Week Two: When a Creative Writer Digs Past Easy Answers
Tripping onto the archaeology of inspiration in our Summer Surge Challenge
Welcome to Flight School and week two of the Summer Surge Challenge:
If you haven’t seen our first week meet-up video, here it is. I hope you’ll check it out.
Something extraordinary occurred this week. Writers started dropping more profound truths into our shared space, and what emerged was pure gold—the kind of breakthrough moments that make these challenges transformative.
Bridget's Beautiful Confession
Bridget arrived with 1,000 words a day and a goal: to turn her Substack into the memoir she had dreamed of publishing by fifty, but listen to her honesty: "I have zero grasp on any of it... Do I start at the beginning and leave it where my son sits in prison?"
This is where the community becomes a craft teacher. Bridget's willingness to reveal her confusion—about structure, voice, where to begin when living in the middle of heartbreak—opened the door for guidance:
Me to Bridget: GET IT ALL OUT. All of it. Leave the professional psychologist's voice aside and let the woman/mother/human voice run the show. The "best friend" voice. Start where memory lifts its hand and says, "Pick me." You'll know you've got something when you surge past 20,000 words—that's the high water mark that means you're out of dock and into the sea.
Sara's Profound Question
Sara dropped this gem: "Something that is hard: digging deep, being honest about past behavior, without being self-deprecating... what were the circumstances that caused me to be so self-abusive and what happened that I no longer allow myself to get involved in similar circumstances?"
This is memoir work at its finest—moving past simple answers toward genuine curiosity and humility. Not "I was bad, then I got better," but the deeper archaeology: What were the circumstances that caused me to ____?
Nikki's Unexpected Story
Now look what Sara's question sparked in Nikki, who initially said she wouldn't dig into the self-abusive stuff, then proceeded to lay out the most gorgeous list of circumstances that led to her book:
Fell down stairs. Almost broke my neck. Had to quit teaching. Needed something to do. Someone asked about inflation. Found the right writing community. Found a publisher.
Eight moments. Each one, as Nikki noted, worthy of its own story. This is how memoir structure reveals itself—not through forced plotting, but through honest excavation of the moments that changed everything.
Week Two Mission
For memoir writers: Follow Sara's lead. Ask yourself the hard question: What were the circumstances that caused me to _____? Dig past the easy answers.
For fiction writers: Your characters need the same archaeology. What circumstances led them to this moment of crisis?
For everyone: Notice what drops in when you're truly listening to others. The best insights often arrive sideways, sparked by someone else's courage to go deeper.
This is the magic of dropping in and sharing. Your honest question becomes another writer's roadmap.
Keep dropping in. Keep sharing. Keep listening.
The surge is building momentum. We meet again June 18 at 9:00 a.m. PST. Sign up to get your spot.
From landing to settling in:
Week One was about showing up. Week Two is about breaking through.
Write toward that 20,000-word high-water mark, where you know you've found your true voice and story, and feel for the moment when resistance melts into flow.
Which moments from your writing this week make you lean forward, your pulse quicken, or make you want to call someone and share? These "heat moments" are a magnetic north. Make that call later and write a little more.
Take a moment of change in your story and spiral outward: What happened right before? What was happening in the world? Who else was in the room? What season was it? Story lives in these expanding circles.
When reading others' posts this week, hunt for the moment when their voice shifts. Point it out. These authentic moments are gold mines for all of us.
Your Week Two Question: Where in your writing do you feel the urge to look away? Why? What’s the worst that can happen?
Jennifer 🐦⬛
🐦⬛ Week Two, Day Seven:
Health info shared.
Excerpts from our writing.
Victory/challenge sum up and I simply loved this true admission from Jill: " I'm so into my story that even when not writing, I am writing in my head and making notes on my phone."
You guys are "in it" and I'm with you (as you'll see from my slight health overshare with Laura).
Don't forget our AM meeting TOMORROW, nine AM and a new page will be up at midnight: https://lu.ma/s6xxws8z
I'm at 104,000 words and about to take on the hardest aspect of this story which is where a character I love gets hurt. This is the last 1/4 of the book. Decisions have to be made and the most important one is this: WHAT IS IT ABOUT? On the surface it's about two siblings who flee an abusive home, grow up and then grow separate ways, and then come back together. One is changed by sufferings that seem unbearable and understands something about the nature of reality that the other does not. Her final act is one of sacrifice for her brother and in that act, his own bubble of fantasy is popped and he learns that vital lesson as well. It's about trust in divine providence and it's a lesson I've only learned this last year (so, of course, I couldn't write it) but here it is and I'm all weep writing it to you guys. But I see it and will push myself to write into the great sorrows today. 🤞🏼
Note: Instead of writing I've been shopping on line for garden statues and replacing old mascara and basically doing anything I can but write this! STOP STALLING, Lauck," I keep saying and now I have to answer back, "Okay! Fine. I'm going. I'm writing...I'm gone."
See you all live in the morning.
🐦⬛ Week Two, Day Three: On the road yesterday and today, got 2500 in yesterday, none today but I am reading (listening to) five chapters on the drive. Helpful. I hear so much fat that I can cut. That kind of counts.
Great moment of insight from Jill below. How does a conflict avoider writer conflict that sounds realistic. 1) Write the talk first, get the back and forth going as an "innocent" bystander. Words flying at one another is a skeleton and allow it to get ugly. 2) set the talking aside and go back and set up the moment in time via the SRCard and then write to the moment the words fly. Do not forget the weather which is always active and changing, and that includes natural world (birds, bugs, cats, dogs, whatever) 3) Now make sure you have your characters well described. Show us what they are wearing, carrying, and how they fiddle and gesture. Is one holding a drink, a menu, opening straw, straightening her necklace that gets tangled in her hair. Have all these options available for the moments between the words. Those moments of pause between the words are your work then, 5) and thread the dialogue into your scene.
All creative writing is rather strategic and your job is to take it nice and slow, using the tools at your disposal! Hopefully that's helpful.