how we show up to the work
join me on a 6-week journey
Here's the truth: I am not always "inspired" when I show up to my writing. I wish I was. But I am not.
Here is more truth: Sitting at the desk, or at the coffee shop table, can be quite boring. Or unpleasant. The temptation to look at my phone, to check out, to do something else, is strong. So strong.
But this is the truth I have learned: 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.
Writing is like meditation. Not that it feels the same — hardly. But rather, those first ten or so minutes. The discomfort: that, oh, that. It hasn't gone away over the years, the initial friction of sinking in. 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. Showing up to the work does.
And this is what separates the merely talented from the stubborn.
The most talented people don't necessarily get published. The most stubborn do.
Look around. Almost everyone who is publishing has at least a modicum of talent for some aspect of storytelling. Nicholas Sparks' prose is a bit simple, sure, but damn, can he make you care about the characters — and then promptly break your heart. John Grisham's characters, on the other hand, are a tad wooden, no? but I gobbled up his books as a teenager because he excels at pacing and holding tension on a page.
Talent counts for little. It’s sheer will that makes or breaks the professional writer. It's the sacred commitment to the project that guides those who stay in relationship with the work, and a resilience to the battering of life around them. Sometimes, life takes you away from a project for a season, or even for many seasons. But the most stubborn cling to that creative seed with a ferocity.
The most stubborn endure the friction of sitting down to write when they don't feel inspired. When all they want to do is mindlessly scroll, or suddenly go do chores, or occupy themselves with anything but the fact that they aren't "feeling it."
The most stubborn wait themselves out.
This is an invitation to join me in waiting yourself out.
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.
Ultimately, we will spend 36 hours together as we show up to our respective projects.
36 hours devoted exclusively to writing.
Our first meeting is Thursday, October 12th (just two weeks from now!) and our last meeting is Tuesday, November 21st. The schedule is:
Tuesdays: 10am-12pm Eastern
Thursdays: 12pm-2pm Eastern
Saturdays: 11am-1pm 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 a short reading and ritual/tradition-inclusive blessing. Each session will also be ritually closed with a benediction.
The cost is $333; a two-part payment plan ($167/month) is also available.
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
This is, obviously, not a writing class. Nor is it a class about spirituality, or astrology. It is, however, a space that I am holding for other writers, and, like everything I do, it consequently is informed by my own practice.
And when better, I thought, then to invite others to (continue or begin to) sink deeply into relationship with their projects than during the six weeks that ambitious Mars will be in its obsessive home sign of Scorpio?
Our first meeting, on October 12th, is when Mars enters Scorpio, after all. And we’ll be tapping into that energy for the six weeks we’re together.
Mars is the action star is the zodiac, sure: where we find our motivation and our work ethic, but also our courage. Scorpio moves with subtlety, but don't mistake quiet for a lack of intent, forethought, and planning. All of these are just as much Mars' domain of wartime/business/athletic strategy as the bombast of the front lines and Marvel explosions.
Think, then, of Mars in Scorpio as the ultimate Survivor contestant who outwits, outplays, and outlasts everyone. Not necessarily the strongest, or even, perhaps, the Book Smartest, although they can well be both: but absolutely the most savvy, with long range strategy and well honed intuition.
Except, for our intents and purposes, we are competing against ourselves.
When Mars is in Scorpio, we are better able to tap into the energy that knows how to carry out a plan. Better able to keep our eye on the long-term prize; we are less distracted by short-term reward. Don’t be fooled into thinking it isn’t emotional — Scorpio cares, and cares deeply, hence the occasional tilt into obsessiveness — but there is an ability to move and flow like water around and through obstacles, rather than expending energy trying to break every door down with a big, fiery blast.
This is the kind of energy where, before you know it, with the application of time and some pressure, you’ve got a finished draft.
Where you’ve outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted your inner critic.
I love this so much. I work during those hours so I can't join, but if you ever produced just 1 recorded session like this, I'd buy immediately and run it while I write at night. Either way thanks for offering the 6 week program. It sounds amazing.