You’re invited.
"The act of writing…is a unique experience, unlike anything else I know. You have to be in the right mood and start with a clear mind. You must trust your initial feelings because at the beginning you don’t really know where you’re going.”
Are you struggling to write your story?
You have a story.
You’ve always loved books, language, and writing. And yet, you’re nervous that you’re not a “real writer”?
That’s part of why you’re struggling to find the drive to put pen to paper.
The other part? You’re terrified of writing that story. You know it’s going to change you.
And the legacy of grades, grammar corrections, and not feeling good enough have left you scared to write.
You need to work in community with other writers to free yourself to write.
Show up for yourself. Show up for your fellow writers.
It’s far easier to be consistent when you have a group of writers who are writing with you.
It’s time to find your writers’ group.
It’s time to write your heart out.
Introducing: The Collective Joy of Writing Club.
Come for the writing prompts and suggestions and create community with other writers.
In the Collective Joy of Writing Club, you’ll be part of conversations about pieces of writing that spark joy, what’s blocking us from putting our words on the page, and how we can help each other by listening and offering supportive suggestions.
This is a community for people who want to free themselves as writers.
One of my biggest joys in life is to talk and work with other writers, so we all can make connections and feel seen.
I’m the moderator. And I have plenty of suggestions for writing and editing after 30 years of teaching and writing. But this isn’t about me or learning from me. I’m the gatherer.
This is about creating community through playing with language together.
Also, let’s be honest. You tell yourself you’re going to write more often. And yet, something else always comes first.
When you’re part of a group of like-minded women who also want to write their stories, you’l show up for yourself. And the rest of us.
Here’s what happens in the Collective Joy of Writing Club.
How will we do this?
We’ll meet on Zoom, for 90 minutes, on Fridays at 10 am, PST.
If you can’t be there one week, no problem. You’ll have access to the recordings
What will the weekly gatherings look like?
Every week, we’ll show up together.
We’ll write together. We’ll talk about good writing. And then we’ll talk and listen to each other.
Everyone will feel heard. And you’ll learn what other people are writing and thinking about now.
Will it be the same every week?
We’ll vary the basic format a bit to keep it interesting.
One week of the month, we’ll have a guest writer to talk with us about their process and pieces.
Another week of the month, I’ll help facilitate workshop sessions with your fellow writers.
Along with these weekly meetings and supportive community, you’ll also receive daily writing prompts, pieces of writing to consider, and quotes and interviews about writing from other writers. That’s part of your subscription to The Collective Joy of Writing newsletter.
Here’s some of what we’ll be working on together.
How to quiet that stern editor voice that insists you’re not good enough and how to embrace the chaos of creativity instead.
How to write with the specific details of your life.
How to take what you created in the first, chaotic draft into a structure that starts making sense.
How to cut, edit, and revise your piece, paying close attention to the sound and sense of each sentence.
How to play with language so that every word and sentence says what you mean.
How to know when you are done with a piece of writing.
Testimonials
Shauna’s workshop helped me find my love for words again and remember why I enjoy writing. I’m so glad I finally made the commitment. Shauna creates a wonderful supportive space for you to play. I feel like I’ve already become a better writer, and discovered so many things about myself that I didn’t know I needed to write down.
Thank you for being a person whom is open to talking and listening to hard things. I really loved your writing workshop. It has been a catalyst for a new layer of self acceptance.
Any creative endeavor requires courage, humility, and a willingness to be vulnerable. Working with Shauna has been a priceless experience. The tools she has given me are now an essential part of my writer’s arsenal.
Why should you trust me?
As soon as I learned, at three years old, that real human beings wrote books, I knew what I wanted.
I wanted to write my stories.
I’ve been writing since that day. First, with crayon, then pencil scratchings on lined paper for school assignments, then tapping on a loud electric typewriter. The first time I touched a computer (a Mac SE, which required 15 minutes of shuffling 2 start-up discs in and out of the slots before I could type), I started writing a story.
Now, I have 5 published books and thousands of published essays out in the world. I’m proud of the James Beard award my husband and I won for one of our cookbooks. The commendations from The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Times of London, Newsweek magazine, and The Guardian mean the world to me. More, the thousands of people who have written to me to say how much my writing has meant to them and how it has changed their lives? That has been the most rewarding part of my writing career.
Writing is an act of understanding my own mind. It’s playing with language. It’s crafting stories that help me make sense of the world. Writing is like breathing for me. Any day without writing something makes me feel like I’m growing light-headed after holding my breath all day.
And yet, every day, when I face a sheet of blank paper, I still grow a little overwhelmed.
You never lose your fear when faced with the blank page. You just grow better at pushing it away, faster, so you can start writing the imperfect first draft.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, I’m here to help you.
I invite you to become a founding member of the Collective Joy of Writing Club.
I want to hear your ideas. I want you involved in the process of creating this process. Your insights and suggestions matter.
Let’s build something together.
We’ll be working together, working intently with language, listening to each other’s stories, and consciously deciding the words we leave on the page.
Working on your writing in this club will help you free yourself to write.
Here, we embrace the messy, exhilarating experience of the creative process. Collaborating with other writers in the process creates a kind of collective effervescence you could never experience on your own.
Let’s build the Collective Joy of Writing Club together.