Hell Yes, We’re Writing

A Year of Non-paywalled Prompts, Play, and Falling Back in Love With Your Own Stories

I spend a lot of my life being a doctor — navigating care plans, prescribing meds, diagnosing problems, translating bodies into data.

And I actually love it.

But sometimes I also want to recline in a velvet chair like it’s 1897, dramatically reading poetry to my friends and pretending none of us has a mortgage or a login for the patient portal.

Which is probably why, as a Gateless-trained writing teacher (betcha didn’t know that part), I’ve become deeply allergic to anything that sounds like hot takes about politics, doomscrolling the end of the world, or performing outrage for the algorithm.

I want something else.

I want a corner of the internet that feels like quoting Little Shop of Horrors and meaning it:

Somewhere that’s green.

So here’s what we’re doing.

Every Wednesday a fresh writing prompt will land here — free, unfussy, and waiting patiently for you. Use it that day or hoard it for later. All it asks is 20 minutes and your willingness to begin.

For the first half of the year we’ll let the alphabet be our playful backbone — 26 letters, 26 weeks. We’ll start with A(obviously). Each prompt will flirt with that week’s letter, but if your imagination runs off in a completely different direction, follow it. This is our show. We make the rules.

And because I can’t help myself, I’ll also share a few personal, oddly specific little truths about me tied to that week’s letter — the kind you only admit in good company. Think: quietly revealing, unexpectedly tender, and absolutely not curated for the internet (and yet…here we are).

You’re welcome to post what you write in the comments, and I’ll respond with Gateless feedback — meaning I’ll reflect what’s alive in your writing, not what you “should” fix. There’s a whole reticular activating system involved here, but let’s not science this one to death (I can geek out real hard). The short version: it’s built on the simple premise that when your brain isn’t under attack, creativity actually shows up.

Each week I’ll share a short piece of my own — unedited, imperfect, and sometimes a little feral.

No grammar critiques.
No punctuation policing.
Just honoring the work.

If this sounds like something you want in your week, hit subscribe so you don’t miss a prompt — and if you know someone who used to love writing but lost their way, share this with them. The cliché is true: sharing is caring, and creativity is better with company (much like nachos).

After we make it through the entire alphabet (by my trusty calendar…mid-June), I’ll start querying for beta readers for my upcoming novel Are You There, God? It’s Me, Menopause, arriving this fall.

So that’s the plan.

Every Wednesday.
Twenty minutes.
One letter.
A few secrets.
and…free.

Let’s make something strange and wonderful together.

And one more thing — if the idea of doing this over a long weekend in real life sounds delicious, answer the poll below. We’re flirting with the idea of roving little writing retreats around the U.S. and Canada — velvet chairs, brave words, and reading daring, beautiful things to each other like it’s our own secret salon. No corsets required.

Oh, and it has to be easy to get to, because I am not arriving at a creative retreat with my nervous system fried from three TSA checkpoints and a two-hour Uber ride.