Writing Club
This is the first time this Writing Club is happening. The idea was born when I posted my substack piece with writing advice (“Writing Hack: Write It Just Like That”) to the London Rational-ish community. It sparked an interesting discussion with people sharing their work-in-progress drafts and discussing their writing problems and obstacles. It was nice and lovely. The idea of this Writing Club is to replicate something like this offline.
Thus the format is TBD. But I'm thinking of something like:
Share drafts with each other in advance on the group chat
Introductions in a circle: tell about yourself, what you are working on, what would you like to chat about, what kind of advice you'd like to receive (if any), what kind of advice you would like to give (if any)
Split into circles: talk, write, share stories & advice, etc.
You might end up coming and getting the exact advice you need to unblock you on the specific draft you are working on right now. You might end up coming and giving someone advice that unblocks them while realizing your draft is best abandoned. We also might just get together, hang out and have lovely time together without making any progress on the writing. Who knows what the future might hold.
In the same spirit, this Writing Club might end up happening only once, might end up happening a couple more times or it might end up happening regularly.
Suggested Reading
1. I feel a bit weird shilling my work, but it's the piece that led to this event, so here's the link again: “Writing Hack: Write It Just Like That”.
2. Sasha Chapin, “If You Have Writer's Block, Maybe You Should Stop Lying”. Writer's block is usually a problem of sincerity, not technique.
3. Sasha Chapin, “Write Faster.” “If you write quickly, and don’t worry much about writing well, the quality of your writing will improve.”
4. Chuck Palahniuk, ”Thought verbs”, “In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.”
The venue
We are meeting at the cozy London Night Cafe on Aug 10th. The entry is £7 — this is the default entry price at the Night Cafe, and all money goes to the venue (and not me). There will be unlimited tea, coffee and biscuits.
Don't forget to join the WhatsApp group
For sharing the drafts in advance and also for any future announcements.