Sometimes When Things Don't Work Out As Planned, They Actually Work Out Better

Last month for our November workshop, I had a little task planned for you. The title of the workshop was ‘where do we find stories’ and I asked those attending my monthly Write With Me club to bring along newspapers and a pair of scissors.

For those who don’t know, part of my paid membership, is a monthly meet-up for an hour on zoom on the first Monday of each month. We sit together at my dining table and we usually have a themed creative writing workshop and an exercise or two and a good old chat. Slowly, over the last year, I have built up a really lovely community of friends and writers who join for the call and it’s a great hour we spend together (if you haven’t managed to make it before, do try to come along – where else can you get a creative writing workshop, from the comfort of your home, for the price of a slice of cake?).

But for various reasons in November, lots of regular White Ink members couldn’t make it and there were only four of us sitting there on zoom, and so I asked those attending if they would mind putting our ‘where we find stories’ workshop on hold, and instead we used the hour unravelling certain difficulties in our current working practices.

As there were three people there, I gave each of them 15 minutes to have my individual attention to help them work out what was holding either them, or their work-in-progress back at the moment. And because the others got to listen in, that gave them thoughts for their own writing practice too.

It wasn’t the workshop that I had planned, it was better. And that sometimes happens, right?

It’s been a difficult few months for me workwise, I had two proposals that went out in June and neither of them got picked up by publishers, I think I shared this with you the other day. This decision has meant that I’ve parted ways with my agent because I just didn’t feel we were on the same page anymore, and for some this could have felt disastrous. But I feel strangely hopeful, and most importantly, I’ve been working on a new proposal of my own which I think is even better than the previous one.

I’m planning to write more to you about changing agents because it is something that many feel they must not do, so I’m going to share with you my experiences of it (hopefully later this week). But what I’m saying is that rejection, things going wrong, people not turning up, can actually be opportunities to do something different, and that can often be doing something better.

Tomorrow is the first Monday of the month, and so we will meet again for my Write With Me Club, and as it’s the last one of the year, I thought we could have a drop in clinic so that I can answer your questions, and help you figure out your current issues, and give you my advice.

These meet ups are always really relaxed and even if you don’t have a burning question at the moment, you will learn a lot from listening to the issues that others are experiencing and the advice I give them.

If there is something you want to hear discussed, a question you want to ask whether that is fiction, non-fiction, or just advice about your writing life, you can pop in it in the comments below.

Or if you would like to ask it anonymously, and just hear the answer at tomorrow night’s meet, then you can email it to me: annawharton@substack.com

Or if you want to come along and ask it there, in the room, then do that too. I don’t mind answering questions on the hoof, so to speak.

And if you’re not already a paid member, but would like to upgrade to join us tomorrow night then you can do that here – just come along and see what it’s all about:

I’ve always wanted to hold workshops on Substack, where we share writing and feedback on each other’s work because it is the reading, it is the listening to other’s feedback that is so valuable to your own work. If this is something that interests you, we could start doing that in the new year in addition to the Write With Me Club, just let me know in the comments.

We will still do the ‘where do we find stories’ workshop in the new year, but I know it’s a busy time for everyone in December, so let’s get inspired for our new stories in 2025. But I do hope you will join tomorrow, if only to sit back and listen in live while you make dinner. It’s at 7pm, I send the zoom invitation out to paid members at midday tomorrow, so do make sure you’re subscribed by then.

I look forward to seeing you as we say goodbye to 2024 and set our writing intentions for the year ahead.

Thank you for being a part of my White Ink community. You support is so greatly appreciated.

Anna x