Mac gave me this card once. It feels relevant.

WRITING IN THE END TIMES: 

A free workshop with Janelle Hanchett

April 3-24 (full)

Fridays at 10am PST/1pm EST 

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3/23/2020 NOTE: WE PASSED 150 ENROLLEES FIVE TIMES OVER, SO I FIGURED OUT A WAY TO ALLOW MORE PEOPLE ON THE CALLS. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ENROLL BUT KNOW YOU WILL NEED TO JOIN A SESSION IN MAY (dates TBD but will also be held on Fridays at 10am PST).

Also, fyi, I will make the content available to the public, so even if you can’t join us “live,” you can listen to the recordings. Thanks!

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When everything is bullshit, especially internally, I’ve found the best thing to do is try to contribute something to your world. So, I’ve created a free 4-week online writing workshop that brings together the “greatest hits” of all the workshops and retreats I teach.

I’ve called it WRITING IN THE END TIMES because there’s something wrong with me.

I can let in 150 people at a time, and if more people want to do it, I’ll fucking add another one.

You may be wondering why, during a pandemic, I am suggesting you join me for a writing workshop.

Well, here’s why:

Because writing will help you process the mass of existential confusion in your head. A lot of the writing you produce will never see the light of day but it will force you to channel the thought shit-ball of your brain into linear patterns of language known as “sentences.” There is something relieving in this process. Your subconscious is working. I’m not making this up. It’s science or whatever. At least I think it is. I don’t know. Stop pressuring me.

Because we are living in the weirdest time ever and should document this shit for our grandkids and great-grandkids. History books will write about the pandemic of 2020 and they’ll wonder what it was like “in real life.” We need to let the future know that we are, as a whole, smarter than the great toilet paper shortage. Maybe.

Because you need a distraction, goddamnit. You can’t sit around all day staring at the wall. For one hour a week, you should hop onto a writing workshop and talk about shit that uses your brain in different ways. Also, you will laugh. Probably at me. I am fucking ridiculous.

Because you’ll have a little writing team of like-minded people. The chances of this group turning into a standard shit show of internet humanity are slim to none because I would have offended the easily offendable a long time ago and thus the people who stick around and are usually pretty laid-back and tolerant.

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Here’s what the workshop will entail:

• Weekly live one-hour video conferences where I will talk about a topic for 20-30 minutes, and then open up time for questions/discussion. These calls are RECORDED and downloadable. So if you miss one, or all four, you can still get them.
• A Facebook group where we can all not be dicks to each other. Form community, share writing, post otter videos.
• Weekly writing prompts. I won’t be able to respond or offer feedback on these because I’m not made of time here, people, Jesus—but I’ll read what I can and you’re welcome to post them in our non-asshole writing group.

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Weekly topics:

Week 1: Voice is Power. How do we write in a way that reflects who we actually are as individuals when we’re totally fucking afraid of what the world will think of us as individuals? Tangled web. Also, what is voice? Do I have one?  If so, how do I get it on the page?

Week 2: Writing About Others. How do I write about people I love without making them hate me? How do I write about people I hate without making them sue me? No. Seriously: How do we tell our stories without infringing on the privacy of others?

Week 3: My life is boring as hell. What the fuck do I write about? Unless you’re that dude who sawed his own arm off after it got stuck under a rock on a hike, you may worry a little that your life is too vanilla/suburban/mediocre/endlessly redundant to provide “inspiration” for words to bestow upon humanity. I MEAN YOU ARE LITERALLY STUCK IN YOUR FUCKING HOUSE ALL DAY. And you aren’t Emily Dickinson. We shall discuss this.

Week 4: Creative Work in a life that only encourages laundry and deep malaise. Why have the titles of the weekly topics gone awry so quickly? Nobody knows! This week we’ll talk about creative work wedged into the recesses of busy, busy lives (less busy now! Haha! Too soon?). We’ll talk about how we can create sustainable creative habits in our lives of kids or work and kids or work and kids who hate work or work that hates kids or—you know what, it’s fine. We’re all doing fine.

This is my attempt to give you something I know, something I love. I believe in the power of creative work, in writing, in its ability to connect us with the people who need us, and the people we need.

I am ridiculous but I am very serious about the power of writing some truth to one another. We need to hear from you.

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What do I expect of you?

Fuckin’ nothing, friend. Show up to calls. Don’t show up to calls. Listen to the recordings drunk at 3am or blast them from your balcony for your neighbors to hear. Do the prompts or burn them in a ceremonial fire. Engage in the Facebook group or stalk creepily from the corner. This is something I am offering to you in whatever broke-ass form you currently exist in.

If you are a type-A overachiever, please definitely join as we will need you to carry the people in their pajamas eating baklava and watching Youtube videos on how to train groundhogs.

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So, how does this work?

Sign up below with your email address. Then I’ll send you log-on info and invite you into the Facebook group. The calls will be recorded and you can listen live or listen later. The reason I’m not doing this as just an open free-for-all is that I’d like to actually create a writing workshop experience for you. I’ll keep doing these as long as we’re enduring this strange new reality.

I may even add new topics. Who knows? There are no rules now. WE JUST LIVE ON THE EDGE NOW. We just do things.

Much love.

And if you’d like to join with whatever donation, there’s a button for that. Like most creative freelancers, I have taken a rather serious hit from all this, so if you have the means and desire, I’d be grateful for the support. Or, take the workshop, see if you still like me, then donate. Or not. Nothing matters!

3/31/2020: 850 people signed up for this. I added multiple workshops but have to cut it off at some point. I will reopen them if I can and if this situation keeps going. If you’d like to be notified of upcoming workshops, please fill out the form below. Thank you so much for your support.