Pride in Existence | Pride in Resistance

November 7, 2024

Pride in Existence | Pride in Resistance

How are you all holding up? Or, as I asked our awesome local gelato genius yesterday, what flavor of not-OK are you today? (I am assuming a lot about NTTWC members’ politics here—if you are jubilant about the outcome of Tuesday’s elections in the U.S., you may be better served by a different writing group.)

I’m wearing my “Pride in Existence | Pride in Resistance” t-shirt today because somehow I have a modicum of fortitude and energy today despite massive exhaustion. I’m wearing this shirt for me—and for the fiddle students I’ll see later today—and for all of us. It seemed like an apt title for today’s newsletter.

Sara’s refrain right now is “Art is always the right choice.” Mine is cribbed directly from E.M. Forster: “Only connect.” Taken together, these two rallying cries represent both interiority and exteriority. Both are vital right now: we need moments of quiet, of reflection, of the (good! necessary!) darkness that allows us to create. But we also need to know that we are not alone—to be present in the open light of day with others.

In the synchronous sprints since Tuesday’s election, NTTWC members have used this friendly and focused time to journal and get feelings out, to make plans for an uncertain future, and to (try to) take breaks from the version of reality that is glitching a lot of our brains out (it’s a bug, y’all—not a feature!). Sara and I considered canceling the sprint last night, but I’m so glad we didn’t: for me, the feeling of getting shit done despite »all of this« is comforting. And over the past couple of months, NTTWC has become one of the communities I look to for support and stability.

In the coming months—as our own energy and mental health allows—we will be trying to expand some of our programming to offer more to free members. For now, though, if you need some support around getting writing done during what feels like the end of the world, we encourage you to make use of the free trial. Doing so will take you to the Zoom links for all the sprints listed in the schedule—usually around a month’s worth of sprints.

In the meantime, we all have ONE JOB: to survive.

—Tes

New Schedule!

tl;dr: Thursday nights, alternate Monday lunchtime, Sundays as usual.

After November 10, we’ll try a regular rotation of Monday daytime (noon ET) sprints and Thursday evening (9pm ET) synchronous sprints in addition to our popular 4:30 ET Sunday synchronous sprints. Starting in December, we are also adding a second Sunday asynchronous sprint to the calendar. See below for the next few weeks’ schedule.

October Podcast

In which we discuss what it’s like when writing is difficult—and why that means you’re doing it right. Our next podcast episode will be out on November 14.

No Time to Write Club Schedule: November 10–November 25, 2024

To join our sprints you must be a paid subscriber :)

Zoom links are below for paid subscribers.

• Sunday, November 10, 4:30pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• NEW! Thursday, November 14, 9pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Sunday, November 17: asynchronous sprint on the Substack chat

• NEW! Monday, November 18, noon ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• NEW! Thursday, November 21, 8pm ET: social hour on the Substack chat

• NEW! Thursday, November 21, 9pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Sunday, November 24, 4:30pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• NEW! SPECIAL! Monday, November 25, noon ET: special pre-holiday Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• U.S. Thanksgiving: sending best wishes for strong digestion in both literal and metaphorical senses! We will resume with an asynchronous sprint on Sunday, December 1.

What We’re Up To

Surviving.