Last Friday marked one year of activity for the Lawrenceville Shut Up & Write writing group I co-host. I am using this special occasion to start a new routine: sharing my writing. 

You likely spent days and months wondering, “Why am I not getting any of them promised Ethics Nuggets I signed up for?” Well, that is about to change, thanks to this four-syllable, one-hour-a-week habit I picked up a year ago.

 
I used to write for a living, in Hebrew. 
When I found myself in New York City, called to make something, writing in Hebrew felt like missing the point of engaging what the city had to offer. I took up photography and never looked back. I kept looking ahead, however, to one day reconnecting with my writing. 

Last summer, 25 years later, I mentioned to a friend how I would still like to get back into writing. She told me about Shut Up & Write. Intrigued by the name, I looked up my local chapter. There was no group near me, but Shut Up & Write, the organization, made it very easy to start a group. And so, on August 19, 2022, I showed up at a coffee shop near my house, and so did three more people.

I posted announcements about the writing group on social media for several weeks. Fourteen weeks in, I realized the group kept meeting and growing, even when I did not promote it. Sharing the fourteen week milestone on LinkedIn was the last time I mentioned it on socials. 

Talking about ethics and ethical organizations, I often speak about the big and the boring. While grand gestures to save the world may be inspiring, long-lasting, meaningful impact is built on the simple and repetitive.

The Lawrenceville writing group thrives on that four-syllable simplicity (Shut-Up-&-Write) and weekly cadence. Regularly showing up has brought together a small community of writers. You can reliably expect ten of us to be there on a Friday. Oh, and I am a writer again!

See details and RSVP here.

What four-syllable (or otherwise simple) commitment are you keeping or would like to make for the year ahead?