Good morning everyone! A little note about what’s upcoming on the 7am Novelist. I’ll be focusing on author interviews and craft discussions that I hope allow our listeners to feel you are working together on a similar goal, discussions that encourage community involvement, kindness, engagement, beauty, and even joy while I know that many of you are plugging away alone at your own stories—and that can be really isolating.
The historian Heather Cox Richardson has said that one way for us to weather the current state of affairs is to “find friends and join them. Meet new people, meet new communities, try new things. Channel that frustration and fear and anxiety into something positive.”
So that’s what I’ll be trying to do here within the framework of what the 7am Novelist has always done. Beyond the usual craft-focused author interviews, I’ll be talking to people who are reaching out to help others and forging communities of their own. I’ll also be holding regular roundtable discussions among a small group of writers about such things as outlining, voice, how to draw a reader into your book, and much much more.
To further support this push toward channeling our frustrations to the positive, I’m also running a write-a-thon in July in which we’ll write together on zoom starting July 1st every weekday morning from 7am to 8:30 EST. Yep, it’s the same thing I did in January, with a quick inspirational message or prompt to start us off and a few minutes at the end when we come back together to talk about what we accomplished (or troubleshoot what we didn’t).
We had 80 people writing together in January and we’ve continued to have a small dedicated group ever since. Honestly, it’s been a life saver for me when I have trouble focusing and getting work done. Is 7am painfully early? Yes it is. Does it make you feel like you’ve accomplished something by the time 8:30 rolls around. Yes, it does. You can join as many mornings or as few as you like. You can show up late or continue writing with the group after 8:30 after I’ve signed off. However you want to do it, we’ll make it work.
So if you’re interested in joining our writing sessions, email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com and I’ll send you the registration info. It’s all free. Otherwise, as long as you’re subscribed to the 7am Novelist on Substack or following the podcast, you’ll be able to listen to all of our content the same as you always have.
So come join us. Email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com to register for our July writing sessions. Or stay subscribed to my Substack newsletter to keep up to date about all things writing. Thank you everyone. It’s summer. It’s time to get some writing done.
Want to support my work without paying for a subscription? Consider a small donation through my Kofi page.
Photo by Kande Bonfim on Unsplash
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