START WRITING workshops are on long-term pause.

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Greetings fellow writers;

Writers Boot Camp debuted in September 2009. As a newly minted Amherst Writers & Artists affiliate, I wanted to help everyone uncover their unique voice and advance their craft. I wanted to help every writer find or rediscover joy in this art form. I was hoping the workshop would catch on.

A decade later, and wowee zowee! There’s not enough fingers and toes to count the thousand+ writers that flowed through Writers Boot Camp and the groups that followed. I’ve learned that writing with others in a non-critical environment helps reduce the pressure we put on ourselves as writers. But at some point we also need isolation to refine and revise our work.

I have reached one of these points. To give my projects the time and energy they deserve, I am pausing all workshop-related activities for the foreseeable future. Start Writing will return at some point but I can’t say exactly when or what form it will take. And so our journeys must part ways for a while.

Beyond my own groups, I’ve led sessions in corporate boardrooms, synagogues, art galleries, schools, libraries, hospitals, retirement communities and at a legendary retreat venue that likely should have been condemned. I remember something of all of these venues. I remember something of every session. If we’ve written together, I remember something of you.

Please remember that writing is a process, and the only good process is the one that works for you. Keep going until you find it.

David Bester | StartWriting.ca
March 13, 2020