Let’s make something out of nothing. (Free workshop on Friday!)
A top down view of a jar of crayons.
What does it really mean to make things?
Here are some thoughts that have been swirling in my mind:
Paintings came long before galleries.
Dancing came long before stages.
Stories came long before books, and even longer before The New York Times Best Sellers list.
Underneath all the noise of “productivity” and “worth” there is something much simpler: The hunger to make something out of nothing.
I got that definition of creativity — to make something out of nothing — from the writer Oli Mould. He tracks the history of creativity and writes a lot about how it got mashed up with the forces of industrialism, capitalism, and classism, losing the purity of its original fire.
I understand that, I feel it, and yet.. I still see that fire in the shaky voices of workshop participants, telling me why they are in class. I see it in my team’s faces, uplifted by the joy of witnessing other people’s creative light. I feel it in my chest when I’m on the verge of the right sentence (and when I can’t find it.)
We need to make something out of nothing — not for prestige, but because we exist. Because we are hungry. Because making things returns us to ourselves, and each other.
So what do you want to make this year?
Who do you want to write a letter to?
What’s the story that only you can tell?
How is that original fire of creative hunger trying to be expressed?
We’re running a free workshop this Friday to sit in this question.
It will mark the end of the first full week of 2025, so we’ll make some space to exhale, gather up creative energy, and be in service of the question — what do you want to make this year?
We’ll be sampling the wares of some of our winter workshops that still have space.
We’ll borrow from Kim’s upcoming Word Play Workshop and experiment with the joy of language.
We’ll reach for Mari’s online Brief Bursts and create some radical brevity.
We’ll touch into Asifa’s online Focus and Flow, exploring writing flow this year.
Even if you have no plans to take a further workshop, please come! All you need is 90 minutes, an Internet connection, and the desire to make something out of nothing.
And if you’re looking for a more personal, sustained connection to writing community this winter, here’s what’s still got space. We’d love to see you there, and we deeply appreciate your help in spreading the word.
Looking to write during the day?
You can write about your life in Brief Bursts (very short memoir) or The Life Stories Workshop.
You can explore the beautiful art of short fiction in Tiny Worlds.
Or you can surrender to a writing flow in Focus and Flow.
Prefer an evening date with yourself?
Begin Here is for anyone who wants to face the page again. We have online and in-person options this time.
Exploring Our Racialized Identities is a space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour to explore their life stories.
Fat Joy is a joyful space for people who identify as fat. (1 spot remains!)
Finally, The Word Play Workshop will help you dive into the silly joy of language. This one is in person.
Or, sink into a weekend with us.
Flight Paths is a poetry class that runs every Saturday afternoon starting January 18th, dedicated to exploring poetic forms.
And Imagine A Cabin is a weekend long deep dive, to fill the winter with creative warmth.
Our free workshop this Friday.
Kim, Asifa, and I will be hopping on Zoom this Friday at 7pm EST for 90 minutes of creative play and visioning for the year ahead.
Totally free.
Sign up here.
A poem for you.
Please enjoy this one — The Life of a Writer by Jalynn Harris.
I’m leaving you with the words of the luminous Joy Harjo.
I got to hear her speak at the library in December (so many of you were there!) and I was reminded of one of my favourite little passages of hers:
Bless the poets, the workers for justice, the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache, the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh meaning—We will all make it through, despite politics and wars, despite failures and misunderstandings. There is only love.
There is only love.
In it with you,
P.S. Credit where it’s due — I was inspired in some of my ideas today by the artist Yumi Sakugawa. I couldn’t find quite the right place to quote her, but I am grateful for her mind, and her vibrant creative fire.