Every Friday at 2:30-4pm Pacific Time (or Saturday for those in Asia/Oceania), I host a recurring writing circle called Simple + Consistent. It's a free and welcoming space for writing, journaling, or any other writing-adjacent creative practice. Whether or not we personally know each other, I invite you to join us.
I host this circle in collaboration with the Foster writing community to help encourage consistent creative practice and make new connections along the way. The goal of this circle is to be a welcoming space for steady creative practice and to make the internet a slightly more friendly and human-centric place. Details, written in my own words, are available below. I'm available by email (joel@joelc.io) to field any questions.Cheers,
Joel
This is a free, recurring weekly online call for anyone interested in nurturing a regular weekly writing practice (and/or writing-adjacent creative practice). The core values of our group are simplicity, consistency, and kindness.
Each week, we call into Zoom at the scheduled time (Friday at 2:30pm U.S. Pacific, 5:30pm Eastern) with camera and audio on. We spend the first 15ish minutes on friendly hellos and a check-in process where each attendee briefly shares: (1) how are you feeling, physically and mentally? and (2) what is your intention for the session?
Then, we go off camera and mic and independently do our own thing for 60 minutes. There are no prompts, guidance, or instructions. You are welcome to write, edit, revise anything you like. Writers in our group have written books, essays, articles, letters, emails, graphic novels, blog posts, journal entries, software applications, you name it.
For the last 15 minutes of each session, we come back on camera and mic to briefly connect about how the session went. Sometimes we share what we've written, though more often we just chat generally about our writing, creativity, etc.
We're currently a small but steadily growing crew (5-8 regular participants) who have been meeting at the same time each week since January 2024. We welcome new guests and members from any and all backgrounds, locations, and interest areas, regardless of the nature of your practice. The plan is to keep this group consistent, free, and open to all for the foreseeable future.
Foster started in 2020 as a community of humans reimaginging how we might think, connect, and express ourselves through the written word. The core idea was that while writing is often regarded as a solitary activity, we live in a world with ample opportunities and tools for connection and collaboration. We wondered: what could happen if we gather writers and thinkers together to practice expressing ourselves together through the written word?
Foster has evolved over the years, starting as a purely online Slack community. The project morphed into a startup (including partipation in Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch) and lately has been reimagining itself into a decentralized network for writers and editors.
Over the years, the group has done live events, online cohort-based programs, live events, print media publications, and other media production (see e.g. this interview with Scott Dikkers, The Onion's founding editor). At it's heart, Foster has been and will always be a space for humans to practice thinking, connecting, and expressing ourselves through the written word.