The art of writing and the pastime of reading are often seen as solitary activities, but SLO NightWriters changes that narrative with social gatherings, networking events, and workshops.
“Writing is such generally solitary pursuit, it can be very discouraging, it takes a long time, and it’s just really nice to have that community to learn from one another,” the organization’s president, Leanne Phillips, told New Times.
Celebrating 35 years of supporting writers and helping them improve their work, SLO NightWriters has some exciting new events coming up to help celebrate its anniversary while hoping to boost membership, Phillips said.
“Our board of directors for the organization has been on the board longer than usual because of the pandemic, so they really worked hard to keep the organization going during the pandemic and did a great job with that. Now we’re starting to kind of come out of that and to grow a little bit more,” she said. “We’re doing more events this year; we had a summer social last month where we’re doing a two half-day workshops each year now, and we were able to sponsor the Central Coast Writers Conference this year.”
Phillips said the half-day workshops consist of published authors volunteering their time and speaking with the group on subjects such as establishing a platform, creating a social media presence, and how to successfully write a memoir.
“Our next one is Sept. 14 and it’s going to be more like hands-on, how to get published,” she said. “We have an editor coming, her name is A.M. Larks and she’s coming in from LA. We’re also going to—what I’m most excited about—we’re having a presentation and workshop on critique groups.”
These upcoming critique workshops are supposed to remain healthy and motivational verses being discouraging or damaging to authors, Phillips said.
“We’re also going to talk about being aware of race, gender, you know all these things, to be sensitive to those things,” she said. “We’re also going to do a National Novel Writing Month that happens once a year in November.”
The National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 and focuses on one straightforward challenge: write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. And Phillips said the group is preparing for that as a whole.
“We’re doing a write-in support on Nov. 9 that will be open to the public, not just members, and we’ll have snacks and some motivational speakers and things like that, just because it’s an exhausting thing to try and do 50,000 words in a month,” she said.
Founded in 1989 by a group of women, Phillips, who’s been president of SLO NightWriters since January, said herself and others on the board are trying their best to continue the principles of the founders.
“We had one member who has passed away now, her name was Susan, who was so active in teaching classes and helping local writers learn how to write,” she said. “We had another woman who was really helpful with volunteering her time to help edit people so they can try to have better chances of getting published. It’s really just community and to motivate one another, to learn from one another, to support one another, and it makes something that can be really lonely and isolating and discouraging a lot more fun.”
SLO NightWriters currently has about 150 members, and Phillips said anyone can become a member.
“We have one member who isn’t even a writer; she just joined because she wanted to support her sister who is a writer,” she said. “There isn’t anything required to join SLO NightWriters except just a desire to write and participate.”
Membership dues are $50 a year, but Phillips said the group does offer half-price dues for anyone who has an economic limitation or for students. Those who need half-price membership fees aren’t required to show proof; it’s based on an honor system.
Residents who are interested in building a community of local writers can attend workshops every second Tuesday of the month.
“We almost always have a speaker, and sometimes we host other special events,” Phillips said. Δ
Reach Staff Writer Samantha Herrera at sherrera@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 15-25, 2024.