Write Here Now: A Weekly, Eight-Week Workshop for Writers

For ten years, Five Nights, Five Tarts and Virtual Tarts has been a rich & delicious & rewarding writing community — the initial offering of FeatherInc, home to writers of every type, stripe & feather. There have been essayists, novelists & memoirists, TV writers, screenwriters, playwrights & poets, teachers, accountants & architects, decorators, dress designers & composers, lawyers, therapists, entrepreneurs, moms & dads, actors & stand-up comics. I know I’m forgetting someone!

My workshops are for anyone in need of a space apart to write, a chance to put aside their To Do list and click-off their tech. An time set aside to delve into the mine of your memory or enter the gates of your imagination. Hours to hear your own voice and get your words on a page. An opportunity each week to savor every writer’s favorite oxymoron: side-by-side solitude.

Announcing Write Here Now.

Make space for your creativity. While we may feel powerless in the topsy-turvy, pandemic-weary, apparently treacherous world, committing to our creativity means flourishing in a domain where we are powerful: our own imagination. Signing up and showing up each week — these are affirming and stabilizing acts. That’s what we’ll do together. Now is a fine time to buckle down & to…

Write Here Now.

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings — at ten o’clock in LA and at one o’clock in the afternoon on the East Coast — we will gather on Zoom and begin the eight-week session of Write Here Now.

Here’s some information about the workshop.

Write Here Now is a generative writing workshop. Each session breaks into three blocks.

Block One. A speed check-in followed by side-by-side writing. 30 minutes. Our warm-up. Every writer contributes their Word of the Week, and its definition. Any word that currently captures your imagination and/or is just stuck in your brain. It may be a fancy word or a plain one. We pool the words and everyone writes a passage using the words. Anything goes and everyone is invited to share. I encourage you to write the old fashioned way — longhand and in a new journal.

Block Two. In group solitude, writers focus on their projects. 60 minutes. During this block, I offer an optional check-in with each writer and, if desired, a longer period with one writer. This one-on-one time is for you to share your intentions and/or challenges and gives me insight into your process/project. Sometimes, we review and edit!

Block Three. Group sharing. 60 minutes. After an hour and a half of writing, everyone is invited to read aloud from their project and take-in supportive responses. Also, everyone gets to listen to the work of others and offer supportive responses.

I guarantee that once you signed up, ideas will surface. Your muse, your inner child, your elves — whatever you call the entity which urges you to write — is excited, stirred, and starts rewarding you with images, characters or shards of a story. Write Here Now is your time and space set-aside to devote yourself to these.

Upcoming Sessions:

Wednesday Mornings on the West Coast/Wednesdays Afternoon on the East Coast:

Session A13: Wednesdays, May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. June 6, 13, 20.

10 am - 12:30 pm PST; 1 pm - 3:30 pm EST.

Thursday Mornings on the West Coast/Thursdays Afternoon on the East Coast:

Session B10: Thursdays, March 7, 14, 21, 28. April 4, 11, 18, 25.

10 am - 12:30 pm PST; 1 pm - 3:30 pm EST.

Fee: The fee is $600.

Your payment secures your spot.

Space is limited.

Read TESTIMONIALS below.

Venmo: @FeatherInc, Devon O’Brien. PayPal: obriendevon4@gmail.com. Zelle: (310) 200-1717 or obriendevon4@gmail.com.

Upcoming Sessions

Wednesday Mornings on the West Coast/Wednesdays Afternoon on the East Coast:

Session A13: Wednesdays, May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. June 5, 12, 19.

10 am - 12:30 pm PST; 1 pm - 3:30 pm EST.

Thursday Mornings on the West Coast/Thursdays Afternoon on the East Coast:

Session B11: Thursdays, April 11, 18, 25. May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30.

10 am - 12:30 pm PST; 1 pm - 3:30 pm EST.

I chose the name as a tribute to Ram Dass and his book Be Here Now. As a writer, I believe fresh ideas are within us and swirling all around us. If we are present in the side-by-side solitude, they present themselves to us. Write Here Now is an invitation to inhabit this stillness and write.

The best writer is the one who stays in the chair longest.

For more information, feel free to contact me at obriendevon4@gmail.com.

TESTIMONIALS

“The technique and the mental attitude that Devon espouses in Write Here Now have together created a profound breakthrough for me. Devon’s guidance has led me to an understanding that the muse is there waiting. When you develop a practice and habit of “showing up”, the reward is writing that you never knew you were going to do.

In between sessions with Devon, there are sessions with oneself. Mine follow much the same pattern and fall at roughly the same time of day as the writing I do in the presence of the group. I do a warm-up writing exercise followed by the day’s writing.

The group members are great cheerleaders for each other’s projects. Devon goes deeper, giving each of us the coaching we need, not only privately and but also in front of the group so that we all benefit from each other’s work. I’m so thankful to have Devon O’Brien as a guide in my writing journey.”

— J. Garrett

“Devon’s weekly writing group has worked its way into my head and heart as something I don’t want to go without. I love the group’s feedback, as well as sharing the writing experience with other wonderful writers — to hear what others are creating affirms the creative process. We get to witness that creative writing is available to everyone. The group experience is inspiring and sustains my focus on a project I would have otherwise let go of.

Some weeks I feel too busy, too tired, too uninspired to write, and I think “ugh, please don’t let it be time to write/turn on zoom for the group…” Without exception, each time I leave the group’s zoom call on those “bad” weeks, I leave refreshed, inspired, and re-motivated.

Most of all, Devon understands writers, the writing process, poetry and storytelling - she is an excellent writing guide and teacher. Her guidance is gentle and confident, and since she believes in my writing, I let myself believe in it more. I couldn’t recommend Write Here Now with any more enthusiasm — do it.”

— A. Thorne

Backstory:

Ten years ago I started a writing workshop in my living room in Larchmont Village. Five Nights, Five Tarts was designed for writers of any level, working on a project of any genre and at any stage in its development. Once or twice a week for the first eight years, I made a tart while writers wrote — they wrote poems, pilots, plays & screenplays, essays, articles, posts, blogs & memoirs. Some were novices and some were New York Times best-selling authors. Ideally there were five writers. The small group lent itself to safety, trust, friendship and fun. Many miracles occurred during these nights. Writers found their voice, their stories, their passion project or new passions. I cherish these nights, these writers and their work — not to mention the shared memories of countless warm tarts: Apple, lemon, blueberry, pecan, chocolate, tarte tatin and my signature triple-berry, mint-infused creme tart, and many more. By my estimation I made, over the eight years, more than 400 tarts! Yum!

Then, came COVID. Our community adapted and moved to Zoom. Virtual Tarts was born. Since March 2020, assembled in Zoom squares, writers have written, read, listened and responded to others. We’ve kept one another sane and entertained. And the format evolved. Instead of busying myself with baking, there was time to work individually with writers. Each night, I had one-on-one conversations to support writers on their craft & to help further their project. A new recipe for creativity — and no calories!

After ten years of Tarts, actual and virtual, after two-plus years of the global pandemic, it seemed time accept the new normal, retire my tart tin, and update my workshop based on what I’ve gleaned from my own work and from the writers I work with. Join us in

Write Here Now.

Feel free to share this link. Thank you ~ and write on!