The End... And a New Beginning

The inaugural #Write2TheEnd Writers Workshop kicked off with a bang. Practically every genre of writing -- poetry, memoir, non-fiction, and fiction -- was represented in the Summer, 2014 session.

We met weekly. Some participants had never finished a book before. Others had publishing experience, but wanted to challenge themselves to produce something new. Some were introverts; some extroverts. Some had never comfortably called themselves "writers" before.

We all discovered that a lot can happen in eight weeks:

A mother of two can become a mother of three...

A parent can experience a life-threatening crisis...

Family members can require long-distance assistance scouting and purchasing a home, and help coordinating a major household move.

Friends and family can come to visit -- and stay... and stay...

Medical crises can result in hospital stays... or rehab... or, sadly, death...

ALL of this, and more, happened to our #Write2TheEnd participants this summer.

And we STILL wrote.


No Ifs, Ands, or Proverbial Butts

We stretched ourselves, setting goals at the beginning we knew were ambitious. Then life set in. Yet we persevered.

We wrote our proverbial butts off.

Kim & Ami are facilitators, but Ben is The Great Motivator.

We also kicked proverbial butt. I am honored to report that #Write2TheEnd participants have a 100% success rate for our first session.

One participant has two children under the age of 3 and another on the way. Yet, she wrote over 60,000 words on her novel and met her goal!

One participant is a natural introvert who lives an hour away. She took a leap of faith, never missed a meeting, completed an entire poetry chapbook to enter in a contest and met her goal!

As facilitators, Kim and I both felt that a high point of our whole summer was handing out certificates of completion -- and crisp, new $100 bills -- to each writer whose goals were met.

Here's what one of our participants had to say about her experience:

"I've tried several times to write this book for over 6 years, but never gotten very far. This summer, I did it! I wrote it! I had my money's worth out of the workshop already by Week 5!"

What's keeping you from leaping?

Here's another perspective:

"The #Write2TheEnd writer's workshop has been an incredible experience for me. I began the workshop with a started project. By the workshop's conclusion, my project was finished and ready for submission.

Throughout the workshop, Ami and Kim were encouraging. They made me feel my project was important and worthy of completion. They held me accountable for getting an adequate amount of work done each week so that my project would progress in a timely manner.

Kim and Ami are wonderful facilitators. They presented me with many useful tools which will continue to make me a better writer. 

I'd recommend #Write2TheEnd writer's workshop to anybody with a writing goal to achieve. I truly did Write2TheEnd."

All writers interested in finding out more about how #Write2TheEnd can help you finish writing or editing that pet project (you know the one...) are invited to a free Meet and Greet on Monday, August 25, at 420 Main Street in St. Joseph, MI.

Our Fall, 2014, session kicks off on Monday, September, 15 at 6:00 p.m. Sign up today! And come Write2TheEnd with us!