The Joy of Six
6 weeks of unfurling into writing
Dear fellow writer,
There’s something satisfying about the number six. It resembles a koru, an unfurling fern frond symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings. It can be divided by 1, 2, 3, or 6. You can stack six blocks to form a vertical tower or a horizontal wall or an elegant triangle. “Six weeks” sounds a lot less daunting than “half a season” but gets you just as far. In fact, you can make a lot of progress as a writer in just six weeks!
We’re starting a new 6-week Live Writing Studio sequence this week — on Tuesdays at 9-11 am BST (London time) and Wednesdays at 4-6 pm EDT (New York time) — so why not catch that swirling six-y wave and make a 6-week commitment to yourself and your writing?
At each 2-hour Live Writing Studio session, you’ll be invited to:
Reach across time and space to connect with other writers from around the world.
Stretch your creative muscles with a playful 10-minute writing warmup.
Push your current writing project forward with a focused 25-minute writing sprint, aka pomodoro.
Meet with fellow writers for a writing WINDOW (Writing IN Dialogue with Other Writers) to exchange friendly, low-stakes, formative feedback on bite-sized chunks of your work-in-progress, with spot coaching from me.
WriteSPACE Studio members and Creativity Catalyst participants attend for free (no need to register). Other writers can purchase a 6-week Live Writing Studio pass for $120, or $100 if you’re a WriteSPACE member.
The Live Writing Studio is a low-key, super-friendly, incredibly supportive writing community, so no one will berate you if you miss a week. But let’s be honest: aren’t you a lot more likely to show up if you’ve reached into your pocket to pay a modest fee, marked your weekly sessions in your calendar, and told other people what you’re up to?
Better yet, enroll in my 6-week Creativity Catalyst and get all the benefits of the Live Writing Studio sequence at no extra charge. This year’s Catalyst cohort is already absolutely on fire in the online forum! It’s great to see them engaging so creatively and courageously with the Module 1 theme,“Tell Your Story.”
It’s not too late to join us. We'd love to see you there!
In the WriteSPACE
Weekly Wayfinder for Aug 28 - Sept 3
WriteSPACE and WS Studio members: Every week in the WriteSPACE Maproom, you’ll find a featured writing resource to expand your horizons, a playful pomodoro timer to help you keep your writing on track, and a writing-related challenge to sharpen your skills.
This week’s resource: The Writer’s Diet
This week’s timer: Blue Owl
This week’s challenge: Trim and tone your prose
Not a member? Sign up for a free 30-day trial and check out all our great writing resources for yourself.
On the website
ChattieG Gets Drunk on Beer
I’m so grateful every week to all of the generous readers and writers who support my work on this newsletter, either via a paid Substack subscription or through membership in my WriteSPACE community. From time to time, I’ll pull out a popular post from behind the Substack paywall — one that my readers have responded to or that I’m especially proud of — to share on my blog and in my Substack archive. This month, I’ve chosen ChattieG Gets Drunk on Beer, the first in a planned series of “Spotlights on Style” in which I’ll be inviting my readers to savor stylish sentences and paragraphs with me. Together, we’ll look at how these pieces of writing work, why they work so well, and what we can learn from their vocabulary, structure, and syntax. I’ll also shine some light on the stylistic foibles of ChattieG, aka ChatGPT (with continuing thanks to Inger Mewburn for this resonant moniker). If you have an example of a stunningly stylish sentence or an egregiously awful paragraph that you’d like to put to the Sword (so to speak), please contact me with the text and its source, and I’ll consider using it in a future post.
Coming soon
Writing Critically with AI
Don’t miss this free WriteSPACE Special Event coming up next week from 4-6 pm EDT on Tuesday Sep 12. I’ve invited Jane Rosenzweig, Director of the Harvard College Writing Center, to join me for a lively conversation about the risks and rewards of writing and teaching writing in the age of generative AI. For example, who benefits from artificial intelligence tools, and who risks being exploited? What are the implications of ChatGPT and other chatbots for personal privacy, for intellectual property rights, for climate change? How can we keep the English language — including colloquial and regional variations — alive and growing in the face of cultural hegemony and regression to the mean? The first hour of this WriteSPACE Special event is FREE to everyone who registers. In the second hour, Jane and I will lead a hands-on discussion and workshop for WriteSPACE members, digging deeper into some of the questions addressed in the first hour. (Not a WriteSPACE member? Not a problem - Click here for a free 30-day trial). Register now to attend this live Special Event and/or to receive the video link afterwards.
Other writing news
Do you have writing-related news, events, or resources to share? Contact me with a brief description (50 words max), a hyperlink, and a high-quality image.
Spread the joy! Please encourage your friends, colleagues, and students to join me in the WriteSPACE, a vibrant, low-cost writing community with members in 30+ countries. As a WriteSPACE member, you’ll enjoy free access to Helen’s Word and other premium resources including live workshops, exclusive videos, and weekly prompts.
Kia pai tō koutou rā (have a great day) – and keep on writing!
Helen