Happy March! I’m ready for spring. After all, I’m a Florida girl. A bob-in-the-ocean, Pub-sub-on-the-sand girl. A tank + shorts girl. For me, spring is the glorious highway toward my favorite destination: summer.
Spring is hanging out in the yard with the bluetooth speaker, waking the cicadas from their long winter’s nap. Planting dune daisies beneath the bird feeder. Watching the rest of the azaleas unfurl into their fuchsia splendor while the sweet jasmine mixes with the salt air.
Right when I start to decide that spring is finally here, it gets cold again. Alex and I both sigh as we shut the windows and lock them. I trudge back to the thermostat. The heater groans to life, seeming to ask, “This? Again?”
The energy and enthusiasm that’d come from ushering in a new year hasn’t gone kaput, but what was once flowing has certainly ebbed. The routines I decided would best suit my creative ideals—early bedtime! diligent morning pages!—are hanging by a thread.
But the promise of spring makes me think I might be able to return to enthusiasm.
I love to think of the seasons as containers. What can three months of spring carry for us?
Perhaps your goal this year is to finish a draft of your novel. What can you accomplish in the spring that might get you closer to the finish line?
If you’re aiming to finish a short story or an essay for submission, is that something you might be able to do in the spring?
Maybe you’re hoping to query agents in the fall. What’s left to tackle before then? Could you spend the spring focusing on the manuscript so you can focus more fully on perfecting your query materials this summer?
Or perhaps you started the year already feeling so burnt out or overwhelmed by the prospect of doing something creative that you haven’t written since 2023. (Reader: I’ve been there. Yes, you will write again.)
On March 17, I’m offering a one-day class for writers of all backgrounds who’d like to enter the new season feeling excited about writing. This weekend only, the class is on sale! Here are the details.
PREPARING FOR SPRINGTIME WRITING 🌸
Join me for 90 minutes of exercises, readings, and sharing that will help your writing life bloom in the spring. Sunday, March 17, 3-4:30PM EST.
During this class, we will…
Reflect on the winter months and look ahead into the spring.
Consider how our personal writing routines and rituals may look different in the spring than they did in the winter.
Return to the goals and intentions we set for our writing lives at the start of 2024.
Walk away with revived creative enthusiasm.
Early bird special: $15 this weekend only. Regular price: $20. Paid newsletter subscribers: scroll to the bottom of this email for the promo code for 10% off.
I’d love to spend the final Sunday afternoon of winter looking into the spring with you! Sign up below.
Also! I have two spots remaining in my five-week Growing Our Books workshop. In this encouraging and warm Zoom room, writers will help each other envision their pages of fiction or nonfiction as a book-length work. Includes a 1:1 meeting to discuss your writing goals.
Wednesdays, 6-9PM EST, starting March 27. $330 for five weeks. Paid newsletter subscribers: scroll to the bottom of this email for the promo code for 10% off. This class won’t return again until the fall, so snag your spot soon!
AN INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN MAYHEW BERGMAN
For The Creative Independent, I spoke with writer Megan Mayhew Bergman. Megan is my all-time favorite short story writer: her book Birds of a Lesser Paradise completely rocked my world when I first read it.
Megan directs the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference (which I’m returning to this summer!), and since she’s originally from North Carolina, I was excited to ask her about the intersection of climate writing and Southern writing. Her answer was empowering:
“I think there are a lot of unfair traps that still exist for southern writers. I think people are absolutely aware of them now, exploding them as they should.
The story of the land is complicated everywhere, and anybody on American soil is already in a complex relationship with land and land ownership and land stewardship. Southerners have to contend with an especially fraught narrative there.”
See you next week!
💛 Hurley
PS: Paid subscribers, you can find that promo code below.