The pandemic was, at one point, a nationally unifying experience. We were all at home, stunned, baking banana bread. A little giddy. A little scared. Keeping our heads down. New York and New Jersey were going through a trauma that the rest of us could only imagine. Refrigerated trucks stood in for morgues. Fully-grown people banged pots and sang out at 7pm to thank their healthcare and essential workers.  Those first weeks, Americans were more united than we’d been since 1951, when the debut episode of “I Love Lucy” brought so many people to their TVs at the same time, that the first commercial break nearly overwhelmed sewage systems all over the country. (Think about it. What do you put off doing till commercial breaks? This was WAY before you could hit ‘pause.’)

That first week – beginning on March 16th – was also the first week of the first ever Write Without the Fight free 5-day Challenge.

We gathered. We looked at our creativity very differently. And in the midst of our national chaos, we were inspired, motivated, hopeful.

What seemed like the worst time to launch a new program, became the best time to launch a new program. Everyone needed a way to hit ‘pause,’ daily. Walk away from the scary, real world and work on something meaningful.

Your creativity is meaningful.

We’d all like to be able to hit ‘pause.’ Go to a restaurant. Fly to see loved ones. Just feel like it was still the beforetimes. Many of the ways we gave our lives meaning are gone for us. We can’t celebrate a friend’s birthday at a restaurant, or go see fireworks in a crowd of oo-ers and ah-ers on the Fourth. We can’t visit Europe. We can’t even shop.

Our weeks had lost shape, and our lives were lacking meaning. The 5-day challenge ended, and a small, dedicated group of writers signed up for the Creative Mastery Class. (It’s starting up again, a week from Tuesday! July 21st!)

We began meeting every weekday morning to work on our own writing. We said hello. We shared a prompt for 7 minutes, and then off we went again, to write for an hour, quietly on Zoom. Shared accountability in separate spaces.

Like a lunchable. Each writer held the other in a meaningful melange. Distinct. Separate. But held together, together.

It was wonderful. One of us published in Medium for the first time. One wrote a full draft of her children’s book, that she’d been working on for years. One dug deep into a multi-generational historical novel, researching into the wee hours of the morning. I picked up a comic novel that I had not looked at since I broke my arm in November. 2 hippies of very different backgrounds revitalized their memoirs. A newspaper woman clarified her next genre and writing style. We worked.

Then started the reopening. Reopening is different for each of us… fraught with divisive tension over masks, schools reopening, protests, restaurants, haircuts and more. There were protests in over 100 cities, lasting now 100 days. And there’s now the SURGE to worry about.

We are home again. Not even feeling like we are doing something important or noble by watching TV and waiting for our contactless delivery. Now, even our Shelter-in-Place efforts seem meaningless. So, there is only home. What we do there is critical to our health and well-being, to our happiness, to our sense that, despite the news cycle, there is still joy and beauty in the world, if we create it.

The state of HIGH ALERT is tiring.Tiresome.

We have long dreamed of “after this is all over” and expected that to be after the initial three weeks of Shelter-in-Place, or by Easter, by Summer, by the election, or even by this time next year. Who knows when “after this is all over” is going to be. We need to make meaning in our lives now.

I sincerely invite you to join me for the next 5 weeks in the Creative Mastery Course. 

  • Get Assessed and get a clear and thorough picture of how your own creative brain works.
  • Get 5 classes on Creative Thinking and how to get out of stuck every time it happens to you.
  • Get a one-on-one coaching session with me to find peace with your thoughts of doubt and fear.
  • Write each weekday morning with your great writing group.
  • Finish and polish a 7-minute piece of writing with a deadline.
  • Present to a large and excited audience on Zoom. 

It’ll be a great and meaningful 5 weeks. Your future self will thank you. If you have any questions, please just hit reply and ask away. You have until Thursday 7/16 at 2pm PT to join the group. (Every writer needs a deadline. :))