Our Gift to You: Coaching Sessions with TW Editors
Until the end of this year, you get a bonus when you donate to Talking Writing
This Giving Tuesday and holiday season, we’re going to try something different.
As we head into December, as always, we ask for your donations to support Talking Writing's work next year. But for this annual fundraiser, we've added our own “skin in the game” — our way of saying thank you and showing we value and respect you as part of our community.
Once you've made a donation and/or signed up for a paid subscription, choose any of the offers from our talented team of TW editors below. That's our gift to you.
First, start with the donation by clicking one of these buttons:
John Vogel
Coaching session with John on music writing/production/release
for paid subscribers and donors (30 minutes)
It’s always been my goal to eventually pivot from hourly noncreative work that I didn’t care about to spending most of my available time doing creative work that fulfilled me. In my carefree and naïve youth, I thought that would take the form of an artistic endeavor gaining traction and landing me in “professional artist land.”
That never happened, though, and instead it’s been a slow turning of immersing myself in the work that I felt was important to the artistic landscape and fading from the hourly work that I ultimately found uninteresting. And Talking Writing has been instrumental in that shift. At times, Martha’s positive reactions to things like Weird Music and my ability to choose art for written pieces were rare sources of artistic encouragement.
I can’t guarantee that I won’t be going back to jobby-job work at some point, but TW has given me compensated and flexible occupation within the arts that has allowed me to slowly leave the uninteresting work behind and encouraged me to venture further into my own art. And for that, I’m super grateful.
At TW, we talk a lot on and off air about the importance of telling the stories that are different from the typical success story that arts journalism leans on. We try to highlight the stories of people who have been engaging with art throughout their whole lives and its personal role. I still think those perspectives need to be told.
Neva Kares Talladen
Monday and Thursday cowriting sessions with Neva (1 hour) for paid subscribers and donors
Talking Writing gave me a safe space as a multicultural writer and editor in a very white publishing space. Like its founder,Martha Nichols, TW walks its talk and has been a place where writers, artists, and creatives of diverse and marginalized identities have found mentorship, opportunity, and community.
Being part of the editorial team taught me that good writing always looks for the whole truth, in context, and not the approximation of it. This is one of the principles that TW was founded on—a nonnegotiable that Martha instills in both the team as well as the contributors.
I feel like organizations and digital publications like Talking Writing are becoming harder to find in today’s attention-distracted online environment. Still, for the past 12 years, Talking Writing has forged on for the writers, artists, and creative lifers who are interested in discovering and publishing true, personal stories.
Sarah Tulloch
Consultation with Sarah on podcast production (30 minutes) for paid subscribers and donors
Talking Writing has made me feel more connected to the writing community. Writing a novel and working from home can feel so solitary that a podcast like this helps me keep up with the rest of the world. I know that my issues are similar to other writers’ issues. It makes me feel seen while I wait for my next in-person editing meetup.
Since listening to the bonus episodes, I definitely feel like my writing has improved. I’ve been studying the guest authors’ writing process and reading their lists of favorite books. It feels like I’m back in university, in a good way!
Jess Barnett
Consultation with Jess on copyediting services (30 minutes) for paid subscribers and donors
Talking Writing started as a copyediting gig for me but has, over the past year, morphed into much more than that. It’s given me a place to explore creative ideas and an outlet for sharing things and people I think are important with a larger audience than my small pool of Instagram and Facebook followers.
It’s also good company, as the other staff are interesting and fun to talk with, and it exposes me to ideas and media I most likely would never have heard of otherwise.
