If you want to send out a regular newsletter or even start a blog to increase your visibility on the internet, the Writers Virtual Cafe can offer you a place to get the job done and have fun in the process.
So many coaching newsletters and blogs are leaden rather than lively. When you read the title of an article, you can pretty much guess what it is going to say...and you will be right. One newsletter or blog sounds much like another.
If you want to develop a "signature" voice and create memorable pieces of writing, you will need to do more than decide on a series of topics, churn out the articles, and set them up in your autoresponder six months ahead of time. That may feel reassuring, but trust me, you will be boring. And who reads boring?
What to do?
Envision this: you are sitting in an outdoor cafe at a small round wooden table that has seen better days. Many writers have sat there before you; their names are carved in the wood, if you look closely.
On the table is a pad of paper and pen, or a laptop, or maybe even an old, battered typewriter, the tools of your trade. You are prepared to write. (If you want to don a beret or fedora while you compose, go right ahead.)
The setting is evocative,isn't it? It's the sort of place where you can imagine creating something unique...insightful ...novel...stimulating.
You may be happy to discover that the cafe is home to other writers too. They are seated at their own tables, ready for work, but are first spending some time listening to each other and responding to each other's ideas with sincere interest. They are asking intelligent questions, full of curiousity, eager to help you clarify and strengthen whatever you want to write about.
The atmosphere is relaxed, even playful. People smile at you and invite you to join in the talk. You find yourself using humor naturally and liking that about yourself.
You notice that a process is going on whereby people are sharpening their thinking through expressing even vague ideas out loud. It's a little bit risky but since everyone is participating, the risk feels more liberating than frightening.
You also notice that the maitre d' (that's me) is very much present, making sure the atmosphere stays congenial and constructive. It's my pleasure to do so, because I am a writer too and I know how sensitive writers are.
If no one but you is in the cafe, I sit down at your table and give you my full attention. My job is to keep the writerly juices flowing and unstick you when you feel stuck. Since I've spent the last forty-plus years doing just that with writers who at times experience the normal anxiety that writing bring on, you are in good hands.
It's amazing how enjoyable it can be to create something new and personal, under the right conditions. You have so much inside you that is bursting to come out--and here is where it can bloom.
Month by month, as you come back to the cafe to talk and listen and write, your ideas will continue to evolve. Your newsletters and blogs will become richer and more powerful in their impact while you grow both as a person and as a writer.
Does this vision seem far-fetched, or real, to you? If it fits your sense of what you want, write to me at youcanwriteitnow@gmail.com and we will arrange to speak.
