I could have written a 4th gratitude bullet point on this! Writing is about truth and authenticity…lying while writing is somehow a worse sin imo than just saying something untruthful
The people who write AI assisted aren’t going to have the authenticity of those who don’t. I wanted to say something so badly when this came up a few times but it seemed rude.
I think it can be done if the person is exceptionally talented at using AI for what it's good for, but I agree in general bad idea to let AI write your stuff for you.
I use AI copiously to edit down to the line by line, but write everything myself.
Connect with this on many levels. This is a bit 'me too', but haven't exactly felt 'transformation' yet but I didn't expect it as well. I find it interesting how much of a hurdle it was for many people to get their first draft published online (in their life)
The first essay's draft feedback was brutal because it went too hard into nerd territory (Runescape taught me how life works). Only See Eun liked that piece which kept me going haha
The point about quality of ideas: I might have ignored it or not heard it at all, because isn't the idea the point of an essay? I love idea sparring and making those shine (before the writing itself)
I also noticed people had issues on their first draft! Makes sense if the jitters come out then. See Eun is a great guy, glad you had someone like him in your corner. Just need one person to back you up!
Re ideas - there were a few idea gyms I went to where the mentors emphasized that we needed to follow the format of 10 min one person talking, then 5 min reflection of those thoughts by the other person then switch. Exact numbers probably not right but the gist was you were there to just rehash what the other person said to make sure you were listening right. On a few gyms I got the “remember you are listening not to say the idea is good or bad!” I never followed that format in idea gyms haha, and once people got used to gyms they stopped explaining the gym formats.
This was such a great read. We didn't come across each other in the gyms, etc. But, I'd have loved to muse over those topics.
I think I either missed or ignored the instructions about not critiquing ideas. I certainly did that. If my idea was a bit shit, I wanted to know and come out with something better. The whole reason I was there.
Great to come across you now! And haha I’m glad you also sparred on ideas. I published my first essay like two weeks after the deadline because I rewrote it twice based on the idea feedbacks, totally worth it imo
Think I first published the week we were finishing so you’re not alone 😂 all got out there in the end.
I really need to take more ideas to feedback now to get the thinking straight. I honestly thought we were meant to spar so I need someone to explain the proper way now!
I paid the same price for WOP as you did. May I challenge you with a question? What is the difference between asking WOP for a list of scholarship winners and simply going into the members list and picking someone to connect with? Aren’t both methods random enough for you to get the diversity of thought you needed?
Your question touches on something I removed from the initial drafts due to length, I wanted to keep this one shorter than 1500 words.
No difference at all re diversity of thought if I just randomly picked, which is what I ended up doing. The reason I asked for scholarship winners earlier on is because 1) every program I was part of had some kind of scholarship get together 2) it’s an easy way to narrow down a large list of people and 3) scholarship winners are likely to be a good proxy for people who are extra serious about the subject and likely to finish the program.
I cut those parts out bc it’s not relevant to my general issue, which is the reasoning WOP gave behind not having a scholarship get together. I don’t agree with the “just talk to people you like” reasoning, an attitude that came out in different areas too beyond the scholarship.
Also, I found out after WOP that the real reason was probably because they handed out a lot of scholarships, likely because they wanted to include as many people as possible for the last cohort, so it wasn’t useful as a method of segmentation. If WOP said that to me, I would have understood. I also understand why they wouldn’t share such a business decision with me though, so I guess my point is I sensed something off about their public reasoning and I didn’t like it.
Ah that totally makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to elaborate. The optimist in me is saying that regardless of how it panned out, it’s never too late to find the people you want to find on Circle and Substack. It might not give a full list but it could surface a few along the way.
But the realist in me is saying damn this is tough why can’t we have the list! Anyway I look forward to reading more of your work, love the honesty and transparency across your articles.
Yeah your question made me realize I still lacked some clarity in that train of thought (which Arjun actually also pointed out), so I just edited in 1 additional line to transition more clearly between the scholarship to reasoning angle.
I'm an optimist too! I think I'll eventually find most everyone - end of this month is a good deadline to wrangle the hell out of Circle lol.
TY I also look forward to reading your work. I have so many peoples' bookmarked on both Circle and Substack so I got some very fun homework to do :)
This was beautiful. I also felt like this course was less for people with controversial topics and more for those working on professional topics or more observation. I remember picking a politics breakout room once only to see a single person, which was surprising in that large a cohort (during a live session). I’m so grateful to Ved for sending me your profile or we’d never have met. I, too, think the de-emphasizing of idea quality did people a disservice. It is the same impulse that keeps people from debating in good faith with each other, and debate on ideas is as much a part of the process as the mechanics of the essay.
Feedback quality definitely varied and dependent on random chance. I’m not sure I learned as much from the editing I got as I would have liked because the guidance on how to edit was pretty general (and feedback on ideas didn’t happen). Some people and even some editors were more helpful than others in terms of specificity. In all, this course served as a filtering mechanism for me to find people who would challenge me not just on writing but ideas. I haven’t gotten the latter, and I didn’t get much of the former either, but it did light a fire under me to establish a daily practice and publish more frequently. I didn’t publish a single essay during the course but decided to rewrite the ones I submitted. My own eye became more critical of my own thinking.
I have a very hard time finding women who want to think and debate about the topics I care about, and that has been the biggest gift. Community. It was expensive to get into it but definitely worth the investment.
I think I remember that Agora! I went into topics like Education or Creativity because I didn't want to possibly offend anyone with politics haha.
Sorry to hear that you didn't have a standout editing experience. CansaFis was truly stellar, no way could I have gotten anywhere close to what I wanted without him. I hope you get good editing as we continue the post-WOP stuff! I'd be happy to edit your work - no promises on being as transformative as CansaFis though!
As for debating ideas, and specifically re: women - most women are much more agreeable than not, so it makes sense that it's hard to find that. I feel that immensely, my topics of interest tend to be very male dominated for that reason (tech, crypto especially).
Lily, this reflection is bold, thoughtful, and unapologeticaly human—just like your essays. I admire your courage for speaking up. If it were me, I’d probably have sucked it up and stayed quiet, but I’m so glad you didn’t. Your words open doors, and I’d love to walk through a few with you.
First, I cried when the program ended. It felt like a summer camp, the kind where you bond deeply and then have to watch everyone pack up and leave. On the last day, I sat staring at my empty idea gym, a lone notebook, and a half-eaten almond(half because I wasn’t ready to finish anything just yet.)
Now, the cracks.. Write of Passage stretched itself this cohort. I joined fully committed to improve, though I didn’t know what to expect. That turned out to be an unexpected opportunity for growth. The diversity of participation, from those who dipped in tentatively to those who threw themselves in, made the program unpredictable, sometimes messy, but undeniably rich. It reflected the way writing itself is full of different paces and approaches, a constant balancing act between chaos and clarity.
This unpredictability extended to the way we gave and received feedback, which was as varied as our participation styles. I remember one gym session where another participant gave sharp, no-holds-barred feedback to a writer. Bless his heart, he didn’t hold back, and the writer became visibly defensive. I didn’t hear much from them afterward, and it made me wonder: does tough feedback sometimes close doors rather than open them? That moment stuck with me, and I still think about how we balance honesty with encouragement.
Your point about feeling dismissed by certain cohort members resonates deeply here. Sharing something personal, especially something as profound as suicidal ideation, requires incredible courage. When that vulnerability isn’t met with care, it can feel isolating. The fact that you kept going is a testament to your strength.
For me, this willingness to keep going through the chaos was the real value of WOP. It wasn’t just about good ideas or great prose; it was about embracing the mess and learning to work through it. Sure, sometimes we end up putting lipstick on a pig, but even that’s a skill worth learning. And maybe, just maybe, the journey to a bad piece of writing is where the real growth happens.
Natasha was my first reader, and her feedback epitomized that journey. She didn’t just rough up my draft; she pulverized it, lovingly 🥰 If feedback were a martial art, she’d be a black belt wielding a red pen the size of a lightsaber. She made me see the beauty in starting over, and honestly, she changed the entire course of my writing career (if there was even one.)
Finally, your essays were extraordinary. Especially the one on suicide--it was sharp, fearless, and it stayed with me long after I read it. The fact that anyone dismissed your work speaks less to your writing and more to the different ways people handle challenging topics. Emotional capacity varies, and not everyone can meet certain work where it lives. For those people, I hope they at least had the decency to pick up their half-eaten almonds and keep trying.
And maybe that’s the point. WOP, whether by design or serendipity, seems to train us to be writers who stand firm in the face of opposition. It's like a true rite of passage—complete with trials that push us to our limits and leave us stronger, more confident, and slightly bruised but ready for whatever comes next. The resistance is part of the process, sharpening not just our words but our courage to share them.
Lily, your courage is exactly what makes writing matter. You’ve opened up a conversation that feels honest and necessary, the kind of dialogue that keeps writers like us coming back to the page. If this turns into an ongoing exchange, I’d welcome it wholeheartedly. Who knows? Maybe our conversations will turn into essays that keep our newsletter busy through all of 2025, redefining what it means to balance admiration with critique, one almond at a time. Until then, keep sharing your voice. It’s one we all need to hear.
KZ, you could publish this comment as your own essay. You are quite naturally gifted with words, and you also bring your uniquely magnanimous perspective. I enjoy reading everything you write as it's very clear that you bring not only a great command of language, but also thoughtfulness to every interaction. Your presence in WOP was widely felt as both bar-setting (from your own essay quality) and encouraging of others (your truly outstanding participation in editing and connecting with others).
I super appreciated reading your reflection. I also teared up when David teared up in that last session, it was quite moving. Your witnessing of that sharp moment is quite sad - feedback can be pointy but it has to be loving first and foremost. I think we can all tell if when someone has our best interests at heart. I hope that particular writer comes back and the feedback giver also reflects on their style of giving feedback.
Also, love your interpretation that WOP trains us to go through chaos, above and beyond even ideas or prose. And even in fact if we publish bad ideas :) All in the route to good writing but also as you say, to become more courageous. I'm so glad you experienced that yourself with Natasha!
Very much appreciate every almond of yours KZ, and I hope our dialogue continues through 2025 and beyond! Excited to see where you can go given your talents!
Yes, a buried diamond in this comment section from KZ! (let alone a strong provocation from Lily to draw people out async post-cohort)
Things are hard to scale, let alone online classrooms
With no insider knowledge, in addition to David needing to understandably live his life and pursue other things, I think the difficulty of scaling and replicating an experience like WoP contributes to its seemingly sudden closing
(He admits to mistakes along the way and there is a least one documented in Substack land)
End while you’re on top vs fading away in irrelevance
Nothing can replicate the centralized attention of a focused core group, combined with the energy of the heyday of cohort-based courses, while the collective attention for Zoom education was still high
Now the fruit borne will scatter seeds across the digital lands to sprout up new ventures (read this to our toddler recently, apple life cycle) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_mYrchjGQY)
Thank you for this level of honesty and insight ! I only know of WOP through David Perell's podcast, How I Write, so it's nice to hear a first-person account.
Yeah, I heard they shut it down, but as someone in the process of making a course, it’s always good to hear what people who have taken others liked or didn’t like about the structure and format. Trying to learn from others to create the best experience and learning environment.
As you know I had many of the same critics than you, and I feel the same gratitude towards the program for connecting me with some great people, you included! My essays wouldn't have been the same without you!
Same really glad I stuck it through! I think I met you right after I decided to stay - pivoted to writing my 2nd more widely resonant essay to share with people, and you were one of the first to give feedback in a gym!
Thankful Substack recommended this essay to me. I joined WoP as a student in Cohort 9. WoP staff and a few students tried to cancel me in Cohort 12. I had never experienced anything like it before or since. Most of the people I connected with through WoP were wonderful though. I met CansaFis in person and can confirm he's one of the real ones. Glad you two crossed paths.
I read your WoP essays and came back here to say well done.
I subscribed and hope to see more writing from you between now and your one year update on how your life has changed.
And if I could challenge you on one more thing: dig into the stories of histories greatest mothers. Mary of Nazareth. Isabella of Castile. Teresa of Calcutta. Abigail Adams. Mittie Roosevelt. to name a few. I would love to read a follow up to your regretting non-motherhood essay with your reflections on the lives of histories greatest mothers. I think the possibilities would really stick it to Robert Frost and all the humans who have ever dealt in dichotomies.
Whoa, couple of things. First, didn't realize Substack recommends essays - they do it in the app and/or email? Second, WOP people tried to cancel you?! Now that's a story I'd like to hear/read. Third, love the confirmation that CansaFis is OP. Fourth, thanks so much for reading my work and for your suggestions on looking into the histories of great mothers, I hadn't received that suggestion yet and find that intriguing.
In particular, I like that you couch it as a way to refute dichotomies :) I already know I would like your writing based on this comment, I'm subscribing/following you as well and look forward to chatting more.
Very insightful and thoughtful post about your experience in WOP. I was also a scholarship recipient and wished I was able to meet others. I was told that it was one of the most competitive years they ever had making decisions and I was super excited to meet the others or get some more personal meetings with them.
I was also keen on hearing many others experiences with drafts. I got quite a few breakouts deep into exercise three where people were still working on their first drafts. I came to the program hoping to find vetting in my ideas but perhaps the disconnect for so many was just committing those ideas to drafts.
Great to meet you! I'm so glad this made its way to you. Also glad I wasn't the only one hoping to meet more scholarship recipients - looks like it is happening organically forever.
You make a very good point about the disconnect, I think you are right. Perhaps a debate on ideas actually makes people less willing to commit to an idea and write it down. I also met today the cohort 8 member Rik who came up with Idea Gyms, which were originally called Sparring Gyms. So with that context and your comment as well, I may be changing my mind on the efficacy of debating ideas more since that was tried and perhaps counterproductive at scale. What works for me might not work for most people.
Also, your newsletter name - I think immediately of the Stephen King short story. One of the most effective horror shorts ever.
...if you can keep this level of honesty alive forever i might have faith in reality again...
I could have written a 4th gratitude bullet point on this! Writing is about truth and authenticity…lying while writing is somehow a worse sin imo than just saying something untruthful
…this might be why ai assisted writing still gives me heavy heebies…i feel like I am reading someone with a sock stuffed in their mouth…
Yo that's such a good analogy. Literal sockpuppet words.
…i was more thinking hostages lol but both analogies float!…
The people who write AI assisted aren’t going to have the authenticity of those who don’t. I wanted to say something so badly when this came up a few times but it seemed rude.
I think it can be done if the person is exceptionally talented at using AI for what it's good for, but I agree in general bad idea to let AI write your stuff for you.
I use AI copiously to edit down to the line by line, but write everything myself.
Connect with this on many levels. This is a bit 'me too', but haven't exactly felt 'transformation' yet but I didn't expect it as well. I find it interesting how much of a hurdle it was for many people to get their first draft published online (in their life)
The first essay's draft feedback was brutal because it went too hard into nerd territory (Runescape taught me how life works). Only See Eun liked that piece which kept me going haha
The point about quality of ideas: I might have ignored it or not heard it at all, because isn't the idea the point of an essay? I love idea sparring and making those shine (before the writing itself)
I also noticed people had issues on their first draft! Makes sense if the jitters come out then. See Eun is a great guy, glad you had someone like him in your corner. Just need one person to back you up!
Re ideas - there were a few idea gyms I went to where the mentors emphasized that we needed to follow the format of 10 min one person talking, then 5 min reflection of those thoughts by the other person then switch. Exact numbers probably not right but the gist was you were there to just rehash what the other person said to make sure you were listening right. On a few gyms I got the “remember you are listening not to say the idea is good or bad!” I never followed that format in idea gyms haha, and once people got used to gyms they stopped explaining the gym formats.
This was such a great read. We didn't come across each other in the gyms, etc. But, I'd have loved to muse over those topics.
I think I either missed or ignored the instructions about not critiquing ideas. I certainly did that. If my idea was a bit shit, I wanted to know and come out with something better. The whole reason I was there.
Great reflection
Great to come across you now! And haha I’m glad you also sparred on ideas. I published my first essay like two weeks after the deadline because I rewrote it twice based on the idea feedbacks, totally worth it imo
Think I first published the week we were finishing so you’re not alone 😂 all got out there in the end.
I really need to take more ideas to feedback now to get the thinking straight. I honestly thought we were meant to spar so I need someone to explain the proper way now!
"He found the sprouting flower between the cracks in others’ feedback" — yes. This is Cansafis's superpower. <3
Another ringing endorsement for CansaFis! I just tried tagging him but I guess tags don't work in the comments? Will link it to him.
It's really a gift to have an editor with an eye like his. It's something else, I had never experienced it before.
I paid the same price for WOP as you did. May I challenge you with a question? What is the difference between asking WOP for a list of scholarship winners and simply going into the members list and picking someone to connect with? Aren’t both methods random enough for you to get the diversity of thought you needed?
Love challenges, keep them coming.
Your question touches on something I removed from the initial drafts due to length, I wanted to keep this one shorter than 1500 words.
No difference at all re diversity of thought if I just randomly picked, which is what I ended up doing. The reason I asked for scholarship winners earlier on is because 1) every program I was part of had some kind of scholarship get together 2) it’s an easy way to narrow down a large list of people and 3) scholarship winners are likely to be a good proxy for people who are extra serious about the subject and likely to finish the program.
I cut those parts out bc it’s not relevant to my general issue, which is the reasoning WOP gave behind not having a scholarship get together. I don’t agree with the “just talk to people you like” reasoning, an attitude that came out in different areas too beyond the scholarship.
Also, I found out after WOP that the real reason was probably because they handed out a lot of scholarships, likely because they wanted to include as many people as possible for the last cohort, so it wasn’t useful as a method of segmentation. If WOP said that to me, I would have understood. I also understand why they wouldn’t share such a business decision with me though, so I guess my point is I sensed something off about their public reasoning and I didn’t like it.
Ah that totally makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to elaborate. The optimist in me is saying that regardless of how it panned out, it’s never too late to find the people you want to find on Circle and Substack. It might not give a full list but it could surface a few along the way.
But the realist in me is saying damn this is tough why can’t we have the list! Anyway I look forward to reading more of your work, love the honesty and transparency across your articles.
Yeah your question made me realize I still lacked some clarity in that train of thought (which Arjun actually also pointed out), so I just edited in 1 additional line to transition more clearly between the scholarship to reasoning angle.
I'm an optimist too! I think I'll eventually find most everyone - end of this month is a good deadline to wrangle the hell out of Circle lol.
TY I also look forward to reading your work. I have so many peoples' bookmarked on both Circle and Substack so I got some very fun homework to do :)
This was beautiful. I also felt like this course was less for people with controversial topics and more for those working on professional topics or more observation. I remember picking a politics breakout room once only to see a single person, which was surprising in that large a cohort (during a live session). I’m so grateful to Ved for sending me your profile or we’d never have met. I, too, think the de-emphasizing of idea quality did people a disservice. It is the same impulse that keeps people from debating in good faith with each other, and debate on ideas is as much a part of the process as the mechanics of the essay.
Feedback quality definitely varied and dependent on random chance. I’m not sure I learned as much from the editing I got as I would have liked because the guidance on how to edit was pretty general (and feedback on ideas didn’t happen). Some people and even some editors were more helpful than others in terms of specificity. In all, this course served as a filtering mechanism for me to find people who would challenge me not just on writing but ideas. I haven’t gotten the latter, and I didn’t get much of the former either, but it did light a fire under me to establish a daily practice and publish more frequently. I didn’t publish a single essay during the course but decided to rewrite the ones I submitted. My own eye became more critical of my own thinking.
I have a very hard time finding women who want to think and debate about the topics I care about, and that has been the biggest gift. Community. It was expensive to get into it but definitely worth the investment.
I think I remember that Agora! I went into topics like Education or Creativity because I didn't want to possibly offend anyone with politics haha.
Sorry to hear that you didn't have a standout editing experience. CansaFis was truly stellar, no way could I have gotten anywhere close to what I wanted without him. I hope you get good editing as we continue the post-WOP stuff! I'd be happy to edit your work - no promises on being as transformative as CansaFis though!
As for debating ideas, and specifically re: women - most women are much more agreeable than not, so it makes sense that it's hard to find that. I feel that immensely, my topics of interest tend to be very male dominated for that reason (tech, crypto especially).
Lily, this reflection is bold, thoughtful, and unapologeticaly human—just like your essays. I admire your courage for speaking up. If it were me, I’d probably have sucked it up and stayed quiet, but I’m so glad you didn’t. Your words open doors, and I’d love to walk through a few with you.
First, I cried when the program ended. It felt like a summer camp, the kind where you bond deeply and then have to watch everyone pack up and leave. On the last day, I sat staring at my empty idea gym, a lone notebook, and a half-eaten almond(half because I wasn’t ready to finish anything just yet.)
Now, the cracks.. Write of Passage stretched itself this cohort. I joined fully committed to improve, though I didn’t know what to expect. That turned out to be an unexpected opportunity for growth. The diversity of participation, from those who dipped in tentatively to those who threw themselves in, made the program unpredictable, sometimes messy, but undeniably rich. It reflected the way writing itself is full of different paces and approaches, a constant balancing act between chaos and clarity.
This unpredictability extended to the way we gave and received feedback, which was as varied as our participation styles. I remember one gym session where another participant gave sharp, no-holds-barred feedback to a writer. Bless his heart, he didn’t hold back, and the writer became visibly defensive. I didn’t hear much from them afterward, and it made me wonder: does tough feedback sometimes close doors rather than open them? That moment stuck with me, and I still think about how we balance honesty with encouragement.
Your point about feeling dismissed by certain cohort members resonates deeply here. Sharing something personal, especially something as profound as suicidal ideation, requires incredible courage. When that vulnerability isn’t met with care, it can feel isolating. The fact that you kept going is a testament to your strength.
For me, this willingness to keep going through the chaos was the real value of WOP. It wasn’t just about good ideas or great prose; it was about embracing the mess and learning to work through it. Sure, sometimes we end up putting lipstick on a pig, but even that’s a skill worth learning. And maybe, just maybe, the journey to a bad piece of writing is where the real growth happens.
Natasha was my first reader, and her feedback epitomized that journey. She didn’t just rough up my draft; she pulverized it, lovingly 🥰 If feedback were a martial art, she’d be a black belt wielding a red pen the size of a lightsaber. She made me see the beauty in starting over, and honestly, she changed the entire course of my writing career (if there was even one.)
Finally, your essays were extraordinary. Especially the one on suicide--it was sharp, fearless, and it stayed with me long after I read it. The fact that anyone dismissed your work speaks less to your writing and more to the different ways people handle challenging topics. Emotional capacity varies, and not everyone can meet certain work where it lives. For those people, I hope they at least had the decency to pick up their half-eaten almonds and keep trying.
And maybe that’s the point. WOP, whether by design or serendipity, seems to train us to be writers who stand firm in the face of opposition. It's like a true rite of passage—complete with trials that push us to our limits and leave us stronger, more confident, and slightly bruised but ready for whatever comes next. The resistance is part of the process, sharpening not just our words but our courage to share them.
Lily, your courage is exactly what makes writing matter. You’ve opened up a conversation that feels honest and necessary, the kind of dialogue that keeps writers like us coming back to the page. If this turns into an ongoing exchange, I’d welcome it wholeheartedly. Who knows? Maybe our conversations will turn into essays that keep our newsletter busy through all of 2025, redefining what it means to balance admiration with critique, one almond at a time. Until then, keep sharing your voice. It’s one we all need to hear.
KZ, you could publish this comment as your own essay. You are quite naturally gifted with words, and you also bring your uniquely magnanimous perspective. I enjoy reading everything you write as it's very clear that you bring not only a great command of language, but also thoughtfulness to every interaction. Your presence in WOP was widely felt as both bar-setting (from your own essay quality) and encouraging of others (your truly outstanding participation in editing and connecting with others).
I super appreciated reading your reflection. I also teared up when David teared up in that last session, it was quite moving. Your witnessing of that sharp moment is quite sad - feedback can be pointy but it has to be loving first and foremost. I think we can all tell if when someone has our best interests at heart. I hope that particular writer comes back and the feedback giver also reflects on their style of giving feedback.
Also, love your interpretation that WOP trains us to go through chaos, above and beyond even ideas or prose. And even in fact if we publish bad ideas :) All in the route to good writing but also as you say, to become more courageous. I'm so glad you experienced that yourself with Natasha!
Very much appreciate every almond of yours KZ, and I hope our dialogue continues through 2025 and beyond! Excited to see where you can go given your talents!
Yes, a buried diamond in this comment section from KZ! (let alone a strong provocation from Lily to draw people out async post-cohort)
Things are hard to scale, let alone online classrooms
With no insider knowledge, in addition to David needing to understandably live his life and pursue other things, I think the difficulty of scaling and replicating an experience like WoP contributes to its seemingly sudden closing
(He admits to mistakes along the way and there is a least one documented in Substack land)
End while you’re on top vs fading away in irrelevance
Nothing can replicate the centralized attention of a focused core group, combined with the energy of the heyday of cohort-based courses, while the collective attention for Zoom education was still high
Now the fruit borne will scatter seeds across the digital lands to sprout up new ventures (read this to our toddler recently, apple life cycle) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_mYrchjGQY)
Thank you for this level of honesty and insight ! I only know of WOP through David Perell's podcast, How I Write, so it's nice to hear a first-person account.
Oh cool! Funnily enough I never listened to his podcast haha, just followed him on Twitter.
WOP is over-over now, David shut it down. I'm still glad you read it though and gained something from it!
Highly recommend the podcast for writers!
Yeah, I heard they shut it down, but as someone in the process of making a course, it’s always good to hear what people who have taken others liked or didn’t like about the structure and format. Trying to learn from others to create the best experience and learning environment.
As you know I had many of the same critics than you, and I feel the same gratitude towards the program for connecting me with some great people, you included! My essays wouldn't have been the same without you!
We met in that one breakout room and then you volunteered to be paired with me! The best luck and best decision
This cohort was better with you as part of it, so I’m glad you didn’t quit! Looking forward to keeping up with your journey, boundary pushing and all.
Same really glad I stuck it through! I think I met you right after I decided to stay - pivoted to writing my 2nd more widely resonant essay to share with people, and you were one of the first to give feedback in a gym!
Thankful Substack recommended this essay to me. I joined WoP as a student in Cohort 9. WoP staff and a few students tried to cancel me in Cohort 12. I had never experienced anything like it before or since. Most of the people I connected with through WoP were wonderful though. I met CansaFis in person and can confirm he's one of the real ones. Glad you two crossed paths.
I read your WoP essays and came back here to say well done.
I subscribed and hope to see more writing from you between now and your one year update on how your life has changed.
And if I could challenge you on one more thing: dig into the stories of histories greatest mothers. Mary of Nazareth. Isabella of Castile. Teresa of Calcutta. Abigail Adams. Mittie Roosevelt. to name a few. I would love to read a follow up to your regretting non-motherhood essay with your reflections on the lives of histories greatest mothers. I think the possibilities would really stick it to Robert Frost and all the humans who have ever dealt in dichotomies.
My best to you.
Whoa, couple of things. First, didn't realize Substack recommends essays - they do it in the app and/or email? Second, WOP people tried to cancel you?! Now that's a story I'd like to hear/read. Third, love the confirmation that CansaFis is OP. Fourth, thanks so much for reading my work and for your suggestions on looking into the histories of great mothers, I hadn't received that suggestion yet and find that intriguing.
In particular, I like that you couch it as a way to refute dichotomies :) I already know I would like your writing based on this comment, I'm subscribing/following you as well and look forward to chatting more.
I’m glad algo led Steven to you. I might have alluded to his situation he wrote about (but not in detail on his Substack)
I'm still at a total loss about this situation but I'm also trying to resist being a drama hound lol. The story will reveal itself in due time to me!
I assume you read this already. And you’ll see from Steven’s most recent post that he probably won’t be active any time soon 😔https://open.substack.com/pub/stevenfoster/p/why-you-will-no-longer-see-me-in?r=4j92dg&utm_medium=ios
Very insightful and thoughtful post about your experience in WOP. I was also a scholarship recipient and wished I was able to meet others. I was told that it was one of the most competitive years they ever had making decisions and I was super excited to meet the others or get some more personal meetings with them.
I was also keen on hearing many others experiences with drafts. I got quite a few breakouts deep into exercise three where people were still working on their first drafts. I came to the program hoping to find vetting in my ideas but perhaps the disconnect for so many was just committing those ideas to drafts.
Great to meet you! I'm so glad this made its way to you. Also glad I wasn't the only one hoping to meet more scholarship recipients - looks like it is happening organically forever.
You make a very good point about the disconnect, I think you are right. Perhaps a debate on ideas actually makes people less willing to commit to an idea and write it down. I also met today the cohort 8 member Rik who came up with Idea Gyms, which were originally called Sparring Gyms. So with that context and your comment as well, I may be changing my mind on the efficacy of debating ideas more since that was tried and perhaps counterproductive at scale. What works for me might not work for most people.
Also, your newsletter name - I think immediately of the Stephen King short story. One of the most effective horror shorts ever.
@Luke Dougherty
'Over the years I've realized that my angry part loves me the most.' Me too!