It Got Better!

Beyond the Book: making friends and stuff.

Well y'all, I completed my writing residency this past Sunday and I was honestly pretty sad to say goodbye to all of the other writers at the end of it all.

I did eventually learn to take some breaths when talking. And during those gasps of air, the other women started talking! Seriously though. I think we all started to relax a bit and really started to open up to each other.

We were four women, all of different ages, races & ethnicities, and writing forms. We were all in different places in our careers. It was really great to talk craft so intensly (is that a word? I'm a writer, not an editor) and discover how much we could learn from each other.

As we talked about our projects, I became deeply excited for their work. I really want the best and brightest careers for these talented women. These women are really truly amazing.

I also became a lot more excited for my current book. I used this residency to dive deeper into some of my interviews and outline work. This book y'all. I feel like it's changing my life. I know I'm writing it to help people learn how to do the work but I'm learning things about myself that are surprising me every day. I'm so grateful to the amazing and generous folx who have been sharing their stories and wisdom with me.

I can't say that I stopped panicking about just about everything for the rest of the ten days, but by the end I had been able to open myself up more to all the other things that this residency had to show me.

This residency was really really hard for me, in the way that only truly healing things can be.

I left feeling more whole, more human, and a hell of a lot more like a writer.

Image description: a photo of Ijeoma standing in the woods, leaning over a wooden sign that says, “writers”

Thank you to Hedgebrook for this amazing, much needed time to connect with myself, my work, and my beautiful writing community.