My Writing Life (September 2026)

September was a pretty busy month. It began with a full rebranding of the writing group I’ve been facilitating since May 2024, and ended with (surprise!) this post.

On September 1st, after a two month summer hiatus, the group, formerly known as The Daily Scribblers’ Club and now renamed The Joy of Writing w/ Monique Chénier, started up with a fully refreshed schedule.

Our 7 am co-writes moved to 8 am, and I added three 12 pm and two 4:30 pm co-writing opportunities to the mix. What’s more, we now meet five days a week instead of four.

Another major change in scheduling came in the form of switching out the Sharing Circle that took place at the end of each month for a second 90-minute write-in instead. We now get to enjoy writing and sharing together twice a month instead of just once.

A final tweak to the previous format is that I now provide a daily writing prompt at each co-write. Participants can choose to use it, or not, depending on their focus that day.

What pleases me most about these shifts is that they reflect the group’s wishes, based on a survey I sent out in August. I feel like they’ve revitalized our co-writes. As well, the changes are very much in line with the three main goals of the group which are to provide community, accountability, and inspiration to its members.

On a personal level, the use of daily writing prompts during the co-writes has had a completely unexpected impact on my own writing. I’ve inadvertently started drafting yet another novel. Each day, new characters and/or scenes drift onto the page. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic comes to mind when this happens.

As some of you may already know, I’ve been trying to write a hopeful novel set in dark times since 2019. I have two completed novel drafts in that vein at the moment. However, I feel like this one may end up being the closest to what I’ve envisioned for the past seven years, and for that, I am deeply grateful. I’ve written a little over 5,000 words so far, and couldn’t be happier.

September also heralded my ninth year of starting each day with morning pages, which I usually write before I meet up with The Joy of Writing group. On top of that, I drafted two other posts I couldn’t seem to bring to completion. I poked at some grant applications, submitted four poems for publication, started writing a fifth, got a rejection for another, and found out I did not make the CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist.

On the 25th, I participated in a Queer Futures writing workshop facilitated by my friend Derek Newman-Stille, which was lovely, and read some poems at an open mic night a couple of weeks before that.

Overall, it was a fulfilling writing month. 🙂

Let me know what you’ve been up to. I’d love to hear about your writing life.