Dear Writers,
I started this daily online writers' workshop when we could no longer come together in a room to write in person. Our response to this pandemic, as writers, is to tell the story.
The first WRITE NOW Online Workshop took place in a zoom room on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. The stories, from the beginning, have been stunning. What was lost during all this and what was found, what we agree to and what we protest, what separation means, what inside means and the new meaning of outside, what the gifts are in all this. What breaks our hearts. How the world has turned itself inside out and where we are as individuals in all this.
What we need to write and share.
I started out with five workshops a week, but the demand has been great, so I added dedicated workshops on many of my free days – for example, on Thursdays it’s mothers and daughters (or sons) writing together. Mothers and children who are separated and others who are together. I also have days where members of specific writing tribes are together, like the Hawai'i writers, Seattle, LA, Portland, NYC. The Boston writers have been a consistent presence in these workshops, as have writers in cities I don’t get to in person.
You don’t have to be a writer to come into a WRITE NOW workshop. You just have to want to mine for the story and then share it.
Once you’ve written your story it’s in the world.
So we’re here pretty much every day and we’re not bored or alone because we’re together writing the story and creating a community of people who write, read, and speak back each other’s words. The witnessing has been as significant as the stories themselves.
Having just moved my in-person May NYC and LA workshops online, I’m now scheduling WRITE NOW workshops through the first week of June. Each workshop is 6.5 hours and times and time zones are noted on the calendar.
At this time my fee is significantly reduced – the WRITE NOW workshops are $80 a day, and if you’ve lost your source of income I’ll work with you. I keep the number of writers down in each of these workshops because we’re writing for an hour at a time. Usually there are seven writers. Nine is my max and that’s reserved for a tribe workshop. I’ll add a half hour to those workshops. The cost is the same.
I so look forward to writing with you.
We’ll stay connected through story. It’s the best way I know to create community now.
I started this daily online writers' workshop when we could no longer come together in a room to write in person. Our response to this pandemic, as writers, is to tell the story.
The first WRITE NOW Online Workshop took place in a zoom room on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. The stories, from the beginning, have been stunning. What was lost during all this and what was found, what we agree to and what we protest, what separation means, what inside means and the new meaning of outside, what the gifts are in all this. What breaks our hearts. How the world has turned itself inside out and where we are as individuals in all this.
What we need to write and share.
I started out with five workshops a week, but the demand has been great, so I added dedicated workshops on many of my free days – for example, on Thursdays it’s mothers and daughters (or sons) writing together. Mothers and children who are separated and others who are together. I also have days where members of specific writing tribes are together, like the Hawai'i writers, Seattle, LA, Portland, NYC. The Boston writers have been a consistent presence in these workshops, as have writers in cities I don’t get to in person.
You don’t have to be a writer to come into a WRITE NOW workshop. You just have to want to mine for the story and then share it.
Once you’ve written your story it’s in the world.
So we’re here pretty much every day and we’re not bored or alone because we’re together writing the story and creating a community of people who write, read, and speak back each other’s words. The witnessing has been as significant as the stories themselves.
Having just moved my in-person May NYC and LA workshops online, I’m now scheduling WRITE NOW workshops through the first week of June. Each workshop is 6.5 hours and times and time zones are noted on the calendar.
At this time my fee is significantly reduced – the WRITE NOW workshops are $80 a day, and if you’ve lost your source of income I’ll work with you. I keep the number of writers down in each of these workshops because we’re writing for an hour at a time. Usually there are seven writers. Nine is my max and that’s reserved for a tribe workshop. I’ll add a half hour to those workshops. The cost is the same.
I so look forward to writing with you.
We’ll stay connected through story. It’s the best way I know to create community now.
This is how ten of us gathered in a room to write in the-before, and how we gather now. And the miracle is, the laughter and the tears and the connection and the stories are all here, as they always were... something that wasn't lost. We're just entering the room in a different way.
Here's to keeping joy in the picture. (Photos: members of the Hawai'i tribe, then and now.)