Catherine Austen
Creative Writing
Make a WISH
For the second week in a row, I met some friends on Friday morning for an hour of silent writing in a local tea house. I call it a Write in Silence Hour, aka a WISH.
Okay, yeah, people have been doing this for centuries by other names. You might head to a cafe for a weekly “writing session” on your own, or you might meet friends for a “write and ignore” session, but your enjoyment of such outings has not been optimal because you’ve lacked an acronym. You need to make a WISH.
Set a weekly time and place, put the word out, and invite the world to make a WISH with you. Whether you take out your laptops to immerse yourself in works-in-progress or take out your journals to write poems on the spot, you’ll write for a solid hour in quietly encouraging company. (You won’t believe how fast it zips by.)
Don’t share your work at the end–it’s not a writing group meeting. It’s a WISH. You’ll need another acronym if you want to share your work.
If you have no friends to meet for coffee, that’s okay because when you’re WISHing, you can invite people you don’t even know or like because you don’t have to talk to them. It’s a writing in silence hour. Take ten minutes to catch up, sure, but then announce, “Okay, let’s begin.” At that point, everyone has to shut up. For an hour. While writing. No exceptions. (Just nod and smile at the waiter.) When the hour is up, wish each other well and go home.
There is something delicious about silence, especially in a group and in public. (It’s not really special at home alone, is it?) The location is important, though, so choose carefully. I’m blessed with a local tea shop (Serenithe) that has 150 kinds of tea on the menu so I can try a new blend every week with a delicious scone, which is, I admit, a big motivator for me and what I’m most looking forward to in my next WISH. (They serve their scones with English cream and a single perfect raspberry.)
I could establish an online WISH community, with registered time slots, writing suggestions, motivational blurbs and a bulletin board to share experiences, but it wouldn’t come with scones so no.
The acronym is just so catchy, I want it to catch on. Perhaps I should register WISH with the trademark folk?
But then I’d be like these guys:
So no.
But I encourage you to make a WISH with other writers. (Call it a WISH. It feels good.)
Start this week, keep at it, enjoy it, and your writing wishes might come true.
7 Comments on “Make a WISH”
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Catherine Austen writes books for kids and teens, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
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Catherine Austen 
I’ve done several writing retreats with other kids’ writers, and we always dedicate four hours in the morning to complete silence – it really works; probably some of my most productive writing time ever. However, since we’re all living in the same house during those retreats, we do share when the silence is finished.
Ooh, I’d like to try a complete morning of silence in the company of other writers. There’s a nice golden hum underneath all that scribbling and typing, and one hour zips by too fast. Maybe I’ll extend it one special morning. Thanks, Jan.
What a great idea Catherine, I would love to have something like this but I would doodle or sketch instead of writing. Being with creative people allows the mind to separate itself from the Muggles of society.
By the way does Earnest have a blog?
Thanks, Ken. You can join us and sketch. Maybe after the holidays?
Ernest does not have a blog but I might help him start one to log his weekly hunts for Bigfoot. I’ll keep you posted 😊.
Thanks for the invite, I’ll definitely be in touch
Thanks for the invite Catherine I’ll be in touch in January!
Excellent!