Writing isn’t just about the stories we create. It’s also about the writing life. Finding the balance. Solving problems. Evaluating ideas. Writing oneself into a corner, and out of it again. Soaring with a character. Starting a work. Finishing a work. Feeling hopeful, frustrated, confused, afraid, excited, strong, tired, exuberant. Vulnerability and rejection. Success. Failure. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I invite you to share six weeks of my writer’s life as I undertake the Clarion West Write-a-thon. I offer you a behind-the-scenes look at my process, challenges, strategies, conclusions, frustrations and satisfactions. There may be some technical tips. There may be some rants. There may be some questions that I cannot or do not answer. It is not a workshop or a course; it’s a conversation. It’s a journey.

And I also invite you to take your own journey, to stretch and explore in a community of other writers doing the same.

Interested? Here’s some background for those who need it — otherwise scroll down for two ways that you can join the party.

I am the Board Chair of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, one of the world’s most highly regarded and prestigious workshops for emerging writers of speculative fiction, taught by the best writers and editors in the field (this year Mary Rosenblum, Stephen Graham Jones, George R.R. Martin, Connie Willis, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, and Chuck Palahniuk). Six weeks every summer that open the door to artistic transformation and professional careers. Six weeks that change lives.

We are a nonprofit organization. The Clarion West Write-a-thon is our biggest fundraising event of the year. It’s a six-week writing marathon, like a walk-a-thon with words or a bike ride for cancer. Writers sign up and set goals, and then recruit sponsors. The sponsor makes a donation to Clarion West. The writer writes.

Get involved as a sponsor, a participating writer, or both!

Be a sponsor
Last year, my sponsors gave me writing prompts; every day, I wrote a piece of fiction to a prompt, and published it that day on my personal blog. I also posted here every day on some aspect of that day’s work, in a series called Edit the Editor. Those 41 days of stories and process comments remain some of our most popular posts.

This year for the Write-a-thon, I will work on my personal projects, which include screenplays, fiction and personal essay. I won’t be posting that work-in-progress. Instead, I will send all my sponsors a weekly email that chronicles my internal journey. If you would find this journey interesting or helpful to your own work, sponsor me in the Write-a-thon and I will include you in these weekly reports of my writing exploration.

To be clear, your money goes to Clarion West, not to me. Your donation sustains a great organization — and sponsoring me sustains my writer’s spirit in ways that I talk more about in this personal post.

Join as a participating writer
I have no doubt — none whatsoever — that participating in the Write-a-thon last year changed my writing life for the better. It was a stretch, a challenge, a safety net of wonderful support, an adventure, and most of all, a mirror. Scary. Deeply exciting. If that sounds compelling, you can participate as a writer and we can cheer each other on. And that helps all of us: here’s a lovely post from Nicola that tells you why.

All writers of any genre, stripe, interest and experience level are welcome.

The Write-a-thon runs June 17 through July 27. Won’t you join me, one way or the other?

Sponsor Kelley anytime before July 27.
Sign up to write by June 16.

Thank you, and enjoy your day. Write something wonderful!

Posted by: Kelley