Dear writers,

On New Year's Day last year I woke up, started a Meetup group, and announced a weekly writing workshop in the hope of generating a bit of income. Over the next few days I secured a meeting space after hours in a neighborhood cafe, adapted the curriculum from a workshop I'd led before, and hoped for the best. Several people registered, but icy streets and bitter cold made me cancel some of the first sessions. Then Inauguration Day arrived and I threw up my hands in despair.

It was hard to know what to do about anything right then, but I realized that what I really wanted to do was hang out with interesting people in real life. I sent everyone a refund and switched gears: the weekly writing workshop would now be a weekly writing practice, and it would be free to all.

People came back week after week. At almost every session, new people joined what became a core group of regulars, and some stuck around. We wrote by hand in response to versatile prompts and shared our work if we felt like it. We offered no apologies and invited no feedback; we just practiced writing.

Some people started staying late to talk about politics. It sometimes felt risky to discuss controversial issues in person, but it felt important to practice engaging respectfully with real people in real life. These conversations ended up deepening the trust that had already governed our writing sessions. I know they helped me process the chaos of the hourly news cycle.

On what would have been the last night of the workshop, we held a roundtable on the group's future. Should we keep meeting? Should we focus on specific elements of writing craft? Should we incorporate feedback? More people showed up for that meeting than any we'd had so far. We decided to keep going, and to add a second session for focused writing on works in progress. We've kept it up all year.

I say "we" as if the same people come to every writing session, and there's definitely a core group of regulars. Some write fiction, others essays, some like to journal. One had two short sci-fi stories published this year, and another won a humor writing fellowship. SO VERY COOL. Some people come to a session or two and never come back, and some get inspired and stick around. No matter who they are or what their story is, every single person who shows up puts pen to paper and creates something out of nothing. It's wizardry, and I've had the great fortune of seeing it in action for a full year.

Despite the bizarre and disturbing nature of life on Earth in this epoch, and the tendency of writers to be solitary creatures, the need for genuine human connection is inescapable. This new community has been a source of comfort and joy for me, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. Our weekly writing sessions have become a landing place and a ritual, a safe space and a challenge, and I'll keep them going as long as I can. If you're ever in St. Louis on a Monday or Wednesday night, I'd love to see you at the table -- and if you're even remotely inclined to create a writing community in your own neighborhood, I'm here for you.

Happy New Year, folks.

Love,

Meghan

Here's where to find more information about the Delmar Loop Writers Group: www.meetup.com/delmar-loop-writers-group​