I can’t believe I did that! (A note from Kim and Nina)
A houseplant against a white wall, embellished with orange lines and dots as though it is glowing. Photo credit (pre-embellishment) to photographer Borzoo Moazami via Unsplash.
Hi everyone! Kim and Nina here!
The two of us are working together on a new workshop this October called Short Story in a Weekend.
It’s all there in the title — an immersive, roll-up-those-sleeves weekend with a single goal: To write a short story, from concept to finished draft, from Friday to Sunday.
We’ll move through a whole series of guided writing periods, fiction-writing lessonettes, support, and heads-down-writing together to help us all get where we want to go.
As part of our process, we’ve been reflecting on times when we surprised ourselves creatively, and we wanted to share that with you...
It’s Kim. I’ll start…
Last year I went to Can*Con (a writing conference in Ottawa dedicated to speculative fiction) and I unexpectedly found the inspiration for this workshop.
Can*Con is an extremely busy weekend. The panels are amazing and being the keener that I am, I want to go to everything.
Meanwhile, there was a challenge set by the organizers. Can you write a whole short story while you’re here? I wanted to. I tried, stopped and started again, scribbling between sessions, crossing things out. Several times I thought, “Nope, can’t do it.”
But then Saturday night, I just sat down and wrote it. Just like that. This might be no surprise to you but it was a real surprise to me.
The next day when I was driving home, I felt so proud of myself.
It was amazing to witness myself doing something that felt hard and significant. The next thought I had was — if I can do that, what else can I do?
My turn! Nina here!
Even though I was a trained dancer all throughout high school and college, I was never a performer. In dance shows I was the awkward introvert. On stage I tried to disappear. No one talked to me about having “presence,” and if they had I would not have understood.
Years later, I walked into a queer dance hall.
I felt my immediate, familiar impulse to shrink. But by this time, I had embraced my queer femme self. I was feeling more at home in my body. I watched the people, felt the music, and started to move in the ways that felt good.
Right there, I became a dancer, shaking and strutting and letting myself feel the grooves. I was so alive. I had presence.
Having spent years walking 6 feet behind my own body, suddenly I was gloriously inhabiting all that it could do, in the right space and with the right company.
Isn’t this what we all want? To be in our own voices, celebrating our unique flair, whether it is on a dance floor or on the page?
Here’s our question to you: What do you want to do, but you think it’s impossible?
Right now in your life, what is hidden behind that quiet wall of “I could never”?
Where might your curiosity lead you if you let it?
What new capacity is waiting quietly to be revealed, if you just had the right combination of support and encouragement?
We’d love to hear it. And if that thing is a short story, we’d love to host you.
Fall workshops to help you find your voice and flow
Begin Here is designed for absolute beginners, or folks who want some “beginner’s mind.” Permission Slip is for people who want to use writing to find more ease and joy. Letters to Courage in Uncertain Times is a meditative class for summoning our strongest selves. Lift Off is devoted to the art of the poetic form. And The Life Stories Workshop for LGBTQIA+ is a celebration of queer life stories.
Fall workshops to help you get something big started completed
The Novel Writing Toolkit is for folks with big ideas. Paper Airplanes is for anyone who wants to write for the internet, but feels blocked. Progress is for writers who have an idea they just need to get down. Short Story in a Weekend is for budding fiction writers who are hungry for a big challenge. And finally The Big One is our 9-month journey into our writing, by application.
Our two in-person workshops both have space.
Yay to old-school chairs and tables!
Our one-day Begin Here is a blast of inspiration and guidance for anyone who needs it, especially anyone who calls themselves a “beginner.”
And, City Sanctuary is a one-day workshop for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour who want to write together.
Save the date! Our fall community bonfire is coming up.
October 3rd, we’ll be gathering around the firepit at Withrow Park, in Toronto, to make some face-to-face connections, toast some marshmallows, and talk about writing.
The space is barrier-free and includes a wheelchair-accessible washroom.
Free of course! We’d love to see you there,
And — a poem. Of course.
This one’s called “Phenomenal Woman” by the incredible Maya Angelou.
We’re looking forward to so much about this weekend.
We’re looking forward to “doing the thing” all together.
We’re looking forward to “doing the thing” all together.
We’re looking forward to seeing ourselves in new and expanding ways.
We’re looking forward to extending the invitation that perhaps we’re always extending at Firefly — to find out all that you might do if given the right company.
In it with you ❤️
