WriteByNight Turns 5

Posted by David Duhr in WBN News & Events      10 comments

Aug
28

Sometime in the spring of 2007, when Justine and I shared a writing workshop at Emerson College, as well as a burgeoning friendship, we joked about someday opening a writing center together. The JGDDWC, she wanted to call it. I of course countered with the DDJGWC. My proposed plan, as I recall, was for Justine to run the workshops, do all the paperwork and bookkeeping, run the PR, advertising and marketing departments, and handle all custodial duties, while I would be tasked with helping myself to half (or so) of the profits.

The conversation eventually died out, but the relationship did not.

A couple of summers later we had left Boston behind and found ourselves in Stuart, Florida, working unfulfilling odd jobs and melting. I was sidelining as fiction editor at Fringe Magazine and Justine did some freelancing, but it wasn’t enough to scratch our literary itch. One day, during one of those monster late-afternoon summer-in-Florida thunderstorms, we resurrected the idea of the JGDDWC/DDJGWC. For a lark, we scanned the local papers and websites to see what the town and county had to offer in the literary arena. Frankly, there wasn’t much. In fact, we found not one single workshop. There were various critique groups, a few of which we visited, but nothing with that intensive focus a workshop delivers. So suddenly our lark turned serious, and we decided to try and fill that hole.

Well, an independent writing workshop needs a name. We tossed around some ideas, many of which, in retrospect, are horrifying: Wanderjahr. Composite Monster. Exquisite Corpse. Finally we settled on a name indicative of the kinds of writers we’d be working with, those who had day jobs, who wrote in their free time, who were so dedicated that they’d be willing to give up one night of each week in an effort to improve their work, and to help others improve as well.

We filed as a business in the state of Florida, and one day—exactly five years ago today—WriteByNight was born.

In the five years since … man, I don’t know even know how to sum up. After the first WriteByNight workshop in Stuart we began building our signature one-on-one writers services and opened several more workshops in neighboring towns. In Austin we finally opened the JGDDWC, expanded our one-on-one and group offerings, hired the first of our now 15-plus wonderful staff members, and in 2012 WriteByNight was named Best Writers’ Resource in Austin by the Austin Chronicle.

And now here we are in NYC, doing what we do, and a few days away from our wedding(!).

We’ve been pleased to watch so many of you accomplish such great things. Marcia Drut-Davis, the very first WriteByNighter, recently received an International Childfree Lifetime Award, in large part a response to her memoir, Confessions of a Childfree Woman—which she began writing in that very first workshop.

WriteByNighters have published dozens of wonderful books, had their writing appear in many dozens of newspapers, magazines and literary journals. And as much as we love to hear about these public accomplishments, just as important are those quieter, more private accomplishments: finishing a piece of writing for the very first time; making writing a part of one’s everyday life; learning to express oneself through the written word. We’re very pleased to have helped so many people reach such wonderful goals.

It’s pretty self-congratulatory to write a post about the five-year anniversary of one’s own business, but really, and quite obviously, we wouldn’t have made it this far—or at all—without all of you. It takes guts to share your words with professionals who are also strangers, but when you do summon that courage you have many dozens—hundreds, even—of choices. Thank you for making WriteByNight yours.