Inspiration is a lie, and talent is not enough.
Neither will get you a finished draft of a book, script, play, poetry collection.
Here is another truth: Sitting at the desk, or at the coffee shop table, can be quite boring. Or unpleasant. The temptation to look at your phone, to check out, to do something else, is strong. So strong.
But this is the truth I have learned over the years: If I just wait out my discomfort, something will come. Write one terrible scene; the next usually is not so bad. Listen to some music and let my mind go blank for ten minutes. Something usually arises.
In this, writing is like meditation. Those first ten or so minutes — that first half hour, even — are the hardest. The initial discomfort never goes away. But my tolerance for that friction, and my willingness to push through it, to just wait it out in the knowledge that I can beat myself on the long path to my inner daemon —
That, after many years, I have finally learned how to do.
Talent doesn't teach that. Neither does only writing when you're inspired.
But regularly showing up to the work? That builds endurance.
And that is what separates the merely talented from the stubborn.
The most talented people don't necessarily get published. The most stubborn do.
The most stubborn are willing to wait themselves out. Day after day. Page after page.
This is an invitation to join me in endurance training — the kind that leads you to the last page of your book.
I jumped to sign up for Showing Up for the Work as soon as I saw Jeanna's first post about it: it came just when I needed a container in which I could focus on trying to bring my work in progress to a new stage. And it was magic to join this group of writers. I came away from these six weeks with exactly what the session's full title named: a viable draft. A viable draft of my book project! I am so grateful and so excited for the spring.
Such a great group! Fulfills what my old and now inaccessible mornings-writing-at-the-cafe practice used to. Showing Up is an excellently supportive space to battle writer-isolation life without forcing an expectation to socialize, as the point is to actually write. And we do it!
This container created a generative space that spilled out into every part of my life. With this group and space for accountability, I worked through giant structural changes in my project and I was suddenly prioritizing my writing by setting those often elusive boundaries on my time in order to work. It's always true that to write, you have to just sit down and do it, but this container made it easier to come to the page day after day.
I'm someone who works best with community accountability. Jeanna offered Showing Up to the Work at exactly the moment I needed it, and I was able to finish a complete outline and initial synopsis for my entire book over a month before I thought I'd have it done. I'm in such better shape preparing for the next stage of this project because I participated in this container, and I can't wait for us to have another round!
Showing Up for the Work was just the right container I needed to support me through a particularly challenging time in my work. Non-judgmental, supportive, creative, and kind, Jeanna is a highly capable steward and keeper of the flame for the writing process. Being in community with other writers and being able to have a laugh or receive some gentle encouragement to go easy on the days that just weren't going well has been wonderful medicine.
Showing Up is a practice. Jeanna creates a gentle container of intention & community, a space to show up to the solitary work of writing. As someone who periodically struggles with maintaining a regular writing practice (or any regular practice tbh), Jeanna's magic lies in offering a practice of accountability that feels generative, rather than punitive. Downright lovely; what a gift.
This container allowed me to finally prioritize writing in my life. I can't say enough about how helpful it was to have regularly scheduled time that was designated as "writing time". The community around the container kept me accountable, but felt gentle and welcoming, we were working through a process together.
Showing Up to the Work: 6 Weeks To a Viable Draft is a generative write-in for the stubborn writer.
We will write together for two hours a day, three days a week — so, six hours a week, for six weeks, on Zoom. Mostly in silence. Cameras on or off. But with the accountability of being in community together, knowing we are not alone as we write.
We will spend 36 hours together as we show up to our respective projects.
36 hours devoted exclusively to writing.
Our first meeting for the Spring 2024 session will be Monday, April 29th, and our last meeting will be Monday, June 3rd. The schedule is:
Mondays: 1-3pm Eastern
Tuesdays: 1-3pm Eastern
Thursdays: 1-3pm Eastern
Those of you who have worked with me before know that one of my core practices is entering and exiting writing space, and so each Zoom session will open with us setting intentions for our time together. I'll also either begin with poetry or with an astro forecast for the day, along with a ritual candle blessing. Each session will also be closed with a short time of sharing and benediction.
LIFE HAPPENS, and that's okay! Part of why we meet so many times a week is to allow for the inevitable sick days, appointments, surprise meetings, childcare falling through, sleeping through an alarm. Also: the days when you just straight up are not feelinng it. That's okay. Literally everyone misses at least a few sessions.
This isn't grade school, where you don't get a gold star if you don't have perfect attendance. Our goal isn't perfection. It's developing a kind of consistency with our creative practices: tapping the well enough that we weaken our internal resistance to not-writing. And I promise: that happens even if you don't make every single session.
This is an open-genre container: the point is simply community and individual generation, Whether you are writing a novel or a script, a memoir or children’s board book — any and all are welcome.
Those writers who will most benefit from this container are those who will be working continuously on one long-form project. For example:
Those starting a book/script-length project
Those who have stagnated halfway through a project and need to get some juice back
Those who need an injection as they race to the finish line of their current draft
You'll get a confirmation email for your enrollment from Podia, my website host.
I'd encourage you to put every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday between April 29th and June 3rd, from 1-3pm Eastern, on your calendar so that you reserve those hours for writing in advance of the container starting and avoid double booking yourself.
The morning of our first meeting, you'll get an email from me with an invitation to the Zoom room we will use for the duration of the container.