for conversation here, whenever it happens.
There is no late here!! I keep saying that, we need it in our official description. Maybe need to change the tagline, to, "Writing in the Dark: There is no late here."
Love, love, love the new logo, Billie!! 👏🏻👏🏻and, please count me in for both the intensive and the class. I’ve much to learn, and no place compares to this community! ✍🏻 📓 📚
Strange, weird, feral, laugh, cry, surprise, community— so many of the key words that make my heart beat faster for August.
Speaking of containers, I realize when I write a snippet that I feel excited about I often wonder, “where can I put this.?” ( I do that less often now) The where can shut me down in organizing the scenes of long fiction I am attempting, too- will I ever find this again? What is a safe place to put it so it does not get lost? But I realized today ( warning, incoming Saturday rhapsodic waxing), I am really really good at grabbing the right sized soup container for leftover soup, bread pudding, or that blunt piece of zucchini- not too much air space, but enough to breathe and be recognizable when it is opened again, and no bits leftover.
I realized WITD has become my container for myself in the spirit of all those opening words. My safe space to put those parts of me, along with the rest. I am beginning to see how searching for the right container really stifled my work. But now, I can plop this practically unhinged comment right here and know many of you will understand. I let my soup tell me which container it wants so I am looking forward to new writing Tupperware!!! I have never looked forward to August— it is the month equivalent of a Sunday school night, so this is so welcome. And you are redeeming my back to school feelings on a nuclear level, too.
Oh, I really love this so much, Emily. So so much. Re August, I have a LOT of things to say about August. Might need to write about it--it's a big big month in my biography!
I can’t wait to read it. I am ready.💜
💜
So much of this is true for me, too, Emily. It has been so good to just write and not worry about what it's for or what it might become. It's been enough to see that things have some potential and be satisfied with that. Also, same feelings about August! My least favorite month.
I love hearing this about the writing without attachment, it is--to my mind--CRUCIAL to being able to create work we end up eventually, down the line, actually caring about because it brings us discovery and joy. Right, seeing potential should be PLENTY in the morning of writing. In the afternoon of writing, there's some bigger work to do. But if we go straight to the afternoon, it's all just recycling.
I tend to let some of what I would do in the afternoon happen a bit during my sleeping hours. Our brains work on stuff while we sleep. Often I wake up the next morning knowing what I need to edit, change, rewrite, and so on. It just happens, so I go with the flow of it.
But, I do find I still need to do hard work in the afternoon of writing. Rarely, something just solves itself in the night, but more often what gets resolved in the night is the direction, or part of it--and then I still have to do the actual work. Alas! Or, yay! It can feel both ways ....
Agree. I still have do mostly do the hard afternoon work.
Yes, this is science. I do this too--I ask my brain to work on it while I am sleeping. A lot happens in the night.
I’m an overnight ruminator, as well! I have such clear, vivid dreams most nights. I work a lot of stuff out there! It’s a gift, for sure!
And I never make it to the afternoon!
Right, that is a whole other process. No one ever has to make it to the afternoon. But if you WANT to (everything must be driven by desire) then we have strategies for that. But the morning really must come first.
I'm interested to learn what your strategies are for the afternoon. Think I could use some new/better ones.
Hi, Rita! I am so happy to have found you here! And yes- I look at my empty container for my own Substack and all I feel is an enormous “Not Yet.” I may have to start calling it “ShouldStack.” I am learning so much from watching all of you incredible folks show up and share yourselves and your work in different ways. And learning permission to listen to my gut, to kick perfectionism in its annoying perfect teeth. And that August used to be a stinky month until Jeannine reclaimed it for all of us! Huzzah!
Pay close attention to how Billie and I do things, re-do them, fix them, start again. There's a balance between patience and just doing things and knowing they're just starts, and are going to have to evolve. This is how I move past perfectionism. I send stuff out with wrong dates, missing times, and that's just the beginning. I'm just saying, I work with my perfectionism by being really clear about how imperfect I am. It's freeing.
So true! I am finding that the more I write, the more the projects I start evolve into something completely different than what I had envisioned or started with. As a recovering perfectionist, at first I was confused and disconcerted by this. I am learning to let my muses guide me where they will.
Recovering perfectionist here, too! 🙋🏻♀️ Raised by 2 very precise perfectionists…..it’s been a decades long journey to unravel that particular aspect of my psyche, but I’m pretty much over it. It also helps that I no longer own my own pharmacy - that pressure only reinforced my perfectionist tendencies. Working for someone else has allowed those self-imposed expectations to be relaxed. Cannot let go of them - patients’ lives are at stake, but at least now inventory and returning expired meds and dealing with HR issues are off my To-do list! 🎉💃🏻🎉
Your ability to just go for it and keep going is an inspiration. And I see years of professional experience behind it. I am embracing that in my new gig as much as possible, and my limited energy and willingness to learn to learn new administrative tasks/ systems/ and processes is really maxed out right now. I also know I sustain new habits best when wading in rather then plunging and I really want to sustain whatever I ultimately start here. My sending thing out game has transformed working with you and I am sure my “ ShouldStack” will evolve too- it feels pending now, not impossible. Which is is a place I kind of love!
I resonate with literally all of this--and it's so beautifully stated. The admin stuff is by far the hardest for me. I am just not not not wired for it.
And I have a REALLY hard time learning new admin things. I ask for a lot lot lot of help from Billie in this realm--Billie has an ease with computer processes and tools. I watch them and I am like HOW DID YOU DO THAT.
Thanks! Yep- not factory installed over here either!! I appreciate your sharing all the human parts in your professional capacity. Our culture, and online culture, do not encourage that or model it. I am so surprised by how little people are willing to show that vulnerability except as Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory. I’m like, ok, but tell me how to actually manage that crazy conveyor belt because that is what I am actually trying to do!!
I love all of this! And a big YES to the looking forward to August when it’s usually the equivalent of Sunday!
Hahaha thank you, Angela. I have been meaning to respond to your email, too. I know our The Feeling workshop was intense! I get so excited about understanding the language in the work that I sometimes forget--not really, like, I'm actually crying, but--I step into/through that we're also all devastated by it, even though I also am, in order to get hold of the language. I think it is one of those gift/glitch paradoxes. I will say, though, that School will not move nearly so fast. We will have nine months to take our time. I feel like I am going to need to give people a disclaimer about that. xoxo
And that’s good to know about School. I will gave that some serious consideration!
It will be easier to consider when we finalize the description! 😅
I actually just had a question/idea come up: I wonder if it would be possible/feasible to have break out groups in which students close read their work alongside a smaller group of writers throughout the 9 months? I’m not sure what the total enrollment will be, but I do know a ton amazing work is generated WITD and it can be a challenge to keep up with all of it! I hope this makes sense.
Yes, actually, that is EXACTLY what we want to help facilitate through School. Not everyone will want that, so we will not do it during our class time, but what we will do is create a process through which people in School can find groups that want to do similar things--whether it's take the close reading farther, workshop/discuss their own work (probably separate groups for book-length vs short pieces), and other aims, as well, e.g., there might be a group that wants to do a book study of an excellent craft book that gets referenced in School, that kind of thing. So, in short, yes! We'll start the sorting hat process during the first month of School.
A gift/glitch paradox, what a concept! 😍
I feel like the gift/glitch paradox is the story of my life.
Thank you- thanks for taking the wild rides with me!
It’s a privilege! ❤️❤️
Same!
New writing Tupperware - omg this is brilliant, Emily. Also I was going to buy a croissant today but THEY HAD CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD PUDDING AND I THOUGHT OF YOU WITH EVERY BITE 💛🤎💛
Hahahahaha! You are my vicarious gluten goddess!!
“Vicarious gluten goddess” 😂
💜💜💜
Hahahaha I mean you just keep putting all these good food ideas out there. And I show my love through (eating) food 💕🥘
Food is my music of love 😂
Emily, you know I generally agree with about 98% of what you say, however, this time I must disagree about August - it’s my birth month, so it’s basically a monthlong celebration for this Leo!! Gotta see all of my family and friends, after all! I’m making up for only ever getting 1 pool party birthday my entire childhood, on the one August day too chilly to swim!! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ Guess that could be a topic for a flash piece…🤔
Hahahaha- well, you have made it an even better month! And I stand corrected, and WHAT??! I want to read about all the August pool parties you missed, but the chilly one!
I was the 5th of 5….bday parties for my friends were not a priority but I think in 6th grade my mom finally realized I was always GOING to bday parties, and never ever hosting my own. So I got 1 shot, and as I said the weather gods were not smiling down on me that day. The pool was in our yard, and I don’t recall having a solid Plan B for uncooperative weather. I think we must’ve played Parchessi or Monopoly or cards….really can’t recall! Do recall getting a ceramic bank from 3 of the 5 girls in attendance. The other gifts were a ceramic oil lamp (western motif - cowboy on a horse?!?!) and a cedar wood box that contained my first diary!! It locked!! I may still have that tucked away in my basement!
What wonderful details!
The downside of having a summer birthday - my friends were always going away on family vacations, too, so even if I tried to host more parties they wouldn’t have been well-attended - such is life! I lived to tell! LOL! 🤷🏻♀️
Same same same 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼no bits left over. 😍
💜
The more you share, the better it sounds! Looking forward to it! 🐚🦀
I have a hermit crab essay in the form of a recipe I’d love to come back to. I was happy with it at the time I originally called it “finished” and submitted it multiple times with no luck. Reading it now I think it’s missing something!
Yes, yes--you will learn things in this intensive that might help, including the ways that hybrid forms can not work. I mean, there is no magic bullet, but there are pitfalls. We'll discuss, including strategies to revise/reimagine.
BRING ALL THE RECIPES!!
If you insist! 😉
💜💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼
Angela I was so moved by the hermit crab essays you posted on Thursday’s thread. The piano, wow. Thank you for sharing. I relate to your subject so much. Excited to learn alongside you in this intensive!
Thank you, Monika! Your words really lifted me up ❤️
In the interest of being a good literary citizen I want to give a shoutout to Christi Craig (@hiddentimberbooks). A few years back she taught about hermit crab essays in one of her classes and it was a turning point in my writing. It provided me with a way to start chipping away at the hard stuff. The first one I wrote was the recipe I referenced earlier, and it was the most raw (it’s called A Child’s Recipe for Comfort). I want to revisit it, but also have so many new ideas….For example, a real estate listing for the house I grew up in…. We shall see what August brings!
Thank you again for your kind words ❤️
Christi is just wonderful. And you know how much good it does my heart to see that our culture at WITD is naturally beginning to embrace this incredibly powerful tradition of acknowledgment. If we continue this, there is no stopping the positive momentum of how we lift each other up, and what that does for every single person near and far in our writing lives. Wow. I really love this.
This is important to me too, Jeannine. Both in terms of actual IP and inspiration. Steal like an artist - with credit, always. You model this so well.
Oh good! I’m glad I could lift you up. You deserve it 💕
Thank you for the Christi Craig shoutout. I’ll check her out!
And ooooooo, the child’s recipe and a real estate listing for the house you grew up in. I hope to read them soon!! I’ll check out the recipe and wait with bated breath for the listing. Thank you!
The recipe has yet to find a home! I’d be happy to email it to you. Thank you again, you’ve made my day ❤️
I’d love that! First name dot last name at gmail.
Thank you! I will send it your way ❤️
While giving credit I should also say that is through Christ Craig that I first heard of Jeannine- she hosted an event for “The Part that Burns.” Very grateful for for that ❤️
I think I first met Christi when she had me in her author series, way back during my book launch. Then, about ... maybe 2 years ago? She had me teach a workshop through her educational series. I focused on, among other things, restraint, I think, some combo of restraint and exteriority. I was at my cabin. Oh, I just looked up my email followup to Christi, and sure enough, yes, lots of restraint and constraint. That might have been the one you were at, or maybe the longer ago one? Either way, so glad our paths crossed! Christi took some sessions of the synchronous WITD too. Back when it was really new and evolving. She is a wonderful writer.
Buffer Essay on Constraints
https://buffer.com/resources/7-examples-of-how-creative-constraints-can-lead-to-amazing-work/
My Craft Essay on Constraints
https://www.cleavermagazine.com/from-play-to-peril-and-beyond-how-writing-constraints-unleash-truer-truths-a-nonfiction-craft-essay-by-jeannine-ouellette/
Marginalian on John Cleese & Creativity & Open Mode
https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/04/12/john-cleese-on-creativity-1991/
Short Video Explaining Systems I and II of the Brain According to Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast & Slow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiTz2i4VHFw
Mental Floss Examples of Constrained Writing
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88172/8-extraordinary-examples-constrained-writing
Clearsight Essay on Writing Constraints
https://clearsightbooks.com/use-writing-constraints-to-increase-your-creativity/
I just looked it up in my email- it was the constraints workshop that I attended in 2022.
Christi posted about your book right when it came out, spring 2021 I think? At least that is when I bought it. I remember seeing the title and being drawn in immediately. Another one of those magical moments 😍
This is the beauty of the writing community. I wrote alone for *so many years.* I can't believe what I was missing. Of course, the evolution of the internet has really made some things possible that simply weren't back when I was younger. I am grateful.
I was just thinking this today! I wrote alone - and avoided social media - for decades, and now I’ve suddenly found my kindred spirit writing community. Today I bought a piece of chocolate chip bread pudding at my favourite croissant shop and thought of you and Emily with every bite. Substack friendships are REAL. 💕
Ooooo thank you for these gems! Saving this to come back too. Thank you for taking the time time to paste them in!
Oh yay! This sounds fantastic and is the first intensive I will be able to put on my calendar and join in on while it’s running. I CANT WAIT. *kermit flail*
I meant to say, they’re archived forever but of course it’s most fun to do them in real time!
Yes! That’s such a gift. I want to go back and work through them all eventually. I’m currently making room in my calendar for more consistent writing time.
Yay!
hahahaha *kermit flail* I love it! 🐸
Looking forward to this!
Yay, I look forward to writing with you, Matt!
I’m really looking forward to this. I have four themes I’ve braided into my memoir and I think this will help tighten what exists and tie together what I can’t see.
Recently I have a burning desire to write fiction on a specific strange topic (Unwed mothers homes) I recently found that there are still 450 Maternity homes in operation. I think writing in flash will be complicated and compelling! Also I have never heard of hermits but every time I see the word, I think of Hermans Hermits and my mom’s crush on Peter Noone. 😆
That’s hilarious!! I remember Herman’s Hermits! My older sisters had their records and I sang right along!! Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, and of course Henry VIII I am!! 🎉💃🏻🎉
Haha yes!!!
This is coming at the perfect time. Can't wait to dive in. 🫶
This sounds so fun--and maybe a way to use some of what was generated in Visceral Writing. Looking forward to it!
Everything can potentially be used for something eventually. This, for me, makes the process so much easier to bear
Yes. My ambitions are so different from what they once were, and that, too, makes it easier to embrace such a process. Time feels abundant in ways it didn't when I had a lot more of it in front of me!
That’s an amazing way to say it, Rita.
Soooo true!!! I try not to give myself the added pressure of deadlines since I do work FT, too. Tho I must say, I afford myself so much more grace lately - I do what I can, when I can which is why I’m late responding here. The bottom line is, I’m showing up - better late than never - kinda my mantra here!
Pretty sure there's no late here 🙂 I've given myself permission to show up when and how I can, too. Always grateful for conversation here, whenever it happens.
There is no late here!! I keep saying that, we need it in our official description. Maybe need to change the tagline, to, "Writing in the Dark: There is no late here."
Exactly!! Same here! Such an incredibly generous and kindhearted group here. I’d hang out here 24/7 if I could! 😉
Yes, and that is how I do zero waste writing!
I can’t wait for this (and for The School!!) xo
Yay to both of these!
Omg I’m beyond excited for this one. Love the new logo!!
Thank you! We are playing around (Billie doing all the heavy lifting). It's getting there and we are excited!
I can not wait for this!!!
How exciting!! 🎉
So looking forward to this!!
Yay, Bailey!
Just so excited for this!!!
Yes, will be fun!
Love, love, love the new logo, Billie!! 👏🏻👏🏻and, please count me in for both the intensive and the class. I’ve much to learn, and no place compares to this community! ✍🏻 📓 📚
Yes! It’s a go!
so exciting 💕