Writing for Our Lives Creative Writing Group
Write with me! Starting this Sunday (today) at 7pm CT
Happy New Year!
This is the second year in a row that I’ve participated in a creative writing workshop in the first month of the year, and I’ve deeply appreciated the structure and support towards making writing a more regular part of my life. This is an ongoing process of figuring out a creative process that works well for me and is part of a major goal this year to rebuild my relationship with commitment to my desires. Discipline has for a while now been an icky word to me, steeped in unrealistic expectations of hyper-productivity under capitalism. Basically, despite knowing that creating habits and sewing commitments are essential to fulfilling my creative desires, I was resistant to discipline for fear of burnout.
After following Yumi Sakugawa for a while and deeply resonating with the ways they reframe desire and discipline, I’ve come to slowly shake loose the fears, doubt, and frustration that were wrapped like barbed wire around any possibility of me committing to myself and my dreams. Thus, workshops have become a great accountability tool and pushed me out of my bounds. But all workshops come to an end, and the costs can add up quickly. The most common writing advice I’ve gotten from seasoned writers I trust is to find a good writing group and determine who your trusted readers are. I have a few loved ones I trust dearly and who I can share my work with, but that never fails to be a scary process. One goal I have for this year (being my 24th year, I set these intentions around my birthday not just Gregorian New Year!) is to see more of my ideas to completion, including the process of revision. And to do this, I’ve got to dedicate time and space to improving my craft, following through on my ideas, and letting myself and my work be transformed through feedback and revision.
Thus enters: Writing for Our Lives!
I’m starting the writing group that I’ve been looking for over the past year. Living in the midst of multiple pandemics has slowed my process of finding a literary community in Dallas via in-person meetups. The wonderful access opened up by the move to virtual events in 2020 has since been set back to the normal standard of in-person only, making it hard to find a writing group that fits my exact needs.
Thus, I’m hosting a fully virtual generative writing group! In the first one or two sessions I’d love to make decisions along with everyone else around frequency, whether we’d like to also do feedback/crit, and if there’s anything in particular we’re looking for in a writing group. I’ll update here on substack and on my website once we’ve made some decisions!
So if you’ve been looking for a low-commitment accountability space to make writing a more regular part of your life, join me! Register at shorturl.at/aioUW.
More soon,
Jasmine