Happy Thanksgiving, Lab Coats (Sweethearts of the Storybelly Lab) and All Storybellers. I’m in a Substack learning phase. Pausing subscriptions until Jan. 5 means… well I’m still trying to figure out what-all it means, but so far it seems that all posts are available to ALL current subscribers for a limited time. So here we are, all together today. I like how y’all look. :>

Me & Freedom Summer & a clutch of cool kids at a cool school visit long agoTHE PAUSE:

The subscription pause also seems to mean that Chat is open to all subscribers now as well, for the next five weeks. (We are already a week into our hiatus; time flies.) I’ll continue to post in Chat, and I’m also using Notes (and IG, and probably an occasional post because, evidently, I can’t help myself) as a way to stay in touch through the holiday season and into the new year.

SECOND SUNDAY LIVE:

As for our Writers Lab Live on December 14 — as I wrote in Chat — we will welcome Nancy Werlin as our guest! Nancy is a NYT bestselling author, Edgar Award winner, and National Book Award finalist, among many other talents.

She has more than tiptoed into indie/self publishing; she is experienced and very successful with it. She’s going to give us her take on what she sees in the publishing atmosphere these days (as a long-time studier of trends), and a look at how she is publishing her work today. There will be time for Q&A and lots of good conversation.

I’ll send the Google Meet link in an email to the writers who have been building this space together each week in the Lab and in Second Sunday Lives, so our guest steps into the familiar circle we’ve been creating together.

JOIN THE LAB IN JANUARY:

This is where I usually post a link to join the Writers Lab, but since all subscriptions are paused during our holiday hiatus, this means (I think) no new Writers Lab subscriptions are processed. Come join us in January when we begin again!

JOIN US NOW IF YOU ARE ALREADY A LAB COAT:

However: if you’re a Lab Coat already who hasn’t yet joined the Lives before and you would like to be part of this Live (making your Live debut, so to speak) on the next Second Sunday (Dec. 14 at 11amET), DM or email me so you can join in with this small-but-mighty, curious-and-courageous, warm-and-witty, delightfully intrepid and actively engaged community of wordsmiths. Whew!

LET’S WRITE TOGETHER TOMORROW! (Sunday, Nov. 29)

I have a grandgirl and a granddog here this weekend, after a sweet Thanksgiving day at their house yesterday, so a Live will be hard for me to coordinate tomorrow, but since A (our grandgirl) is a teenager now, the mornings are usually pretty open (but not guaranteed). M (our granddoggie) likes to be with people, so she’ll be right by my side, like she is now, but I am still going to write tomorrow morning from this space:

early this morning, me’n’Milly… and you, as I’m writing to you here

AND, since all Storybelly posts this next month are available to all subscribers, here is an invitation for ALL OF YOU to write together tomorrow morning!

Not a Live, but a Synergy nonetheless. I’ve written with friends so many times over the years, when one is across the country (or world) and I am here in my house (or elsewhere), and I promise you, if you KNOW you are writing together, you can feel it.

SO LET’S DO THAT.

I’m going to write tomorrow morning from whenever I get at this desk (usually early) until I can’t anymore. I’ll post in the comments below when I begin. Then I’m going to put a “results report” in comments later tomorrow.

Let’s create some synergy. It will do the world — and us — some good.

Come early, come late, but come! Write for as long as you want, as short as you must, there are no rules, write whatever you want. Let’s do this.

If you can’t come on Sunday, know I am writing every day this week, every morning. Let me know you’re “in” on any day, and we’ll write together. You can email me, text, DM, put a note in Chat or the comments. Let’s see what happens.

If you’re familiar with the Sixties Trilogy, you’ll know that those titles are not the same titles that ended up on the books. Things change when you sit at the page and commit to your story, whatever it is. Come write with us! the title has already changed (to Charlottesville), but the rest seems to be about right, although the structure is driving me batty. Something to continue to untangle this week. Come along and do some untangling of your own. and on a lighter note! I want to work on this, too… something that makes me laugh. You? Let’s work together and create some synergy.WANT A PROMPT?

Here’s a prompt for you to use or toss, it’s totally up to you. The writing is the important thing, whether it’s:

poem

essay

fiction

vignette — or whatever… write to this prompt:

Your First Thanksgiving
(or Any Thanksgiving, or Your First Anything).

Remember what we’ve worked on all year — see previous Lab posts for details. Here’s a partial list:

What is your canon?
Write a Focus Sentence
Give yourself permission to be authentic.
What we write about when we write about our lives
Writing about food, and ancestors, and heroes
The power of using a notebook and ways to use one
The unity of opposites
“It all turns on affection.”
Vision and Mission statements, Core Values and how they shape our writing
Sets of Three
Hooks, Thresholds, and Invitations
Making Dialogue work for you
Writing with telling detail and description
Writing with nouns and verbs
Writing from the inside, out

That’s enough for now — enough to get you started!

WHAT ABOUT OUR 20 PROJECTS POEM?

I love me a 20 Projects Poem. There is no way to mess them up. They are good just by definition. I would love to read yours! Here are the directions for writing one, and also in that post you can read my 20 projects poem. Maybe Cathy can encourage us to keep going with those, and can share hers in Chat? If you’re comfortable, of course, friend. I love how you discovered the power of the 20 projects poem to open up your work.

If you like, and you don’t have something else specifically in mind, or you want a boost for what you’re currently working on, you can work on a 20 projects poem in tomorrow’s Synergy Writing Session. (Needs a better name.)

And I have a secret for you: They are FUN.

WHAT ABOUT OUR ZINES?

I haven’t forgotten about the friggin’ Zines. :>

They don’t seem to be as much fun.

More on the Zine Project coming up soon, I almost promise.

Meanwhile: HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH YOURS?

Tell me in comments, please. I will reveal my mediocre efforts as well. le big fat SIGH. Maybe Sharon can chime in with some encouragement for “how easy” (please) this accordion method is… if you’re comfortable, too, of course, S.

THAT’S ALL FROM THIS POP-UP POST! Were you surprised? I was. I miss y’all. That is not surprising.

See you tomorrow and all next week, writing away — yes? Watch for my comments in… comments. :>

Happy Friday!

xoxox Debbie