Writing friends, can you relate? Each new year starts with such a fresh sense of hope—so many exciting creative projects to dive into!—aaaaand then quickly snowballs into that familiar deluge of emails, to-do lists, & writerly resistance (hello procrastination, my old friend.) The sheer cognitive dissonance of falling from restful holidays into what one meme aptly dubbed “the Monday of months”… it’s a LOT.
Let’s remember to give ourselves grace as we navigate all of this, & to keep our writing practices wild, experimental, & judgement-free. We all deserve, and must fiercely protect, space where our inner artist can feel inspiration instead of intimidation. (If word count crises could be solved by guilt, I assure you, we’d know by now. But they cannot.)
So, a slightly uncharacteristic email from me, but I’m hoping to sprinkle some playful creativity into what has already become a very serious year.
Hope to see you at the workshops below!
xx Loren
Writerly Magazine Reminder!
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29 January Workshop
🧶 Create Club ✂️
10am PST • 1pm EST • 6pm GMT (on zoom)
Consider this your artist date for the week! BYO craft project for this delicious meetup of loosey goosey, wildly creative, very non-professional FUN.
Maybe you want to collage old magazines? Maybe you want to sip & stitch or sketch your dog’s portrait? Maybe you want to dust off the piano, or peel lemons for limoncello, or just JOURNAL without all of the day-to-day writing pressures...?
Part community mixer, part flow state playground. Come one come all!
30 January Workshop
👩🎨 The Artist’s Way Journaling 📔
10am PST • 1pm EST • 6pm GMT (on zoom)
I’m thinking of this as an Artist’s Way refresher course—a lovely way for us Julia Cameron devotees to come together & journal through some of the best exercises from her cult classic. (Though if you’ve never taken her self-described “course on creative recovery,” then this would also be the perfect way to dip your toe in & see what all the fuss is about.)
You bring the notebook (& ample beverages), I’ll bring the soul searching Qs—and let’s dig into some inner artist exploration together.
⏰ Our Next Writing Marathon ✍️
Tuesday 6 February (on zoom)
9:30am PST • 12:30pm EST • 5:30pm GMT
Join us for the next incarnation of our Tuesday Sprint Marathons! Open to all genres, these are a fantastic way to get 2-3+ full hours of writing done in one fell swoop, & to dive into supportive community.
Have some magazines you want to pitch? Have some nagging marketing tasks you need to power through? Have a newsletter you finally need to get into people’s hands? This accountability container is the perfect motivation to get you there.
Everyone’s first session is always free, & you can cancel any time. We also only meet the first Tuesday of each month, so a very doable commitment! Why not start February off on a strong note? ☻
Thank you for being a part of this community! It means a lot. Please note there is no expectation to upgrade to the “paid” Substack tier—this is a feature I use so that those of us who meet up each week can have a private chat room. If you’d like to receive writerly reflections in your inbox more often however, hopping on a donation tier allows me to do just that.
xx Loren
Making art is not frivolous. We humans need the self-expression, flow, and connection that come from creativity as surely as we need food, shelter, and oxygen. I know the state of the world can feel heavy, and I know it can be an impossible place to make art from. Here is one of my big goals for 2024: I’d like to invite everyone I know to think about how we can both take care of ourselves through art & community, and also make the world a better place. If you are in a place of financial stability, some of my favorite organizations to donate to are Doctors Without Borders, Save The Children, Carbon180, ASPCA, and World Wildlife Fund. You might also think about donating non-perishable goods to your local food bank, fostering animals in your home, or getting involved at your community garden. We can do hard things. We can contribute to positive change in the world, and live fulfilling creative lives at the same time. These have never been mutually exclusive–they are, in fact, stronger together.