Invitation to the creative co-working den

TLDR: Join our weekly Creative Co-Working Den every Monday at 9-10am Pacific / Noon-1pm Eastern to work on… whatever you’re working on! Email joy@soulwriting.org for the Zoom link or with questions. ♥︎

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Hanging out and creating

Somewhere in the Soul Writing book I talk about how much I loved art classes in school and college. I mean, how could I not, given what we were up to with all of those glue sticks and cotton balls, papier mache and oven-dry clay, acrylic paint and Exacto knives?

But more than that, what I really loved was that everyone in the class was working on their own version of the same thing together. We worked quietly or we chatted, we took breaks, checked out what others were up to, made remarks, were affected.

This sort of aliveness, this interplay between human souls—even if we were competing or at odds or throwing crayons at each other—seems to be the best way, for me at least, to conjure, to channel, to creatively express.

The same is true of my writing, of course. Yes, there are occasional mornings when the planets are aligned just so; where I wake up and, before my feet have officially hit the ground for the day, I have the skeleton of a post banged out, or made some progress on an article or chapter. But that’s rare. Most of my writing happens when other people are around, writing with me. There of course isn’t the chatting/checking in aspect of visual art circles, since my brain can’t do two things involving words simultaneously. But in Soul Writing groups we do ultimately share our work, and that feels a lot like holding up my inexpert watercolor at the end of class, having it witnessed, and feeling deeply satisfied.

What about you?

In what ways does the presence of others support your creativity… if it does at all?

Straight-up getting shit done

Related, a few months back I participated in an online co-working session with the brilliant coach Winn Clark, and was floored by how much I accomplished by simply naming what I was up to and then committing to that project for the time the space was open. And I wasn’t the only one who was amazed—most of us signed off the call celebrating progress on something that had been dodging our focus up until that point. There’s a kind of magic to this format. Maybe there’s even science too, who knows? (Someone does.)

Long story short (too late)

So! I’ve decided to blend these ideas—the generative power of a creative field and the strange focus-fostering magic of working in a group—into a weekly Creative Co-Working den on Mondays from 9-10am Pacific / Noon-1pm Eastern on Zoom. We’ll come together, say what we’re working on, then mute ourselves and get to work. There will be a bit of space at the end to share or celebrate what we’ve done, but the bulk of the session will be spent quietly working together.

All aspects of the session are optional, and there is no cost or commitment. Just show up and see what happens.

Email me at joy@soulwriting.org for the Zoom link. Hope to see you soon!