A Note on Writing Together and the Direction of this Newsletter.

Feedback, pls!

My life has changed a lot since I started this newsletter three whole years ago.

When I started the newsletter, it was called Gathering, and I was on a social media hiatus. I was working full-time as a nanny.

Now, it’s more focused towards writers, and I am a PhD candidate in creative writing. My time is more limited, and I am under a lot of pressure, with less financial resources.

Etteilla’s Livre de Thot Tarot (ca. 1789)

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First, my thoughts about the Writing Together Session. I would truly value your feedback in the comments.

Today there is no Writing Together, because I am buried in work. I have grading, readings for class, an upcoming big assignment, my own writing, office hours, and applications I need to fill out to residencies etc. Plus, I have to read a bunch of submissions for our Literary Magazine, Southeast Review.

I am trying to think of how I can make the sessions more sustainable for me as I move through this intense first year of my PhD, and I’m interested in your feedback as readers of this newsletter. There were only a few people who came to the writing session.

I am leaning towards two thirty minute writing sessions a week.

These sessions would essentially be body doubling sessions. There wouldn’t be verbal introductions or check-ins, but everyone would be prompted (not required) to drop any info/check-ins/links into the chat. We’d just work together for thirty minutes, and then the session would end.

This would also make it much easier for these sessions to be for all subscribers, because it requires much less of my energy (as well as less of yours).

Would you be interested in that? Let me know in the comments.

There’s also the possibility for one longer meeting a month, where we can gather as writers, discuss what we’re working on and having a hard time with, and support each other. This wouldn’t be a writing session but there could be some resources provided and possibly some short reflective writing.

Let me know what you think of that.

As we eke our way towards the new year, I am also contemplating incorporating some concepts from the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin, as well as some other books about finances, consumption, and climate change.

For years I’ve been wanting to have a financial new year’s resolution, based not only in getting a handle on my own finances and the financial lineage of my family, but also on consuming less goods in the name of conservation and climate change. I’ve wanted to enact this resolution in a public way, laying out my personal finances and recording my journey.

As writers who also deal in the world of money and goods, I’m wondering if you’d be interested in following something like that, or even participating.

Let me know in the comments?

I’ll see you again soon, but while you’re here, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paying for someone’s newsletter has a big impact, and your subscriptions motivate me to make this into something worthwhile.

I’ll be sending out a discussion thread tomorrow! Be on the lookout for it.