Some spots remain in the Daily Sprint starting ⏱tomorrow⏱ Plus you can still join next week’s workshop with acclaimed poet Boris Dralyuk 💫

Writers call the Daily Sprint “very engaging” and, on average, write ❣️8,000❣️ new words over the 15 days 🤩

Dear Readers and Writers,

How are you doing in this darker part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere? For writers, winter can be an inward time. Words might lie fallow, out of reach like seeds under the snow. Momentum to write may feel as far away as summer.

That’s why we are offering two writing classes this January, both intended to help you show up at the page with the consistency and inspiration you crave.

Class Highlight: You’ll write more than you imagined in the Daily Sprint

It’s a real stat: 8000 words. Every person who does the Sprint and writes 15 minutes a day ends up with thousands of words at the end. It can feel like magic, make your “brain and spirit come alive,” as one participant put it. And these writers are doing this while continuing with the regular obligations of life, because it’s flexible but committed (no sync classes but high accountability due to paired structure).

You might wonder: are these 8,000 words any good? Instructor Willow affirms they are “shitty first drafts,” (as Anne Lamott calls those first efforts on the page). But first drafts aren’t meant to be perfect, they’re meant to move you forward in your writing. And Sprint participants regularly affirm this is what happens for them in the class.

Momentum in the Sprint is built through daily emails that include mini lessons, inspiration and prompts. Participants say prompts are “very engaging” and (also say they appreciate that they can go off prompt when inspired e.g. by current events). We change the themes and prompts every time we run the class because we have so many repeat students.

Sample Daily Sprint Themes and Prompts

If you have any questions about the Sprint, we also have FAQs on the Eventbrite page for the class. ⏱ Signup closes today at midnight Madrid time ⏱

Finally, a reminder! Our poetry workshop with acclaimed poet, translator and critic Boris Dralyuk is Saturday, January 25th.

There are still spots available in this two-hour workshop titled Formal Freedom: Getting Creative with Meter and Rhyme. Boris has published in The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere and previously been at the helm of the Los Angeles Review of Books. In this online workshop, Boris will lead us in an exploration of the art and craft of formal poetry using meter and rhyme as creative constraints to spark possibilities and generate new work. Join us for two hours of ✨💫 creative learning and practice 💫✨

That’s all for today. See you on the page soon we hope; or for local Madrid folks, in a bookstore! 📖

Photo of the Write Salon’s Willow Mata with her partner at the November opening of Librería Parent(h)esis in Madrid.

All our best,

Giedre, Willow and Vanessa