Writers Lab: Recap Week 2 September Sundays (Live):
Oy vey, Lab Coats. Choosing Google Meet meant a learning curve today, and we… learned a lot about what to do right next Sunday. As a result, we did not record any of today’s Lab Meet, but we did manage to gather, and do good work together. See how to RSVP for next week’s Live Lab below.
Here are the Lab Notes for Sunday, September 14, 2025.
BUT FIRST: You are all remarkable. I love listening to how you work and what you’re working on. We have poets in our September Sunday group, musicians, novelists, picturebook writers, essayists; we have Lab Coats with entire manuscripts and Lab Coats starting their journey with a new story — a thrilling, heady mix.
We are a small and mighty group! We’re connecting through stories as we create a welcoming and nurturing writing space where we can hone our skills and champion one another’s voices.
CRAFT FOCUS:This week we focused on beginnings: hooks, thresholds, and invitations. I used the first few paragraphs of Each Little Bird That Sings to demonstrate how a hook is a door, the first paragraph or two is the threshold, and then, nudging against that threshold, is the invitation into the world of the story, the mystery, the questions… and how the ending is held in the beginning.
First line: Hook
First paragraphs: Threshold
Close on the heels of those Firsts: Invitation
We talked about how all writing comes from:
WHAT YOU KNOW
WHAT YOU FEEL
WHAT YOU CAN IMAGINE
How, once you have made your lists and have circled the moment that calls to you, like one Lab Coat did today with a new idea, then you journal it or list what you know, feel, imagine for that new idea — you preamble it — so you have material.
From that material you’re going to choose “One Clear Moment in Time” to write about.
Then your question: WHAT HAPPENED FIRST? will give you your hook. From there we went into the Assignment, which you’ll find below Inside the Lab.
As ever — even if you haven’t attended the Live — the notes (above and below) will guide you as you do the Exercise/Assignment for the week, along with some excellent additional reading, watching, and listening links that will complement the Assignment. I hope you find it all useful as you write forward this week, and I hope to see you next week as well — two September Sundays left!
If you want to join us in the Writers Lab and work in community with this extraordinarily generous group of Lab Coats (and become a Lab Coat yourself! And eat cake!) you can do that here. Meanwhile, Lab Coats, read on:
INSIDE THE LAB:
