MUST READ

Let's read a great book together

Last fall, Terri Trespicio and I launched MUST READ, the non book club book club where we read a great book together, talk about what makes it great and use it to generate our own writing, all within the Gateless container. Well, we loved it so much we’re doing it again!

This March, we’ll read Susie Boyt’s glorious novel Loved and Missed. Hailed as “beautiful, illuminating and deeply humane,” Loved and Missed is a novel about love’s many permutations—and its limitations. I love this book for so many reasons but one of the things I love most is that it breaks so many rules. The sentences are loose and easy. The narrative moves around in time, skipping here and there in a way that just delights me. And the sucker punch at the end… well, no spoilers! Reading it reminds me to be looser in my own writing, to play more, break rules, not grip so tightly. What will it inspire in your own writing? Also, it’s just shy of 200 pages which means we will spend each week luxuriating in just 50 pages.

I’d love for you to join us in MUST READ and to that end I am inviting you to a FREE session on Thursday March 5 from 12-1:30 PM ET. (Last time we ran this program, the sessions were only 75 minutes, but we’ve extended them to 90 minutes to give us more time to really get into it.)

Each week, we’ll discuss what we’ve read, focusing on what we love, what’s working and what we can use (steal) for our work. Then I’ll lead you into a prompt and you’ll write for 20 minutes. When you’re done, we’ll love up your work with that good old Gateless feedback you know you love.

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What makes MUST READ different from other book clubs?

We use the Gateless Method—the same critic-free approach I use in Studio for writing—and apply it to reading. Which means:

• No judgment or comparison

• We stay on the page

• We look at what’s working
  

When you read this way, something changes. You savor the language, you notice the craft, and you immediately apply it to your own writing inside the same safe, sturdy container.

So instead of another book club where you talk in circles, you’ll leave with actual words on the page.

Interested? Sign up for the free session HERE !