Monday, May 11 to Sunday, May 17. Your weekly line-up of events, activities, and deadlines for writers who crave inspiration, motivation, accountability, and the support of community.
May 11, 2026
Highlights
The May Tiny Retreat is this Saturday! Get your write on with us and make some powerful progress on your WIP--or get one started. Let this be the firm but gentle push that gets you across the threshold between I want to and I'm doing it! In person at Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden. 10am-2pm (PST). $75 includes one menu item and one beverage.
A seat has opened up on the Write on the Rails June train retreat! Is it yours?We were full a few days ago, but one of our writers had to bow out. You have until May 31 to decide, but please be aware that train fare goes up the closer we get to departure. Friday, June 19-Monday, June 22. Newbies welcome! Email me ASAP: bronwyn.coach@gmail.com (repeat retreaters can text me).
The Butterfly and Be Wellness and Writing Retreat has four spots open. This retreat is in August, and it's like nothing I've done before in 30 writing retreats. I get to collaborate with Janet Salsman (Butterfly Garden Wellness)! I bring the journaling, the wild writing, and the wonder that is the art of storytelling for self-discovery. Janet brings the movement and exercise (designed to support the writer's body), healthy food prep demos, and lessons in the ROI of good sleep hygiene. Did I mention wine tasting Friday afternoon? August 14-16, 2026. Cloverdale, CA. $499 - includes meals but does not include accommodations. Email me for info (this is a pilot retreat so there are no website pages to link to yet): bronwyn.coach@gmail.com
Have you tried writing in the company of other writers? Membership in To Live & Writegives you access to two in-person and two virtual writing meetups every week (membership is free). Give it a whirl. See what you think. There is room for you, and you are welcome to write with us.
https://bronwynemery.com/events
Need a coach to help you through the tricky bits or set a pace and make a plan that fits with the natural rhythms of your life? Drop me a line. The first consultation is free.
And I blame my Daily Pages habit. To be clear, I blame the fact that I haven't been able to practice my Daily Pages habit in a couple of weeks. Vertigo is not the kind of bitch that lets you (me) look down at a journal while writing, let alone allow you (me) to write in any kind of legible penmanship.
Grumble grumble grumble.
The thing is, I've been hit by some heavy emotional curveballs this year and altough I'm proud of myself for not letting them snowball into avalanches, I have been bottling them up and white-knuckling through a lot. The curveballs, big and small, have been weighing on me and, lo and behold, would you believe it, each new stressful addition has done some wacky math on my mental state and just made me exponentially sadder and sadder.
It's hard to surf depression* when the piles of muck come at you from the inside and the outside month after month for several months in a row. Those waves start dumping and it's all I can do to keep my hand on the board, let alone get back up and ride the waves with any kind of equanimity.
So when I got some disappointing (read: upsetting) news at Mothers Day brunch, I stuffed my feelings into their jar, where they belong, but in order to keep them from spilling out I had to screw the lid on so tight I couldn't speak. Only the tears leaked out here and there.
I tried to hide them from my son, who was sitting across from me, but my shoe got caught on the chair leg when I got up to go to the bathroom and cry in secret and I know he saw at least one stupid tear before I could get the shoe back on and continue my oh-so-graceful exit stage right.
My daughter thinks I'm mad at her because I refused to talk to her. I couldn't make the words without breaking. I'm not mad at her.But I am hurt. I'm hurt and angry at the universe for the position I'm in, for the choices I keep making, out of love and in accordance with my values, that end up costing me the things I yearn for most--things that come so easily to other people in the family.
A disagreement from this week's Elevenses just popped into my head and kicked me in the place that makes groans, because thinking about it means I have to re-examine a core attitude that has directed my life for I don't know, my whole life?
We were talking about regret at Elevenses, what it means, whether it's a good thing, whether it's a bad thing, and how we can hold such different beliefs around one word.
Half the table believe regret is a good thing, in that it proves you care about your words and actions and their consequences. The other half was on my vibe, believing regret is a waste of emotion. That is not to say it's okay to go around doing whatever you want without regretting the effect your words and actions--that's not at all where I'm coming from.
I mean that when you intentionally make decisions to speak and act in specific ways, and you do it based on your highest sense of right as well as the information you have at the time, there is no point beating yourself up for getting it wrong. You, quite literally, did your best. I, quite literally, have been doing my best.
But in this moment, I am full of regret.
In this moment, I regret ignoring my emotions and avoiding my Daily Pages, especially after the vertigo passed. I really don't think I would have responded to things at brunch the way I did if I'd been in a more centered state. At least things wouldn't have hit me so hard.
In this moment, I am fighting not to regret the decisions, actions, sacrifices, and compromisesthat have put me in this place where I feel so deeply hurt. I am struggling to remember the worth it part.
Of course they were worth it. All of them. All of my decisions, actions, sacrifices, and compromises were woth it--because they were all motivated by love and my personal values. I would not have wanted to do any of it differently because then everything would have been different.
But in this moment, there's an ache there that I regret not being able to rise above. This thing is not a wave-it-away, no big deal thing. This thing digs deep into a root negative belief about myself and my value to others as a human being. It's not a good thing. It's not an easy thing.
Clearly, this thing is a thing that requires breaking open. It requires attention instead of neglect, at long last. Investigation instead of denial. Spotlight right on it, instead of letting it melt back into the shadows and linger like the bad smell it is.
It requires intentional journaling in my Daily Pages.
My Daily Pages practiceis where I developed the ideas around storytelling for self-discovery, started to noodle around with them, and tested out my theories until I was ready to bring them to workshops and retreats as creative experiments in fiction and non-fiction. The hard stuff, like today, has driven it it all. Okay, that's probably a lie. But it sure as hell feels like it, in this moment.
I have a habit of designing exercises that I need for my own personal and professional development. When they work, I get to turn them into workshops so that other people can experience whatever benefits come with them--fun, flexing, confidence, new perspectives, and above all, new dimensions of creativity.
If you're curious about storytelling for self-discovery, you're in luck. I've decided to build a course around the concept, coming soon.
If you write for any reason, you are welcome in ourcommunity. Let our voices drown out any negative voices holding you back. We are all about support and encouragement. We see you. And we would love for you to join us.
This is the link to the Facebook group To Live & Write, where you can hang out, check us out, and move into engagement at your own pace, on your terms. You don’t have to be in there to join us for Write Ins and Write Alongs, but it’s a good place to start.
Not on Facebook? Let me know in the comments where to find you or email me for easy ways to get in on our gatherings. Newbie or professional writer, let’s chat about your needs, how I can help, and how you can benefit from membership in To Live & Write. My email is bronwyn.coach@gmail.com.
Hyper-local, super productive, 4-hour writing retreat
There’s nothing quite like quietly writing in the company of other writers, with someone else facilitating time and responsibility to really feed your creative need. Come delight yourself with what you can get done with us on a Saturday morning.
Comment to request membership in RSVP text thread*
2. Elevenses
Join our weekly in-person gathering to discuss writing, the writing life, and your WIP with people who know what you’re talking about, feel your pain, and delight in your success.
Tuesdays: 11:00am-1:00pm PST. Members only (membership is free)
Jump online to write in the company of other writers. Borrow their focus and flow, lose yourself in parallel play, and benefit from body doubling without having to leave your home. Join when you can, leave when you have to.
Tuesdays: 7:00-9:00pm PST. (excluding the 3rd Tuesday of the month))
Comment to request membership in RSVP text thread**
4. The Wednesday Write In
Start your day off with a hot cup of coffee and put some strong writing energy back into the middle of your week. Write Ins are in-person writing sessions where we gather to write quietly in each other's company.
The Top Secret Write Along is an online writing session where we gather to write quietly in each other’s company without having to leave the house.
Fridays: Private Paid Subscriber Perk!***
If you’re a paid subscriber, comment for membership in RSVP text thread**
6. Proof of Write
Wrap up the weekend and kick off the week with positive feedback.
This online gathering is a safe place for writers to share up to 5 minutes of raw, rough, or polished work written the previous week. Every participant must give - and then sit still to receive - positive feedback.
Proof of Write
8pm on Zoom Sundays (meeting ID provided with RSVP text or email)
Free for members. (Membership is free)
Subject to core member availability; minimum 4 writers
hosted by Bronwyn or the next available core member
Paid subscriber perk! This is your chance to listen to how your words land in a reader’s mind and mouth, where the text flows, where it stumbles, whether your voice and tone hit the way you wanted, and more.
Write on the train from the SF Bay Area to Reno, Nevada on Friday. Write in a resort hotel across the weekend. Write on the train from Reno back to the Bay Area on Monday. This one fills up fast. Email me ASAP if you have questions: Bronwyn.Coach@gmail.com
For writing tips and habit hacks from your friendly neighborhood writing + creativity coach (hey! that’s me!), sneak peeks at what’s going on in my workshops, examples of my own writing, and exclusive invitations to secret writing situations, consider a paid subscription.
Gratuitous Kitty Shot!
In honor of Mothers Day: Baby Mowgli. Who knew how much mischief, bossiness, and awesomeness was going to sprout from this little acorn?
*Surfing depression is my own personal term for my own personal coping skills, developed personally for me based on what I respond to and my relationship with depression. I am absolutely not advising or coaching or suggesting to anyone that this mindset is appropriate for anyone but myself when it comes to dealing with depression.
**Group text threads are for women and non-binary writers.
***Paid subscribers receive exclusiveinvitations to Top SecretWrite Alongs and their in-person counterparts, the Top Secret Write Ins.
