You know that regular writing is the water, sunlight, energy, and oxygen of your spiritual, intellectual, and professional life.

You know that writing is a big muscle, like your heart, that must be strengthened every day and stretched in new directions in order to get stronger.

You know that writing regularly will give you the freedom to focus on generating rather than responding, creating rather than reacting.

You’re hatching up a novel or script or performance or memoir—but you know that your book will not magically write itself.

Whether you have time for five minutes or five hours, you know this to be true: You just feel better after you write.

It’s hard to keep the writing appointments you make with yourself. You find time to eat, sleep, watch TV, and check social media, but you can’t find time to write.

Writing time can be stressful, rather than relaxing. It’s rare that the stars align to enable you to sit down and write in peace, so you feel pressured to produce every time.

You run out of things to say to yourself. You can’t escape the ruts and grooves that confine your thinking. You can’t figure out how to relax into your imagination.

You’re tired of writing in a vacuum. You need access to peer feedback when you’re ready, and writing and community support when you’re not.

You can’t afford to keep paying for workshops that are creatively confining and thematically specific. You’re grown, and you need to set your own goals. Free or occasional crit clubs and meetups don’t provide the consistency and seriousness you need to get ahead.

You’re bored by homogeneous writing communities that don’t center the voices and dreams of Black writers and writers of color.

Creative conversations that prioritize craft over ideas don’t energize you. You need to get your spiritual and intellectual health in order—you know that the publications and prizes will follow (or not, depending on your goals).