Let's Write Together
checking in + a writing prompt for February
Hi writers,
It’s the middle of February and, for me, the beginning of 2024 has raced by in a blur. Has it been this way for you, too? When I sat down to write this newsletter, my first impulse was just to reach across the interwebs and say hello. To check in. So I’m going to do that. How is everyone? How are your writing projects going? What pesky writing problems are you running up against? What books are you reading for research? Are you finding time to write?
After a very productive 2023 on the writing front, I haven’t been finding much time to write these days. That’s OK. I’ll get there again. However, 2024 has been full of workshopping —both of the workshops that I lead (one on Zoom and one in person) are in full swing, and I look forward to them so much. Sitting around a communal table with other writers, reading their words, engaging in lively and generous discussion about what works and what could work better, is nourishing. I’ve been working with some of these writers fror years now, and getting to see their writing grow and evolve, seeing their confidence reach new heights, is one of my favorite things.
On days when I can’t quite get to the page I’ll read a few pages of the several books I’ve carted home from the library. Right now I’m on a memoir kick.
As for you writers, I hope you’re well. I hope you’re finding time to write, even if it’s just a few lines in a journal that nobody will ever see. That counts. I hope you’re reading books that make you think, maybe books that put something in words that you’ve been struggling to describe. I hope you’re remembering, on those solitary writing days, that there are lots of writers out there just like you, that you’re a part of vast community of interesting and searching people, struggling to understand and document what it means to be human.
Each month, toward the middle of the month, I offer a writing prompt for my paid subscribers. First I want to welcome and thank the new subscribers who have joined us so far in 2024. Your support is so appreciated, I seriously do a little happy dance every time I get the notification.
Paid subscribers get access to monthly writing prompts, plus access to my entire Substack archive and occasional paid subscriber-only posts. And they get the joy of knowing that they are supporting the literary ecosystem at large. I really do believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
If you haven’t worked with a prompt before, my writing prompts are sentences, phrases, questions, objects, colors, shapes or media that are meant to jump start creative thinking in your writing practice. Because we never know what the prompt will be, we aren’t meeting it with any expectations, which means that sometimes we end up surprising ourselves.
My writing prompts are crafted with the idea that they will be used by writers of memoir and creative nonfiction, but they could prove useful to other kinds of artists too, particularly visual artists and dancers.
When you’re working with these prompts, don’t worry too much about “finishing” a piece of writing — instead, try to think of it as an opportunity to spend a few minutes with your creativity and perhaps to unearth some new ways of thinking.
Writer Sari Botton, who edited one of my favorite anthologies Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, and also publishes the fabulous newsletter
, says:“I love a good prompt. It can awaken your brain to all kinds of possibilities, some that had already been lingering right under the surface of your consciousness, just waiting for a nudge, others seemingly out of the blue.”
Let’s begin:
Let’s take three minutes — and no more than that — for prep. Before we work with prompts, especially if we are working outside of the classroom, we should take time to prepare. This pre-writing process is important because it sets the stage for the writing you're going to do.