This will change how you write forever.

Because yes, we can capture the waking dream of wonder, awe & truth in words. (Also, fun new bits at WITD for 2025, like quarterly calendars, more live events & a revitalized community chat!

Hello, hello!

Here we are in the new year, simultaneously bracing against and softening into what’s coming toward us. I’m grateful we can do that together—and, by the way, warmest welcome to all the new members of Writing in the Dark. I am thrilled you are joining us in the ongoing work of making language capable of telling the truth again.

And, since on Wednesday we start our first 12-week writing intensive of 2025— For the Joy & the Sorrow: Writing the World, inspired by Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights—now is a good time for a reminder of what this place really is and is not, and what it means to “do language” and make words matter.

That work—of making words matter—may be one of the most urgent tasks we can undertake at a time when a deadly riot against democracy is recast as “a beautiful day” as a part of a larger movement to render truth irrelevant and language meaningless.

But language is not meaningless.

Language is a defining characteristic of our humanity. It allows us to communicate complex ideas, share knowledge across generations, and develop societies and culture through the expression of abstract thoughts and concepts. Humans do this at levels unlike any other species. We even have specific brain regions dedicated to language processing, such as Broca's area and Wernicke's area, which are not found in other animals to the same extent.

Human language is unlike animal communication, which, while it definitely exists!—is limited to more simple messages. In contrast, we have developed a vast and complicated vocabulary that allows for sharing nuanced ideas, wishes, dreams, theories, jokes, predictions, analyses, and, yes, wholly imagined worlds through stories, poems, and lyrics conveyed with intricate sentence structures and intentionally arranged words chosen for sound, meaning, assonance, dissonance, resonance, incongruity, comfort, surprise, and more.

Human language is not only the primary human means of passing down knowledge, customs, and history from one generation to the next, it is also an essential means of creating collaboration, cooperation, and social bonds between individuals and groups and within communities. Language allow us to conceptualize and relay abstract concepts like time, morality, and philosophy—none of which are readily accessible to other animals—while also expressing love, rage, delight, sorrow, and profound, exalting beauty. Language is our tool for making a story of not only our lived life, but also of the life we have not yet lived.

So, yes, language matters. A lot.

And writing—because it slows language down—is perhaps the most powerful way we can bring language more alive in our daily lives and, in so doing, transform our writing and our lives for the better.

In this vein, Writing in the Dark is absolutely a place to rigorously advance your writing over time. Just yesterday a longtime member wrote to say, “You have helped me tremendously in regard to my writing. Can't thank you enough.”

But importantly, we do not advance our writing (i.e., bring it more to life) through perfectionism or “rules.” We don’t do it through criticism or judgment, either, whether from others or ourselves. We do it by surrendering those rigid constructs and instead relaxing (no small feat!) into a space of shared humanity where we can finally be soft, open, curious, playful, and attentive. Where we can take risks and make messes, where we can experiment and come to value the space of not knowing, the space of uncertainty, the space of mystery, which is where all new and true things come from. In this way, we discover a vastly more alive relationship with words.

SoWriting in the Dark isn’t about prettifying our writing. To the contrary. It’s about making words matter, making words into art, making words into living shapes that makes us feel something. WITD exercises are all about paying closer attention to the exterior world which, paradoxically, increases our access to and understanding of our interior worlds and revitalizes our experience of living life on this planet right now in a flawed and often ailing yet strangely glorious human body alongside others trying to do the same. We can think about this human relationship with language through the lens of wonder and awe, and the ways in which language increases our capacity for both by allowing us to name what we perceive, which amplifies our sense of presence and connection.

For me, wonder and awe are closely linked to a state of wakeful dreaming, which I would describe as a heightened, porous awareness of the exterior world. I can only attain this heightened awareness through consistently practicing a highly attentive mode in which I am simultaneously alive to both the exterior world and my interior experience of that world (for more on these ideas, see Shimmers/Shards and Daily Sensory Incantation).

This kind of awareness is so expansive that it dissolves the barrier between me and the world by showing me how the world is me and I am the world. Anais Nin said, “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” But in this wakeful dreaming, I think her sentiment is actually dissolved and reversed, so that we see through our initial tendency to see the world as merely a reflection of ourselves, and instead come to see ourselves and the world as one and the same. The distinction may seem subtle, yet I think it matters. I suppose Buddhists would call this a state of oneness. As a writer and an artist, I see it as an essential tool for deepening my ability to write truthfully. Because if we cannot see beyond our first impressions (which usually stem from old assumptions), how can we ever hope to write “one true sentence,” which, according to Hemingway, is all we ever need to do?

A Wonder Inspired Mindset

I also wrote last week about the idea of dreams as a more powerful portal to a more aligned life than “goals”—Can You Feel Homesick for a Dream: Ordinary Magic for the New Year and I am Reaching for a Dream, Not a Resolution. So I was excited to discover yesterday’s Psychology Today column by Jeffrey Davis, author of the book Tracking Wonder, who wrote about how to let wonder lead you, along with three ways to cultivate more wonder and awe in your life:

Engage in "wonder walks": Regularly immersing yourself in nature, with the wide sky above you can light up your senses as well as your brain’s capacity to make new connections and associations. Just 20 minutes in a green space can evoke feelings of wonder and of awe, which in turn can inspire meaningful goals. Studies have shown that even brief experiences of wonder can lead to increased well-being and a greater sense of purpose. While walking, pay attention to the details around you—the patterns of tree branches, the play of light and shadow, or the vastness of the sky.

Reflect on past experiences of wonder: Recall moments when you felt a deep sense of wonder or amazement. What activities or pursuits were you engaged in? What about when you were young? What activities and places helped you feel most alive and free? These reflections can provide clues to goals that are intrinsically motivating and aligned with what in my body of work we call your genius—that innate part of you that you were born with. When you activate your genius, you move more toward the work and life you’re called to.

Cultivate a wonder-inspired mindset: Approach everyday experiences with a sense of curiosity and openness. This mindset can make even mundane tasks feel more meaningful and can guide you toward goals that foster personal growth and fulfillment.

Alongside our Daily Sensory Incantation, these three practices seem like incredible supports to the work we’ll be doing in our For the Joy & the Sorrow intensive starting Wednesday, so I invite you all to take up these practices as a kind of “container” for the writing we’ll be doing these next 12 weeks.

Also, a few updates on what’s coming up at WITD in 2025.

First of all, we’re planning more live events, and we’ll soon be announcing the first quarter’s schedule of write-ins, live salons, author and editor interviews, and other interactive community gatherings on Zoom, which are for founding members. We’ll be doing more of these (along with live video!) in 2025, so if you value interactive gatherings, you can upgrade your membership anytime (the founding level is only $15 more than an annual subscription).

If finances are a hardship for you, you can email us for a comp. We want everyone to be able to write in the dark regardless of money. Conversely, if you love WITD a lot and it has meaningfully improved your writing and your life and you have the means to share it with others, you can always donate subscriptions here or give gifts here. We appreciate everyone here at every level, and we are so so so excited to write with you in 2025.

And finally, last but NOT least, we’re revitalizing the WITD chat feature in 2025 as a hub for members to hang out with one another, start conversations with one another, ask each other questions, swap book recommendations, and lots more. We can think of the chat as a kind of ongoing digital salon, a creative, relaxed social hall for writers in the dark to hang out informally. We’re actually following your lead on this, since many of you have already begun to use the chat in this way! We just want everyone else to know about it.

I think that’s all for now.

Much much love to you,

Jeannine

PS If you are planning to participate in The Joy & The Sorrow, remember you need a copy of Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights. The intensive is for paid members, but you do not need to “sign up.” If you are a paid member, just watch for the Wednesday posts.

PPS If you emailed us last week and are waiting for a response, thanks for your patience. Billie, Z & I just got back from Mexico last night and are slowly re-entering. It is as hard as you might imagine, especially since it was zero degrees in Minneapolis when we deplaned.

PPPS If you haven’t yet joined the chat and want to, here’s how:

How to get started with the WITD chat

1. Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Chat is only on iOS for now, but chat is coming to the Android app soon.

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.