Monday, July 7 to Sunday, July 13. Your weekly line-up of events, activities, and deadlines for writers who crave a creative practice -- as well as those who already have one.
Yearning and The Way of Storyis Saturday! Discussion. Lab. Assignment. Followed by feedback and a 1:1 focused on your next step. Saturday, July 12. 10am-2pm. In person in Alameda, CA (location shared after registration).
The next 4-day writing retreat is Write in Wine Country, August 1 - August 4 in Sonoma County. Spoilers: There will be wine tasting and there will be a pool. Overnight and day-trip options available.
Scroll down for the full schedule of FREE events & activities for writers.Scroll even further for a list of upcoming workshops & labs PLUS this week’s picture of Mowgli. You have to see it; he’s such a vibe.
To RSVP to anything in The Week Ahead, text me if you know me, email me if you don’t: bronwyn.coach@gmail.com
Looking for a hyper-local, Saturday morning retreat?
If you’re bummed about missing the June Tiny Retreat, make sure you claim a seat for the one in June. It’s so refreshing to spend time writing at a table with a whole bunch of other writers, surrounded by pleasant sounds and easy things to rest your eyes upon between words.
Tiny Retreat
Saturday, July 19
10:00am to 2:00pm
Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden
$75 includes: Tiny Retreat, one beverage, one menu item
Featuring
Four hours of structured writing time and guided focus
Inspiration, motivation, and accountability tailored specifically to you and your needs on this day
Optional 1:1 private session with the coach (hey! that’s me)
Feedback on your work
Workshopping on request
Help moving through writers block
Invitation to an exclusive Sunday night Proof of Write.
This is the Monday version of Elevensesjust for summer. Enjoy discussion with other writers about writing, the writing life, and your WIPS over a tasty breakfast in a lovely cafe patio.
Mondays: 10:00am-Noon PST. Members only (membership is free)
Gather with us at the beginning of the week at cute coffee shop on the west end with a quiet, shaded back patio and plenty of room to write quietly in the company of other writers.
Mondays: 2:00-4:00pm PST
Location:
Signal Coffee
1536 Webster Street, Alameda CA
Free - you buy your own food and drink
3. 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)
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!* Zoom provided on request.
6. Proof of Write ~ on hiatus for reset
We are adapting the Proof of Write schedule to accommodate writers who can’t make it Friday nights and/or have requested different sub-groups.
In the near future, look for a woman’s group, a men’s group, a co-ed group, and different days and times during the week.
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. Free to join.
Free for members. (Membership is free)
Subject to core member availability; minimum 4 writers*
hosted by Bronwyn or the next available core member
Zoom ID provided on request
7. Lend Me Your Voice ~ returning soon
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.
You and a handful of other writers show up, each with 800 words of a book, a blog, or a short story that has already been edited (original work only). You throw your work in the pile. We go around the room taking turns picking up what someone else has thrown down and reading it out loud for everyone to enjoy.
Why do we do it? It’s one thing to read your own work in your head. It’s another thing to read it out loud, when you know what’s coming and you can control emphasis, nuance, and flow. It’s quite another thing to hear someone else read it out loud when they have no idea what’s coming up on the page.
This exercise is 75%** learning about how your words land with your readers and 25%** learning how to get comfortable reading out loud to a live audience.
Workshops & Labs
It’s time for a pilot lab! You know what that means: Extraordinary value for the price and my gratitude for helping to shape the future of said lab. Will it remain a lab? Grow into a workshop? Become the theme of a retreat? Help me figure it out for a fair price.
Yearning and The Way of Storybegins with a 4-hour lab on Saturday, July 12. The time you spend on the homework assignment is up to you. We open with a discussion on the nature of yearning as a crucial part of character development, then move on to the form yearning takes in the writer as a motivator to write. Next, we get into the lab part of the day where we experiment with ways to write yearning and wrap up with an assignment tailored to each individual writer. $175 includes my feedback and assessment of your assignment, as well as ideas for moving forward.
This lab is ideal for writers who are unsure how to begin bringing their big concept down to the page, struggling with the middle or the ending, wading through revisions, or just want to write more compelling characters that leave the reader satisfied but wanting more.
Saturday July 12
10am-2pm
In person - Alameda - location shared with registration
The Storytellers Toolkit for hands-on self-editing is the ideal workshop for writers who want to learn to improve their skills as they’re writing and working on revisions so that when it’s time to submit to a professional editor, an agent, or a publication, it’s as clean and compelling as possible. Early summer.
Late summer brings back the Live & Thrive workshop and her companion lab, The Art of Live/Write Journaling.
Do you need to Unstick Ur Stack before summer? At the moment, this workshop, which focuses on figuring out what to do with your Substack (or blog), is on the calendar for the fall. If you want it sooner, let me know. It just takes a few people to make it happen.
Do you need fodder for your ’stack? I’m elbows deep in the design of a new workshop:The Writer’s Path: Using Journal Reflections to Craft Compelling Stories. It might need a snappier title, but I’m excited about this one — and its sister lab, Ink to Inspiration. Pilots coming soon!
What’s the difference between a lab & a workshop?
I’m so glad you asked!
Labs are for showing up, sitting down, and writing to a specific theme with guidelines and guidance.They are containers of time and place where inspiration, motivation, momentum, and accountability thrive. In other words, we do a lot of writing in these labs. They are designed to hone your skills through practice, experimentation, and play.
Labs are generally offered in 90-minute sessions, but some may take 3 hours or even 6 hours across a weekend. They tend to be about generative writing. They’re for testing the boundaries of established comfort zones in your writing and bringing fun back into writing and storytelling.
Workshops run for several weeks — four, six, twelve, or fourteen, depending on the nature of the work. While labs are about playfully expanding your style as a writer, workshops are more about taking your creative identity seriously and proving to yourself that you are the writer you have always suspected yourself to be.
Workshops have been designed to introduce concepts of the craft and focus on producing work towards a tangible goal. They are predominantly online, with a few in-person exceptions. Workshops take into account lifestyle, mindset, motivation, and what it takes to sustain engagement in a long-term project, like writing a book or setting the foundation for a thriving blog or Substack.
Labs are great for practicing what you’ve learned in a workshop, keeping your hand in, and mastering the art of diving right in to make storytelling magic when you don’t have much time.
Inspiration, Motivation, & Accountability!
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.
Membershipis free!
Join To Live & Writetoday for inspiration, motivation, and accountability from a strong community of writers who meet and connect on Facebook but gather on Zoom and in the real world whenever we can.
There is room for you, and you are welcome.
Don’t like Facebook but still want community? Check back for chats. I need help getting them going, so please don’t be shy if you see something that piques your interest.
Gratuitous Kitty Shot!
Mowgli has a new favorite spot. This ancient footstool has seen better days, but never better visitors. It has officially been claimed for summer late night TV watching. I can put my feet somewhere else.
*Paid subscribers receive exclusiveinvitations to Top SecretWrite Alongs and their in-person counterparts, the Top Secret Write Ins.
