This week, I am feeling the warmth of the writing community I have created here on Substack as well as in person.
As I was walking out of my workshop room this morning, a member of the group said to me: it really is magic what you create here. And I’m not just talking about our writing.
She was talking about the connection between everyone in the group. A group that shows up week after week to share their stories and writing, to experiment and try new things. A group that is just as comfortable writing a memory, a piece of fiction, inventing a voice for an inanimate object or a more-than-human creature or researching for an essay or poem. They are so curious and creative and willing to delve into what makes us human. We get angry together, sad sometimes but most often we laugh a lot.
I am feeling this connection in the Zoom group on Tuesdays for paid subscribers as well as the newly formed My Book Writing Adventure group. I am so inspired by the people who show up week after week for each other and for themselves.
But especially this week.
My son is 20. He is not in employment or education. I have been trying for the past few weeks (months/years maybe, off and on) to help him think of something he can do (he hasn’t asked me to do this, I just felt like I should now and then, you know as his mother). I have been saying he must do something to feel more purposeful. I got frustrated.
A couple of weeks ago, I stepped back. As I do. I go in circles with the stepping in and stepping out again.
Then last Friday, he came out of his bedroom and announced he’d booked a one way ticket to Tokyo and he’d be leaving in two days. I knew he had a couple of friends spending time there, so it wasn’t completely out of the blue, but still. Tokyo is a long way away. It was his first flight alone. Two days - not nearly enough time to prepare myself!
I made sure he had travel insurance, a battery pack for his phone, gave him some Japanese Yen in cash, the address of his accommodation and waved him off at the airport.
I am so excited for him, but as I got on the shuttle from the north terminal at Gatwick, I cried. A lot. So many feelings.
Since then, I have been doing some therapeutic writing about a time when I travelled in my early twenties, which helped.
But the most reassuring thing for me was on Tuesday, when the member of my paid subscriber Zoom group who lives in Tokyo sent me an email with her contact details to give to him. Just in case.
Writing connects us in so many deep ways. Even if we don’t write in a group, reading someone else’s words helps us feel less alone. That the world is a smaller place than it feels sometimes. I feel so grateful for the support I get when I do this work and I feel so proud of myself for keeping on showing up to do it.
PS: My son landed safely, loves Japan and is having a brilliant time with his friends.
PPS: He met the friends through online connections while gaming during lockdown, which, it strikes me now is just what I’ve been saying about community.
Events with me (Mel Parks)
Online
My Book Writing Adventure - Support Group on Zoom
For paid subscribers:
All UK time and planned to coincide with the full moon
2024
Sunday 15 December | 4-5pm
2025
Monday 13 January | 9-10am
Wednesday 12 February | 1-2pm
Friday 14 March | 10-11am
In person
Six-Week Story
a creative writing course with me and Julie Corbin
The Six-Week Story Creative Writing Course will introduce you to the basics of writing a compelling story, novel or memoir and give you the tools to keep going.
You have an idea (or plenty!) for a story but you’re not sure how to take it from a spark to a full narrative. Or you tend to begin writing and then run out of steam, leaving strands of unfinished stories.
In the six 2-hour Saturday morning creative writing workshops in East Grinstead, experienced and published writers, Mel Parks and Julie Corbin will guide you through the elements of story writing.
We will explore: planning, character development, narrative arcs, story building blocks, self-editing and sending your story out into the world.
The course is aimed at beginners as well as those who have been writing for a while and there will be a chance to get written feedback from the course tutors on an extract of your work.
Saturday mornings: January 18 to February 22.
Click here to find out more and to book a place.
In person
Silent Book Club
We meet have a chat about the books we’re reading, then read quietly together for an hour before chatting again at the end.
Sunday 8 December | 1.30 - 3.30pm
The Bookshop, East Grinstead High Street
Until next time…
Mel, Mel, Mel, the joys and pains of a mother. And I'm so sorry I missed the group yesterday.
Paris is a lot closer than Tokyo but that was how my youngest flew the 'nest'. Over Christmas dinner maybe 15 years ago she announced she was going to Paris in January. How lovely we said, how long for? Then the big shock when she told us to live there. She had no accommodation and no job but knew people so she'd see how it went. She didn't come back to live here anymore. Enjoyed Paris for two years, got a job, sofa surfed then found an apartment and is now in Chicago, happy, married and settled. I've never had her courage and I envy her just a little bit. Hope your son has a great time.
Wow Mel, I would never have realised this was going on for you in our Thursday workshop! Like you I have had a long period of immense (if background) worry, and also, this week the clouds started parting quite significantly. I was so happy to read your PSes! How things turn out eh.
Yes, another magical session - and reckon I know who said that to you :)