Announcing the #W2TE WriteAway Spring Writer's Retreat!

For several years, Kim and Ami have talked about putting together a writer's retreat.

Our retreat would be in a place that encouraged creativity. A place that inspired. A place off the beaten track, full of natural beauty: hills... trees... maybe a lake...

We would eat meals together, share a few drinks, hash out ideas and projects.

We would bring in expert writers and facilitators with diverse skill sets who were both accessible and willing to share their knowledge.

Our retreat would offer workshops to benefit all levels of writers, from beginners to pros, helping participants hone skills and put new tools in their Writer's Toolbox.

Our retreat would also offer the Gift of Solitude: providing blissfully uninterrupted writing time from Friday evening through late Sunday morning for those inclined to become ornamental hermits.

Ami insisted there must be readily available coffee -- lots of it. And dogs. And access to the sort of inspiration only horses can provide.

Kim championed the importance of making the most of local wines. And social networking with other women writers. But mostly wine.

Finally, we realized:

The time for talking is over. 

With great excitement, we announce the #Write2TheEnd WriteAway Spring Writer's Retreat.

Aerial view of Camp Cedar Lodge in autumn.

From Friday afternoon on May 19 through Sunday morning, May 21, we invite you to join us at beautiful, rustic, Camp Cedar Lodge in Lawrence, Michigan.

That weekend, we will do everything in our power to help you indulge and nurture your Inner Writer.

Our fabulous faculty includes:

Yi Shun Lai

Novelist, non-fiction editor, writing coach, and essayist Yi Shun Lai.

Yi Shun holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. She is the non-fiction editor of the Tahoma Literary Review, the former fiction editor of the Los Angeles Review and has worked for a variety of publications including The Atlantic, Audubon, AARP the Magazine, and many more. 

Her debut novel, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU, published in 2016, is in its fourth printing and is taught in classes ranging from Critical Thinking to American Literature. 

Yi Shun is a consultant in external communications with experience in journalism, social media and business strategy, copywriting, and line and developmental editing. She lives in the greater Los Angeles area.

AND

Shawna Ayoub Ainslie

Essayist, writing coach, consultant, survivor, and poet Shawna Ayoub Ainslie.

Shawna holds an MFA from Indiana University. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Art Saves Lives International, and others. She is the former editor-in-chief of Open Thought Vortex Magazine.

Shawna's work addresses themes of race, place, abuse, mental health, family, and faith. She founded the Writing Through Trauma series to help survivors of trauma shed their fears and heal. She resides in Bloomington, Indiana.

Of course, Ami and Kim will be there too!

The #Write2TheEnd WriteAway Spring Writer's Retreat is open to only twenty participants. For our inaugural session, it is open to women only. Ladies -- whatever your writing goals, we invite you to come and join us! Just click the "Buy Now" button at the upper right. Save $50 if you register before April 20, 2017!

For more information, check out our WriteAway Spring Writer's Retreat page.

Networking, Ladder Climbing, and Writing to the End

On June 29, beginning at 6:30 p.m., #Write2TheEnd will be hosting a content-rich mini-workshop full of ways you can immediately start Climbing the Writer's Ladder.

Here's one of the ways: Networking.

What does that mean?

It means taking an interest in writers other than yourself.

It means connecting with them, being interested in their process, their journey, their books, and their lives.

It means reaching out to them and making new friends.

It means attending a booksigning or a lecture, or a reading, or seminar, and supporting them.

It means buying their book, reading it, and telling others about it.

What's it look like in practice? Well, if you were one of the people who packed Forever Books in St. Joseph for Ava Chin's booksigning earlier this month, you've seen it firsthand.

EATING WILDLY's author, Ava Chin, with Ami and Kim.

Kim befriended Ava years ago in an online writing group on a topic both were interested in. When Kim found out that Ava was on a book tour, she lost no time in contacting Forever Books and adding a stop to Ava's itinerary.

We spent a wonderful evening with Ava and her family, after which Ava dubbed us "The Thelma and Louise of writing coaching." (I suspect #Write2TheEnd alums will have no trouble deciding who is who...)

Networking is about connecting on a human level with the person who penned the words on the page. It's not about asking that person to do something for you. It's about forging friendships; about giving instead of taking.

This Monday, Kim and I will touch on many of the topics we present in detail during #Write2TheEnd. We'll focus on giving participants the tools to help them progress from "where you are" to "where you want to be."

We'll also provide a preview of what participants can expect from our #Write2TheEnd Summer Session, which begins right after the holiday, Monday evening, July 6th, 6:30-8:30 PM, at our offices in St. Joe (420 Main Street).

Make this the summer you meet the writing goal that's niggled at you for years--you know the one! And we'll pay you to do it!

What's special about #Write2TheEnd?

When it comes to your Big Writing Project, we'll help you ACE IT:

• Accountability
• Community
• Encouragement
• Inspiration
• TOOLS!

And then there's the famous #Write2TheEnd incentive:

#Write2TheEnd pays you back $100 of your registration fee if you meet the challenging yet achievable goal YOU set for yourself on night one!

We help each participant determine an appropriate goal for him or herself (first class, Monday, July 6, 6:30-8:30 PM). And we will spend the entire summer (Mondays, 6:30-8:30 PM, through August 31st) supporting you and providing tools that make it possible for you to achieve that goal!

More than anything in the world, we WANT you to succeed! And we do everything in our power to help you make it happen for yourself this summer.

It is possible! You CAN achieve your goal! We'll teach you how.

Imagine You Can Write2theEnd

by Kim Jorgensen Gane

Writing has become my way to salvation--my way to myself. I can no more imagine my life without writing than I can imagine my life without my family, or without an appendage I've been accustomed to using my whole life.

For those of you local to southwest Michigan who have followed my journey as a writer and thought, "me too ... someday." That day is here.

Editor, full-time working writer, and friend, Ami Hendrickson, and I are here to support you, inspire you, light a fire under you—to help YOU make someday today.

We're holding a free, no obligation informational meeting to introduce you to our joint endeavor, #Write2TheEnd Writers Workshop™.

On Wednesday, May 28, at 6:30 pm, in the old Masonic Temple, downtown St. Joe, at the corner of Elm & Main (420 Main St.), we will give you an overview of our syllabus and answer any questions you may have. In addition, you will leave with a small sample of what's to come; a mini-tool you can employ immediately to help move your writing from parked to forward.

I've overcome and come to own the permission and the soul pieces of writing for myself, and I believe I can help you do the same. I can assist with transformational writing, with essays, persuasive writing, blogging, and memoir. I can also help you see the value in being open to coaching, which I believe is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.

It’s difficult to be objective about our own creative endeavors. It’s easy to fall in love with our own words. Someone who truly has our best interests at heart—who believes in us—is invaluable in helping us see our goals to fruition. And seriously, Ami blew my mind when she introduced me to our first get-it-done tool. The tools, the HOW, the discipline, the next steps, that's what I need and I look forward to digging in to what Ami has to share, right beside you.

If you're thinking, "this summer just isn't the time," then perhaps you need to either give yourself permission to let go of your dreams of being a writer and move on to something else wonderful & fulfilling—but please do move on and actually do something else—or give yourself permission to take this course and see what you can accomplish right now. Chances are, if this opportunity appeals to you and you let it pass, someday will never come. The excuses only get better, believe me.

But consider this: how many summers have gone by since you first dreamed of writing that great American novel or memoir or screenplay or stageplay, or since you’ve let a completed project fester in a drawer? This is the summer you could turn dreaming into finishing--into writing to The End--Your End. If you could do it yourself, you would have by now. You need a team, a tribe of like-minded individuals to help you succeed in the goals we share.

Is your life worth less than mine? Is it worth less than your mother's, your father's, than your child's? There are many ways to support and to parent and to care for others. Ami and I agree that caring for ourselves—that leading fulfilling, joy-filled lives—is an important way to care for those we love, and provides a beautiful example for our children, and the joyful lives we hope they grow to lead.

Nowhere else will you get such a powerful combination of tools, know-how, practical and functional writing advice, combined with the coaching and inspiration that will help you overcome your writing hurdles. There's a reason Ami and I have found one another. We each fill the other's gaps in ways that can help turn YOU into a powerful FINISHER where your writing goals are concerned.

We want this for you. We want this for you badly enough that we’re willing to give you back $100 at the end of the eight weeks when you meet the goal you set on the first night. But we can't want it more than you want it.

Join our Facebook group, even if you’re not local to southwest Michigan, for free writing tips, engaging discussion, and inspirational posts. And please, if you’re able, join us in person on Wednesday, May 28th. We look forward to welcoming you, and any writer friends you’d like to bring along.

---> This is an excerpt from Kim's GANEPossible blog post. (Read the post, in which she also explains why she is happy to be wrong about the narrator of The Book Thief and why the movie makes her "wear the title of writer like a badge of honor.")