Upcoming classes, including BRUTE FORCE
Weekly writing sprints to get you moving.
It’s been a few weeks now since launching the Substack which has been both wonderful and kind of nerve-racking at the same time. I find myself riddled with self-doubt constantly: can I keep up what I’ve promised? Am I smart enough to talk about books and fiction the way people think I am? Sometimes it feels like a lot of pressure. But then I’ll read a book we’ve picked for Goth Book Club or a short story my editors and I have selected for Witch Craft Magazine and get such a spike of joy so high it makes me giddy, and then I think, yes, this is what I want to be doing.
It’s book tour season for Deliver Me in the UK, which means I will be busy with lots of events the next couple of months, and I also have linked up with some brilliant minds for some workshops coming up so I wanted to share them with you.
The first event starts today and will be re-occurring weekly: Brute Force. Those of you who came over from Patreon will be familiar with this.
Brute Force is an opportunity for paid subscribers to get out of your head and sprint-write with me for fifteen minutes a week. We will be meeting on Zoom once a week, Mondays, at 5:15pm UK / 12:15pm EST. I will post the Zoom link in the Substack Chat (linked) every Monday at 5:00 PM UK.
At 5:15 PM UK, we will begin to write to a timer and won’t stop until it’s done. I'll give you a prompt to get started for those of you wanting to push into new work or looking to explore some new aspect of existing work. The writer who has written the most words gets crowned most productive prince/ss for the week.
As a mom I had to learn that I couldn't wait for inspiration to strike. I sometimes only had 10 or 15 minutes to get words on the page. I had to push past the discomfort of writing and just go for it.
If you write without looking back once the timer starts, I'm positive you could write at least 300-600 words. That means in a month you could end up with two flash fiction drafts, one story, or the inspiration to get through a chapter of a novel. If you came to every session, all year, that's ~30,000 words you might not have written otherwise, and could help you build the momentum to get out of your head and onto the page at other times you might have 15 minutes to spare -- lunch breaks, when you first wake up, when the baby naps, when dinner is cooking, when you're waiting for the bus, etc.
The idea is to push yourself past the discomfort of starting and get into that lovely flow state that is so rewarding to writing--the state where you aren't necessarily anywhere but in the work. The more you do it, the more you can do it. Sometimes writing is about building momentum, and accountability can help you practice getting there. I’ll post the weekly prompts on the newsletter after our meetings so you’ll always have an archive of ideas to draw from.
Here’s what some people have said about Brute Force:
But wait, there’s more!
Here are two other workshops I have coming up. One is on 9 July, hosted by Lindsay Lerman, and is completely free:
We will talk a little bit about what it means to pay attention, why we want to listen, what can be gained from it, and then I will walk you through a deep visualisation exercise that asks you to do just that. The visualisation is based on a method acting exercise I sometimes use in my creative practice to help put me deeply in a scene.
Link to sign up (for free!) is right here.
The second is a two hour virtual atelier that myself,
and have put together to explore the depths of disgust, feminine brutality, and saying what’s meant to be left unsaid. We will explore three different texts and work through writing exercises together. This will take place 1 September, but you’ll want to register early.
The cost is $100, and you can register by sending money to celsby@gmail.com via Paypal, and leaving your email/name in the notes section.
Bookstore Events
Lastly, I wanted to share my tour schedule with you! Here it is below. This week I’ll be in Dublin on Thursday with the incredible Chelsea G. Summers to discuss unhinged women in fiction. The event is free but ticketed, and you can sign up here.
Then, on 26 July, I’ll be with the luminescent Kirsty Logan in Glasgow, at Waterstones Sauciehall. This event is ticketed and you can sign up for that here.
Okay, that’s all from me today. I hope to see some of you at Brute Force! I’m putting the Zoom link in the chat right now and I’ll see you in a few hours.
x
Elle