Dear reader,
I am currently in the miracle and the madness of writing a long form non fiction book, sprinting to the end of my first draft and wondering if I can do it in time.
There is a quickness to my efforts, a speed at which I write. The book is entirely outlined, every bone in its perfect place waiting for the muscle and ligaments to form around it. The flesh will come last after more eyes are on it that know how the flow should go just as well as I do.
The chapters are well placed although five of them seem exactly the same right now and I am still trying to figure out how they are different. How is walking different than swimming and how is quilting different than reading and how is any hobby different from a job but the same as creative practice? That is what I am tending to this morning, how are things the same and how are they different.
I took the advice of my dear friend Jacqueline and created my own outline for the next two weeks of writing. As Jacqueline suggests in this beautiful newsletter about planning a cave like retreat I first told my friends I wouldn’t be as available over the next two weeks.
I then made a specific morning routine and some rules for myself around timing. I thought of inviting the Landscapes crew into my morning writing time but when it comes to the depths of this book I know that what it wants right now is for me to be in complete aloneness with it. The duet is ours to tangle with.
At Home Solo Writing Retreat December 30 - January 13
Each morning I will write from 5:30-7:30am. No phone or emails allowed before writing. I will take a 10 min break and from 7:40-8am I will meditate. From 8-8:30am I will do my morning pages while the sun comes up.
Some days have other writing times blocked out whether it is alone or in Landscapes. Many of the days include a creative advising session or two and miscellaneous meetings or podcast recordings. Every day I take a bath after work which wraps by 3pm at the latest. From 4-6pm I am allowed to do whatever feels good. Some movement, a walk, a little admin work on the computer, read, etc. By 6pm computer is shutdown for the day and by 7pm the phone is off until the following day after morning pages.
I have been working on this book since Spring of 2021 and it is finally time for its first full form to be complete. I feel ready and illuminated by the process of teasing out what has been in my head and in my google docs for all this time.
Writing this newsletter today feels like any other week, but I also know that it is time to cross the threshold into the new year. I am looking forward to using Landscapes on Tuesday to hold some space for my own process of saying goodbye to this strange year and walking into the next one full of hope and spaciousness.
Solstice Super Sale + Class Recordings Retirement Party
This is your last chance to get the bundle and check out all the other amazing recorded classes that are for sale like Newsletter Class, The People’s Research, Organizing A Day, and more! You’ll have lifetime access to them but in the new year they will no longer be for sale! Seven classes for $99 plus Five bonus Notion templates :)
Mari Mu is hosting a WhatsApp group for anyone wanting to take a break from social media in the new year
Anna Fusco is also hosting a group for people who want to regularly meet to discuss being off social media. It is also 50% off for paying subscribers of her newsletter.
Being deactivated from social media and deleting Substack are the best gifts I’ve ever given myself after quitting drinking :) They are not easy to do alone - consider joining one of those groups!
I’ve been going back and listening to the first few episodes of Off The Grid and its reminding me how possible it can be to do our jobs without social media
Monday Monday now has classifieds. Buy an ad here.
Join the waitlist for Mapping Your Creative Business (January 18 + 19) to be the first to find out when registration opens. Space is limited.
Reading : Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
In building out my website to be its own world I added a House For Rent page where you can see the dates that you can rent my house for your own self led retreat, sublet, or vacation
I enjoyed Keeping Finance Personal by Ellyce Fulmore - I feel like out of all the financial books I have read in the last few weeks it was the most conscious of race/class/neurodivergence
My friendships : I had a year of no major friend breakups or shifts and I think that is a true testament to being in alignment with myself and who I surround myself with. Feeling deeply tethered to the herd as I go into 2025.
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PO Box 252 Cedar, MI 49621
Landscapes : A writing group for all genres
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Our attentions' directions feels serendipitous- I'm currently revisiting Dean Spade's Mutual Aid as a companion in my preparation of a workshop session for a budding organization. Drawing on inspiration from many thinkers & doers from around the world, I'm dreaming of a movement in which everyone sees themselves and their lives in; one in which people see themselves as subjects of a revolution, not only as administrators of it; in which we are in on going conversation with capacity and vision, right sizing our work, again and again, for the container of our relationships. May it be so.
Raizel! Love knowing we're re-reading the same book right now :) What a beautiful wish and prayer for this new year. Thank you for sharing :)