Check out the brochure and see if it might be for you. We’ve talked through psychological stumbling blocks, story plot holes, new creative directions, marketing challenges-writing may be a solitary pursuit when it comes to putting words on the page, but by god we writers need our people.Īre you writing a novel? How’s it going? If your writing is languishing without social support, or you need craft guidance while working on your novel, or accountability to get it finished, I’m once again putting together a small group of writers for my Your Novel Year program. Outside, with proper social distancing enforced, my writer friends and I were still able to share stories from our contained, Covid-controlled existences, and felt less alone. To rekindle that magic, we decided to meet up a few times in one of my favorite ways-around a campfire. I’m sorely missing my weekly writing get-togethers at a local grocery store, that over the years saw all eight participating writers move forward in our careers by getting agents or MFAs. This year, trying to stay a bit warmer, we relied upon negative rapid Covid tests and gathered indoors.īut as a writer, I need more than my family. It was fun, but not destined to be a tradition. Last Christmas, my family orchestrated a “Christmas hike” and a quick present exchange behind my younger son’s house. We figure out ways to do what we need to do, even if that means gathering during a pandemic.

Thanks to our gloriously complex brains, humans are also highly adaptive creatures, which is what has kept us at the top of the food chain. Are you living your best life, as well? If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that we might be living on a tighter deadline than we once thought. But if you were writing a story you hoped might be publishable, you wouldn’t cast the virus as a mustache-twirling villain plotting evil deeds he’d be the hero of his own tale, trying to ensure his chance to live out his best life. Sometimes it can feel like Covid is punishing us for being human. Not to mention that we are biologically programmed to benefit from touching one another. Sometimes, the only way we can think straight is to hear our thoughts and beliefs reflected back to us by trusted others. We reinforce our bonds by living in pods, and when that unit eventually disperses, we enjoy reuniting and catching up. Snakes are solitary animals, typically leaving the “nest” within one week after birth. I suppose if we were snakes we wouldn’t care one wit that we’re spending so much time apart. Anyone else feel like they’re caught in a hamster wheel? It’s funny-I came here today to write about gathering, only to realize that I’d shared the same thoughts here last year.

The art of falling kathryn craft