Wednesday Welcome

Hello writers! There are a bunch of new folks joining us from D.L. Mayfield’s newsletter, so I thought I’d say hello, and welcome! This is a space for writers or aspiring writers who are neurodivergent or mentally ill, to practice our craft, meet other writers, and encourage and support each other.

If you’re wondering whether you’re a “real” writer, well, that wondering is one sign that you are! Most non-writers don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not they’re writers. Maybe Stephen King has never had doubts about his writerly identity, but the rest of us have.

And if you’re wondering if you belong here — I’m defining mentally ill and neurodivergent really broadly. Depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD, eating disorders, autism, or whatever else makes you a little different, or makes living in a world not designed for you a little harder — or a lot. You don’t need a diagnosis, you just need to feel that you can bring empathy and kindness to the rest of the group, whether you share a particular struggle or not.

As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

I’ve been holding Finding Your Voice Workshops for a year and a half now, but I just started this Substack community a couple of weeks ago, so it’s slowly getting into gear. To help get things started, I’ve given all of you a complimentary one-month subscription to the paid content. (If you already had a comp subscription it will be unaffected.) Many of the posts here will be behind a paywall, in particular the ones where we share our writing and give each other feedback. But if after the first free month the $8/month is still prohibitive, please let me know. And if you have extra and want to support my work and my ability to offer comp subscriptions, you can subscribe as a “founder” and I’ll send you a special thank you gift!

On Mondays, I’ll be posting some kind of thoughts, resources, or other related content, as well as a writing exercise or prompt. Later in the week we’ll have Feedback Fridays, where you can share what you’re working on and get (encouraging, positive) feedback, either what you wrote in response to Monday’s prompt, or something else. Feel free to poke around the previous weeks’ posts, particularly this Monday’s, which has a little exercise to help us let go of the anxiety that is sometimes associated with sitting down to write:

Monday motivation and prompt

That’s all for now! Welcome again, and, let’s write!

Jessica

P.S. I’ll also give a complimentary month’s subscription to everyone else who signs up by March 15th, so feel free to tell your friends!