Monday, March 30 to April 5. Your weekly line-up of events, activities, and deadlines for writers who crave inspiration, motivation, accountability, and the support of community.
Mar 29, 2026
Highlights
April is a Lucky Dip month! Earn points! Win prizes! All you have to do to rack up the points this month is show up for yourself and other writers. Click the button to find out how:
April is a Daily Pages month! Crack open your notebook and start filling the pages. Journal about your life, noodle over a new story, rough out the next season of Substack posts, manifest the next great thing in your life. Whatever you do in your Daily Pages, do it by hand (handwriting is superfood for your brain), and then dip into Facebook and drop a pic in To Live & Write.Pics include your notebook, where you’re writing, the fur baby helping you get all cozy up in those pages, or the view from your window (stuff like that) - but not the words on your pages! That’s private.
PS: Every Daily Pages pic you share is worth 5 Lucky Dip points.
April is a POP! (Proof of Progress) month! It’s time for a daily writing flex. Book, blog, or Substack - whatever you’re working on, report back every day you make progress in April. Post a pic (see above for ideas) and tell us what you did with your writing time. Did you add words? Spend an hour revising? Finish a chapter? Start a scene? Untangle a tricky plot? Let us know! Do not share content. That’s dumb.
PS: Every POP! pic you share is worth 5 Lucky Dip points. 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.
New retreat in the works! Janet Salsman (Butterfly Garden Wellness) and I are collaborating on a wellness retreat that will focus on movement and stretching that works with your body, healthy eating choices, sleep hygiene practices (ie: the art of the nap), journaling, storytelling for self-discovery, creative lifestyle coaching, and more. Save the date: August 14-16, 2026.
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.
New for April 2026: POP! (Proof of Progress)
This year, the vast majority of active To Live & Writemembers are elbows deep in their books, blogs, and other long-term projects. It’s the main reason I said goodbye to Alameda Shorts - after a 10-year run, it’s no longer needed. Not for now, anyway.
Hello, Writer. We are in April. Already! The first three months of the year are in the past. A full quarter of 2026 been done and gone.
We can either look at it as time well spent or time wasted, but no matter how we look at it, it’s time we’ll never get back. So, let’s look forward and make a plan. Let’s look for inspiration by celebrating momentum in all its sizes - big, small, tiny, and huge.
Some of our members spent the past three months chewing their way through challenging revisions (I’m in that group). One finished her revisions in March and sent them out to her developmental editor before the end of the month. Everyone else is either plotting their next book, writing their first draft, or querying.
Oops! No. I lied. Not everyone is writing a book. Some of our members are focused on building and maintaining their blog or Substack. Others are pulling together poetry and short story collections. And a few are enjoying the gifts of mini memoir writing.
My job is find ways to serve all of these different members, bring them together, and keep them connected with the To Live & Write community and each other.
I think POP! (Proof of Progress) is a fun way to do just that this month. Spring brings its own energy, and I’m hoping to entice - and inspire - all kinds of different writers to celebrate their progress as April unfolds.
This month, when you make any kind of progress at all on your writing project, post a pic and share details in our To Live & Write community on Facebook. Earn 5 Lucky Dippoints every time you post your POP!
The thing is, if you don’t pay attention and make a record of things, it’s easy to miss out on the landmarks and milestones along the way. It’s easy to look at how much work is left and feel like you didn’t do enough. It’s easy to forget the effort under the kerfuffle about what didn’t get done.
It’s easy, if you’re me, to look at how much life derailed plans and gloss over how much you actually did, like it doesn’t matter.
All progress matters!
I may not be able to check off X amount of chapters revised in three months, but I have entered spring with a deeper understanding of my book’s universe, what needs to be developed, what can fall away, and what is at the core of the story that has to stay. I was confused all through 2025 and deep into January. Now it’s clear.
I’d love to hear about your progress.
Let’s chat about your newbie writer or pro writer needs and how I can help. My email is bronwyn.coach@gmail.com
If you write for any reason, you are welcome in our community. 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 main community, where you can hang out, check us out, and move into engagement at your own pace, on your terms.
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: 7:00-10:00pm 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
Zoom ID provided on request
Comment to request membership in RSVP text thread
In keeping with the spirit and intentions of providing a safe space for writers from all walks of life writing about all kinds of life experiences through imagined fiction and recounted reality, I have made two modifications to the original Proof of Write protocols:
Content warnings are expected from every single writer in attendance, regardless of whether they are considered necessary. This practice has the benefit of inviting the writer to consider message, theme, and presentation of even the most benign ideas and story lines to the potential reader. The more the writer knows about their work, the more readily they can tempt others to read it.
If a writer is uncomfortable sharing deeply personal or provocative work in mixed company, an arrangement can be made ahead of time to move them and members they are comfortable sharing with into a breakout room for their reading, with understanding and acceptance from everyone present.
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!
They say Bloom Where You’re Planted. Okay, then. Bring on spring’s sunny days and light evening breezes - at least until next week, when it’s going to rain. A lot.
Mowgli says, Soak Up the Sun When It’s Shining! Catch all the nature in its glory while you can. This cat leads by example, as you will see (if you can find him).
*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.
