“No, no… THIS is the hard part.” A note from Kim.
A traffic light displaying a green arrow. We added the words “Push Week” to the image.
Hi there! Kim here.
Here’s the news up front: My favourite of all Firefly programs, Push Week, is coming up again.
We run this every fall around this time. It’s a 5-day program that invites joy, momentum, and a big push for any writing practice or project.
We would absolutely love to see you there!
Now. I have a question.
Have you ever gotten through some stage of writing and thought after you were done, “That was the easy part”?
There’s an agent I love called CeCe Lyra who has this funny clip about how every stage of the writing (and publishing) process feels like “the easy part” when it’s finished.
When we’re in it, everything is hard.
Wow, that really resonated for me!
In revision, I thought first drafting was the easy part. In querying publishers (which I’m doing now), I’m thinking revision was the easy part. Whatever stage I’m in is the hard part, everything before it, easy.
Because yes, the present tense is tense. And the past takes on a different hue in retrospect.
But here’s the thing – the present is the only place where things are happening.
The present is where we’re actively making choices. I may say right now “I’m going to write everyday” but the only choice I can make is whether I write right now, today. And then tomorrow, I have another choice to make.
The present is also where the joy lives. For me, joy often comes from actively working on my writing projects. It also comes when I’m doing that with other people. Being in a room with other writers brings me huge joy. Add to that witnessing and hearing all your progress and words, well … it’s a lot of joy.
That’s one of the reasons I love Push Week so much — it brings together two of my favourite things:
Creative time, in the present, working on a project
All of you
So. Here’s the plan.
We have a week of productivity planned on (as usual) the first week of November. It includes daily intention-setting sessions, evening exploration workshops, an “Ask Me Anything,” lots of quiet writing time sprinkled through the day, and a big celebratory Open Mic at the end.
This time around, we’ve added some late night sanctuary sessions for you night owls, and we’re keeping the early bird sessions too.
Sophia and I will be leading, but Chris, Mari, Britt, Asifa, and our Operations Lead, Sydney, will all be running or assisting sessions. There’s another joy – working together with my team!
We can’t wait to see you there, in the hard parts, the easy parts, the joyful parts, and all the rest of this lovely and complicated thing called writing.
Alright, friends.
If you feel called, please join us in Push Week’s present tense adventure. Because as the poem by Kālidāsa that I shared above says so well:
For yesterday is but a dream
and tomorrow only a vision.
But today, well spent, makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
In today with you!
