Hi writer,

SUNDAY WRITING SHENANIGANS

This Sunday, a whole whack of writers will be meeting at the (now-monthly) Writing in the Junkyard online writing retreat. 

We’ll write. Alone, but together. 

It’s so good. It’s better than being alone (and I truly prefer to be alone in most things).

I don’t know about you, but my solo writing sessions pretty much go like this: 

1. Whining all the way to the desk. Gahhhhh. 

2. Whining as I open the document (if I even get that far — I like to lead myself to water and then poke around on Reddit, looking for the nail polish that will change my life). Gahhhhhh.

3. Whining as I decide how to spend the first five minutes of writing. This can take 1 - 283,900 minutes, depending. 

4. Silence as my brain quits going Gaahhhhh and shifts into Hmmmmmmmm. 

5. Time’s up! I jump in surprise as my timer sounds.

Writing with others makes 1 and 2 easy. Number 3 is easier, too, and numbers 4 and 5 are a given in the Junkyard, to the point that I work very hard to make my voice as soft as possible as I announce that our writing session is done and it’s time for a break. And I still sometimes see people jump at the sound of my voice. That’s because they were IN THE ZONE. 

Would you like to join us?

If you’ve never given writing online a shot, you’ll be gobsmacked at how well it works.  

Or if it’s simply been a while since you were elbows-deep in your writing, the Junkyard is a gorgeous way to slide back in. Easily. 

You don’t even have to come for the whole thing, though I’d love it if you did. If you can only come for a few hours? Do that! It’s totally open door.

(Free for Ink Village, as always - just make sure you’re on the list I sent you either in email or in the Slack.) 

KICKSTARTER PREALERT

In other big news: my memoir on Kickstarter is up for pre-alert! 

This is my NEW MEMOIR about creative burnout and recovery, and it’ll be going live on October 6th! If you click below and tap the “Notify Me” button, you’ll be alerted as soon as it’s ready to go. 

A behind the scenes note: You tapping the “Notify Me” button really helps it get seen by others at Kickstarter! So thank you! 

Now, whether or not I see you on Sunday, I hope you’re getting some of your own writing done. Here’s our quote of the week from the Writing Guild Sessions (online writing every week through Ink Village):

"Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you." Henri Frederic Amiel

You don’t need much light, my friend. Just a flickering candle and ten minutes of tapping out a few words: that’s all writing ever is. We don’t have to be confident about what we’re doing—we will almost never be that. We just have to DO it.

Onward!

Rachael

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