All The Details

Kick off with a group zoom, live at a specific time.

After that, you’ll do the weekly exercises at the same time every week: Either before 9am or after 5pm. (This workshop is led jointly by a morning bird and a night owl, so we respect both of these choices!) We also offer live co-writing sessions twice a week, if you want the accountability of being on zoom at the same time as others.

You’ll conclude the journey with a one-on-one session (50 min) with Ann or Jade. We will help you make a concrete plan for your next several months.

Along the way, you’ll get considered prompts, expert guidance, and personalized accountability from the Midwives. We have a conscious framework for assessing how you work best and what your blocks are. You will exchange honest feedback with other writers, give each other space to be more ambitious, and cheer each other on. By the end of the 6 weeks, you’ll know how to read your own creative compass—and use it to navigate the many intrusions of your day job and life responsibilities. You’ll be in a regular writing flow with direction and purpose—and know how and when to change course when your circumstances inevitably evolve. And you’ll have a bespoke work plan so you can actually follow through after the workshop ends.

Writers have called our past offerings “a transformative experience,” “a game changer,” and “the best professional workshop I've ever attended.”

You are the mother of invention. We are your midwives.

Schedule:

• Whole-group kickoff session, live on zoom: [TK DATE]

• Solo writing sessions: You pick the date/time but commit to an hour of solo writing each week, TK DATE RANGE.

• One-on-one session with either Ann or Jade: A 50-minute session in TK, to be scheduled individually.

Who is this workshop for?

You’re a writer who also needs to pay the bills, and you’ve been struggling to prioritize your writing. You like concrete instruction and guidance, and deadlines can motivate you, but you’re looking to set up some kind of structure you can stick to so that you can really focus on your words. You’re ready for a breakthrough.

Who are the Midwives of Invention?

Jade and Ann are writers and friends who have been leading workshops as the Midwives of Invention since 2018. Between us we have written best-selling fiction and non-fiction books, published pioneering newsletters, edited magazines, written for beloved television shows, and created podcasts and audio essays. We are not tortured writers toiling alone. We are in constant dialogue with each other about our projects and processes, and we started the Midwives of Invention because we wanted to share that dialogue with the wider world. For us, coming up with ideas, crafting sentences, and revising drafts is actually fun, and doing it in community is the best part. We don’t think writing is easy, but we know how to make the hard work worthwhile. Click here to read more about us.

What does it include?

• 6 sessions: The first is live in real time on Zoom, and the rest are asynchronous, to be watched weekly at a day and time you commit to. Each session begins with a half-hour of instruction and discussion, followed by a one-hour writing period. Instruction is iterative, helping you reconnect to the heart of your writing practice and truly understand what you need to move forward. Ann and Jade will be writing with you, and will remain on camera throughout the session—you have the option to turn off your camera. (1.5 hours per week)

• 6 solo writing sessions: Solo, but not alone! Each week we will give you questions, prompts, or tasks designed to continue your work and take you to the next step. (1 hour per week, on a day and time of your choosing)

• A one-on-one meeting with Ann or Jade: Sign up with either Ann or Jade for a 50 minute one-on-one session to kick off your workshop experience. We’ll ask you focused questions designed to excavate your goals and intentions for your project and prepare you to make the most of our six weeks together. These meetings will all take place over zoom, during the first weeks of the program (April 27-May 9), and they are 100% for you! You can ask us anything. (50 minutes, one time only)

• A discussion board: We’ll have a discussion channel dedicated to the workshop. Ann and Jade will make occasional appearances, and there will be light moderation, but this is really a tool for you to connect with fellow writers. Do a post-mortem on a group session, discuss your progress, recommend favorite books, check in about your solo writing session, or find someone in your city to work with IRL!

• A progress-tracking tool: OK, so it’s a spreadsheet– but this spreadsheet is exciting, we promise! We’ve designed it so that you can track the obvious things (dates, words, pages) as well as other essential factors, like the art inspiring you or the research you want to do before your next session. We’re so thrilled about this tool that we’ll be using it, too. We’ll even make our spreadsheets visible to you, as long as you promise to keep them private. 

• Writing prompts with a purpose: Each writing session, both group and solo, will be accompanied by a considered exercise that will help you reconsider and reimagine your dormant draft. These prompts will inspire you to keep putting words on the page and move to the next step.

• A path forward! At the end of the six weeks, you’ll have a clear path forward and the excitement to follow through. Your day job isn’t going anywhere, and neither is your writing practice.

• Bonus: Each writing session you will receive a link to an album or playlist to write to. Just for fun. 

You commit to:

• Showing up to the kickoff group session 

• Doing one solo writing session per week on your own time

• Offering constructive feedback and community to your fellow participants

• Contributing to our generative and thoughtful atmosphere by sharing your unique perspective, welcoming different opinions, and operating from a place of respect and care for your fellow writers

• Taking your own ideas and goals seriously

You’ll leave with:

• A deep and vital commitment to your project

• A personalized road map to completion

• Tips, tools, and resources to continue your writing practice

• Established relationships with a cohort of fellow writers

• Fresh words on the page

What have past participants said?

• “I found you both to be so supportive and so smart. Your questions got at the heart of what matters and it felt like I walked away with really useful insights that I think about every time I write.”

• “Listening to how you two organized your days and years into writing was very helpful.”

• “I felt so seeeeeeeen!”

• “I loved the emphasis on tools, and so many of them feel really useful to me.”

• “Honestly a transformative experience for me.”