26: Shut Up and Write (and Drink Coffee)
A few years ago I went through an upheaval in my life that left me feeling hollow and liberated at the same time. Now I realize the spiral down and the subsequent climb back up, but back then I was just living to live, if that makes any sense to those experiencing a marital breakdown. In 2023 I began attending Shut Up and Write (also known as SUAW) in Indianapolis. I had always enjoyed writing, but my writing regiment was wildly inconsistent. A once-a-week meet-up was exactly what I needed to water my writing garden. Unfortunately my tenure with SUAW Indy was short lived. A kindness “disagreement” with the assertive host left me without a writing group home.
That’s when I decided to contact Shut Up and Write and see if I could start a Sunday morning session in my local community. There was (and still is) a Wednesday morning SUAW group in Carmel, but it was led by a host who quit over a year ago. The bigwig coordinators for SUAW sought her out to check if she’d be ok with a Sunday group, yet they couldn’t find her. I got my group.
The first half year was a struggle for my group, mainly because it was just me and occasionally a couple of other guys. Eventually writers started trickling in…and staying. SUAW is all about creating a laid back yet productive experience for the writing community, and that is exactly what I needed. We have a strong group of regulars I truly care about, and we continue to bring in new writers from the area.
Today, seventeen writers attended our SUAW Sunday group, just one away from our record. Unlike some writing groups, we have fun chatting. Sometimes it’s about writing and reading, and sometimes it’s not. But at 11:00 we put our heads down and write silently for an hour.
Community is extremely important to me. In my classroom, I strive to create a community of students who feel safe with one another and with me. Safety and kindness are paramount and non-negotiable. That’s also the case with Shut Up and Write Sunday. If we can’t show kindness to one another, then writers won’t feel safe with such an intimate personal passion. Isn’t that also true about life?
