Welcome to THE EXPERIMENT
"This is why it’s called The Experiment — because it could all go horribly wrong."
Hi friends!
I’m very happy to have some new things to share with you all today!
The Experiment
As you may know, last year I launched The Writers’ Lodge: a community for anyone tackling a writing project. With two newsletters per month to help you consider the process of writing and editing, The Writers’ Lodge is the shoulder for you to lean on when you need creative writing support.
This year, as well as continuing with The Writers’ Lodge, I’ll be launching The Experiment: a personal novel writing project - warts and all. Intrigued? Let me explain.
As someone who writes and talks about writing, I’ve been looking to find a way to bridge the gap between both. The Experiment will see me write and publish the first draft of a novel (‘draft zero’) - with no polishing and no eyes on this other than mine, and then yours, of course. This is a daunting prospect, as one of the things I firmly believe about draft zero is that one should write it safe in the knowledge that no one will see it at all. Yet here I am, preparing to share it with you all!
This is why it’s called The Experiment — because it could all go horribly wrong.
In order for this to be as authentic and honest as possible, I’ll be asking you to vote for a specific theme, character, location or setting to feature in each upcoming chapter - that way you’ll know I’m writing this now. The plan is that I’ll be publishing a new chapter every two weeks - the chapters will be free for all readers. In addition, I’ll be publishing behind-the-scenes bonus content about my thoughts, writing process and any challenges I’m experiencing - this bonus content will be available for paid subscribers.
The Experiment will launch on 1st May with chapter one publishing right here on Substack. So, to kick things off, next week I’ll be asking you to suggest a first line for me, so get your thinking caps on (and do comment below if anyone has any thoughts right now)! Anyone whose ideas I use will get their name in the finished book, if it’s ever published. As I said, this could all go horribly wrong!
In any case, it’s supposed to be fun, and I’d love for you to join me on this journey, whether that’s as a reader, or a writer, or both.
Now, that leads me nicely to the next thing…
Sessions
Over the next few months, I’ll be offering a limited number of Sessions to any fellow writers muddling through their own writing project. These one-on-one Sessions are a place for you to workshop your writing with me; discuss any challenges you’re facing with your novel; or further develop characters and ideas - whatever you need. Sessions will last for 45 minutes and cost £90; and take place over Google Meet.
I’ll be launching Sessions some time next week, but in the meantime do register your interest by commenting below. I’ll offer the first few slots in a strictly first-come-first-served basis.
Workshops
Finally, for a while I’ve been looking at ways for writers to share and workshop their writing. To that end, I’m also going to be launching Writers’ Lodge Creative Writing Workshops, during which you can upload 2000 words (or so) for people to critique. I’ve yet to iron out the finer details for this (mostly I want to make sure that people can share work and that both it and the comments will be secure) but I think I’ll be using Google drive. More on this soon, too, but again do register your interest by commenting below.
This is an exciting time in the development of COMPENDIA, and I do hope you all like my new offerings. I’m trying to keep as much stuff free as possible, but if you want to get the full picture, then please do consider upgrading your subscription. This is going to be a lot of work, and there’s only so much I can continue to offer for free…
I think that’s it. Thanks for reading, and do share this post with anyone you think might find it useful!
Good luck with THE EXPERIMENT 🙌 and would luv to sign up for sessions slots!
The night I crushed my hand in the bar bathroom door changed my life.