join me for Summer Fridays!
quick chats to tend your creative spark through the confetti time of summer
Hello there! Welcome to Write More, Be Less Careful, a newsletter about making space for creative practice in a busy life. My newest book, The Good Mother Myth, is out now!
I’m popping in today to share a fun thing I’ve been working on—a series of video chats with writers I love about how we’re getting our work done even when it’s brain-meltingly hot/the pool is calling/our kids are asking for a snack again. Summer is often a season of sludge for me—a season when I technically *should* have time to get lots of writing done, since I’m not teaching, but my kids are also home, or else needing to be taken somewhere, or nudged into a different activity so they don’t entirely become one with the Roblox game or TV show du jour. I want to write, but I also want to collapse into a puddle.
previously, on summer writing
😎☀️ introducing Summer Fridays ☀️😎
This summer, I’m trying something new—I’ve invited some of the writers and thinkers I love the most to join me for Summer Fridays, a series of video chats via Substack Live.
It’s named after the publishing tradition of giving folks Fridays off, and I hope you’ll be inspired to give yourself the gift of a little time and community and join us. Each chat will be 20-30 minutes (lunch-break length!), and they’ll be one-part encouragement, one-part how-to, focusing on everything from how to figure out what you really want (thank you, Tracey Gee!) to how to share your work on instagram without dying of cringe (via the wisdom of Nicola Washington.) These are the writers I’m always talking about with my girlfriends and my writing groups, and I’m so excited to bring you into the conversation.
You can join us live, or you can watch the recording afterward. (I always think there’s a little extra magic in joining live, though!)
Substack Live is a bit of an experiment for me; I think you’ll get a notification when each Live starts, and if that doesn’t pop up for you, I think going directly to Substack or Write More will show you the Live. I’ll know more after the first chat with Tracey on Friday! I’d love it if you would come along as we try something new!
✍️🌞 all the Summer Friday details 🌞✍️
🌟 Friday, July 18 at 9am pacific/noon eastern: How to Figure out What you Really Want with Tracey Gee
🌟 Thursday, July 3 at 9am pacific/noon eastern: How to Find Your Flow with Heidi Fiedler
🌟 Friday, July 11 at 9am pacific/noon eastern: How to Have Fun Sharing Your Work on Instagram with Nicola Washington
🌟 Friday, July 18 at 9am pacific/noon eastern: How to Find Your Joy with Sherisa de Groot
🌟 Friday, July 25 at 9am pacific/noon eastern: How to Build Community on the Page and IRL with Domenica Ruta 🧿
🌟 Friday, August 1 at 8am pacific/11am eastern: How to Keep a Diary with Kelly McMasters
If you’ve been looking for a little creative spark in this season of sludge, come hang out with us!
🌟this Friday, figure out what you really want with Tracey Gee🌟
If you’ve been busy following shoulds or just scrambling to get through your to-dos, you might connect with the feeling I’ve been having recently—what is it that I really want? I featured Tracey Gee’s great book, The Magic of Knowing What You Want: A Practical Guide to Unearthing the Wisdom of Your Desires, when it came out earlier this year, and it’s stayed with me.
Tracey, on the power of looking backward as we set intentions
Early on in the book, Tracey describes giving herself a period of 40 days to pause and really reflect on what she wanted next in her life and her career. She writes:
I learned to pay attention to sparks of desire in the face of all the other important and urgent things clamoring for my time and attention. I practiced holding space for my desires rather than pushing them away or silencing them or dismissing them. I engaged with my wants with acceptance rather than harshness and judgement. Looking back now, I can see that it was a kind of rehearsal—making room to notice, directing my awareness toward what I wanted, linking that desire to action, and repeating it all again the next day. I didn’t have words yet to articulate why this was important, but I was building the habit of honoring my desires rather than shutting them down. Through simple repetition, I learned that knowing what you really want is not only worth practicing but necessary for a life that is more alive, authentic, and abundant.
WHEW. If that resonates with you, you’ll definitely want to log on this Friday the 27th at 9am pacific/noon eastern to learn more about how you can uncover what you really want in your writing, and in your life.
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. I’m so glad you’re here.
If Write More has helped you in your creative life, you can support me by sharing it online or with a friend, or by ordering my new book, The Good Mother Myth.
I can't wait!
Love this idea! Also feeling the tension between being present and fun for my kids and wanting to write since I'm not "working" this summer.