Why I actually started writing club

Two years ago I moved to Austin and didn’t know a soul.

But I read the research, and I knew how important community was to your health and your sense of belonging to a place. I also knew that, for men, community felt especially elusive. I didn’t want to die alone, and I also didn’t want to spend all my nights watching TV. So I knew I had to do something.

At the time, I was in my most prolific period of writing. I was publishing essays online every week, and I had a sincere desire to elevate my abilities as a writer. I figured that finding a community would help me plant roots in this Austin, while also pushing me to grow in my craft.

I spent a month looking around for such a group, and found nothing that resonated with me. I wasn’t looking for an MFA course, I didn’t want to talk about my feelings and trauma, and I didn’t want to navigate weekday night traffic at 6pm. So, after a month of searching I just said fuck it, and decided to start my own. Two years later, we are the largest writing group in Austin.

Now don’t get me wrong, writing is a solitary craft—full stop.

Community or not, it’s an intimate practice of reflection and expression that can only take place between you and yourself. But your life as a whole—the people you meet, the discussions you have, and the work you produce—doesn’t have to feel isolated. That’s why writing club exists, and that’s why I believe it’s growing so quickly.

We all want to be in smarter rooms. We all want to grow as writers. Simple as that.

If you want to join us, Summer membership day is June 1st!

Join the waitlist here

—Zac

What you get as a member

In the past two months, we’ve hosted 40+ members-only events.

These events have ranged from our classic writing sessions, to our new and very popular The Art of Knowing series. In addition to a multitude of events each season, members also have the opportunity to meet 50–60 writers in Austin each month.

Events you unlock with membership…

For building your ritual

• 8-Week Feedback Group: If you’re looking for real, credible feedback from writers who know what they’re talking about. Not beta-readers, not wanna-be’s, but real deal writers who are right there in the arena with you.

• 12-Week Novel Workshop: This is a comprehensive, zero to first draft, novel writing course. We bring in local writing professors to teach each class, and help guide you along the way of finishing a full manuscript in 12 weeks. It’s likely the hardest, and most rewarding thing you can do at ATX Writing Club.

• Weekly Members Writing Sessions: This is our bread and butter. Each Saturday at 10am, we meet at a different location around the city for some focused, heads-down writing time. You’ll meet 5–10 other writers each time, and get a fantastic amount of work done.

• Rosedale Writing Nights: A relaxed, come-and-go evening built around focused work and good conversation. Half of it is quiet, heads-down writing alongside other serious members. The other half, the room opens up to conversation and drinks.

For smart conversations with smart people

• Members Appreciation Social: We host this event once per season. It’s a low-stakes hangout designed to get you acquainted with the members of our community. In the past we’ve rented out bars and coffee shops, and gifted every member who attended a free book from First Light Books.

• Classics Book Club: Writers can’t just read like everyone else. They need to read deeper, and more thoughtfully, with an eye for style and metaphor, and nuance. That’s exactly what we do. We study the classics, and try to understand what makes them so perennial.

• Live Talk + Q&A with Ryan Holiday: Last year we bought 100 tickets to Ryan Holiday’s live, in-person talk on his book Wisdom Takes Work. Each season we do the same for other big-name authors who come into town. We give these tickets away to our members for free.

• A Moveable Feast: This is our recurring dinner series. We gather 12–16 writers, artists, sculptors, developers, and entrepreneurs around our table and discuss big topics that are important to living a creative life. Last year’s most popular topic was “How to make art while also making money”.

• Show Your Work: Sometimes what you need to push some work across the finish line is the ability to read your words aloud. What’s even better is reading them aloud to a group of your peers. At Show Your Work, we invite 10 writers to read their work aloud. It could be a poem, or a piece of journalism—the medium doesn’t matter.

• Symposium Series: This is an expert-led, topical discussion, usually centered around a timeless piece of written work. Our most popular discussion this year was one hosted by a PhD in Political Science, and a MA in History, with the title “1984: fiction or nonfiction”.

For making money as a writer

• Insights on a $100M Book Launch: Last year, the most lucrative non-fiction book of all time was published. It made $100M overnight and very few people were talking about it. This series broke down the exact mechanics as to how it was done, and what we can learn as writers when publishing our own work.

• How to Make Money With Newsletters: A recurring series from Ethan Brooks, the founder of The Austin Business Review. During these live, in-person discussions, Ethan unveils the mechanics of the newsletter world. It turns out that the biggest newsletters in the world all follow the same playbook—and Ethan’s got it.

• How to Find, Vet, and Pitch Literary Agents: Hosted by six-time author Natalia Loya, this series chronicled her difficulties finding, vetting, and pitching literary agents. If you are a writer looking for a traditional, big-five publishing deal, this event is critical.

• How to Get Your Nonfiction Book Published: Hosted by friend of ATX Writing Club, and former Penguin Random House Editor, Leila Sales, this presentation walks us through exactly what it takes to get a non-fiction book across the finish line.

• Getting Paid and Getting Published: Again, hosted by Leila, this series discussed the actual monetization breakdown and structures you can expect when getting that big-publishing deal. Leila also walks us through the biggest mistakes first-time writers must avoid when in contract negotiations, and how to get as much leverage as you can with publishers.

• The Indie Path: Hosted by Anu Pandey and David Kadavy, David walked us exactly through how he’s used his writing to generate $30,000/month in passive income from his online writing. For the essayists and newsletter writers at ATX Writing Club, this was an eye-opening discussion.

…and this is just a small glimpse into our full roster of events!

How to become a member

(open June 1st only)

If you’d like to join 210 writers who meet in-person, in Austin, every single week. You must follow the steps below.

1. Join our Summer 2026 waitlist here!

2. On June 1st, at 9:00am I will email you a secret link to join

3. The link is only valid for 24 hours

4. Pay your first membership dues (they automatically renew every 3 months)

5. You’ll receive a confirmation email after payment

6. Congrats! You’re officially a member of ATX Writing Club. You’ll now have free access to 12+ events per season, plus huge discounts on instructor lead feedback groups, writing workshops, seminars, and publication talks!

Join the SUMMER 2026 waitlist!

If you have any questions, feel free to respond directly to this email!
—Zac

P.S. Please note: we only accept members 4 days per year. March 1st, June 1st, September 1st, and December 1st. We do this to ensure our community stays small, and high-impact!

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week (you guessed it) to write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🌹05/20 - Rosedale Write Night

If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Rosedale members may bring one guest with RSVP.

✍️ 05/23 - Members Writing Session!

If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🌳 05/24 - Walk and Talk

Get out of your chair and onto the trail. Join us for a relaxed, social morning with ATX Writing Club. We’ll grab coffee, then head out for a 3-mile walk around Town Lake with light prompts to spark conversation. You’ll rotate partners, meet new people, and spend time outdoors with a whole bunch of writers.

📣 05/29 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale

A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation. Space is limited.

🚀 06/06 - Member Book Launch: The Laboratory Assistant

Come support fellow member Natalia Loya as she celebrates the launch of The Laboratory Assistant, an Editor’s Pick from BookLife at Publishers Weekly. Join other members for a relaxed evening honoring her work, hearing about the book, and showing up for someone in this community who brought a novel all the way to publication.

🧠 06/07 - The Art of Knowing: Part 4

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

📝 06/07 - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! Sobremesa Vol. 6

Want to see your work in print? Sobremesa Volume 6 is accepting short pitches, drafts, art, recipes, poetry, fiction, essays, and genre-bending pieces on the theme of dirt. Think backyard vegetables, dirty martinis, line-cook playlists, farm histories, outdoor cooking, soil under your nails, or the best way to clean a potato. RSVP to receive the submission form. Due June 7.

🏕️ 06/13 - Building a good life: Part 1

This seminar explores slowness not as aesthetic self-care, but as a discipline that sharpens attention, judgment, and meaning. Through short readings from Pieper and Thoreau, we’ll examine distraction, rest, discomfort, and the hidden costs of living too quickly. Come ready to think honestly about the habits shaping your life.

Member of the Week: Ethan Brooks

What is a question worth asking?

Whenever I’m struggling with a goal and feel stuck, I like this one…

If you woke up tomorrow with the thing you want – the money, the audience, (let’s be honest… the abs), etc. – how long would it last based on the way you lived today?

It’s sort of a riff on Charlie Munger’s old “inversion” principle – instead of asking how to make a business successful, start by looking for all the best ways to make it fail, then avoid those.

There’s a reason lottery winners never hold onto the money – getting a thing is different than keeping it. Sometimes, if you solve for the second one first, the getting becomes impossible to avoid.

What is a concept worth understanding?

Everything Is Television. This article radicalized me this year.

The basic idea is that all innovative forms of media eventually drift toward the format and values of television; That this has far-reaching effects on society and our minds; And that it’s getting worse as modern feeds are actually television on steroids (poised to get an additional cocaine bump from AI).

As writers, I’m sure there’s plenty you already hate about that.

But the part I found so egregious was this:

“In Bowling Alone, the Harvard scholar Robert Putnam wrote that between 1965 and 1995, the typical adult gained six hours a week in leisure time… They could have used those additional 300 hours a year to learn a new skill, or participate in their community, or have more children. Instead, the typical American funneled almost all of this extra time into watching more TV.”

Six hours a week. Almost an hour a day. That’s your next book (Haruki Murakami wrote his first novel in about that).

We’re heading into a world where AI is going to 1) Free up leisure time like never before and 2) Steal it all away (and then some) from anyone who gets caught unaware.

It’s never been more clear to me that the people who keep control of their attention are going to benefit enormously from what comes next. Decide now whether that’s going to be you.

What is a book worth reading?

Travels with Charley. It’s about a road trip John Steinbeck took with his dog, and it was written at a time when America faced a lot of challenges and questions similar to the ones we face today. It’s a beautiful portrait of the country, and an uplifting reminder of what brings us all together.

What is an activity worth doing?

One of my favorite things to do around this time of year is an annual review. I read back through my notebooks from the year, and scroll my camera roll too, looking for…

1. Major Events, Accomplishments, or Undertakings

2. Lessons Learned

3. Things I don’t remember writing (but are pure gold)

4. Things I Started But Didn’t Continue

5. Important Relationships Started Or Rekindled

6. Books, Movies, Newsletters, or Podcasts that had a big impact on me

7. 20% of people, experiences, and activities that caused 80% of happiness

8. 20% of people, experiences, and activities that caused 80% of stress and bullshit

9. Questions I’ve Learned To Ask

10. What Would Really Change Your Life Next Year

Other fun places to review are your calendar (if you’re a calendar person – which I regrettably am not), Youtube history, or Amazon purchases. Sometimes I scroll my Instagram or Twitter bookmarks too.

I paste the ten items above into a new doc, and drop bullet-point notes below each as I find stuff. It’s a fun way to kill one or two nights in, and I’m always surprised by how much I forgot about throughout the year.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

Stumped By Nature. Nicole Stump is a writer I met here in Austin. She works in VC during the day, but writes this amazing newsletter for busy business people who want to get away from the screen and live a little. If you like being outside at all, just go read it. Trust me, it’ll be a bright spot in your week.

If you’d like to check out what Ethan has been working on, it’s called The Austin Business Review—and it’s the only newsletter I consistently read every single week.

Keep in mind, it’s not nearly as corporate as it sounds. I mostly read it for interesting deep dives on local artists and business people, but some people love it for his robust event curation.

If you need date night ideas, or just want to find more niche opportunities to make friends in the city, you absolutely must subscribe.

Read the Austin Business Review

How to join ATX Writing Club?

If you’re new around here, this is how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the SUMMER 2026 waitlist!

Have a great week,
—Zac

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week (you guessed it) to write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

Join the SUMMER 2026 waitlist here!

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🧠 05/17 - The Art of Knowing: Part 3

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

✍️ 05/23 - Members Writing Session!

If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🌳 05/24 - Writers Walk

Get out of your chair and onto the trail. Join us for a relaxed, social morning with ATX Writing Club. We’ll grab coffee, then head out for a 3-mile walk around Town Lake with light prompts to spark conversation. You’ll rotate partners, meet new people, and spend time outdoors with a whole bunch of writers.

📣 05/29 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale

A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation. Space is limited.

🚀 06/06 - Member Book Launch: The Laboratory Assistant

Come support fellow member Natalia Loya as she celebrates the launch of The Laboratory Assistant, an Editor’s Pick from BookLife at Publishers Weekly. Join other members for a relaxed evening honoring her work, hearing about the book, and showing up for someone in this community who brought a novel all the way to publication.

📝 06/07 - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! Sobremesa Vol. 6

Want to see your work in print? Sobremesa Volume 6 is accepting short pitches, drafts, art, recipes, poetry, fiction, essays, and genre-bending pieces on the theme of dirt. Think backyard vegetables, dirty martinis, line-cook playlists, farm histories, outdoor cooking, soil under your nails, or the best way to clean a potato. RSVP to receive the submission form. Due June 7.

Member of the Week: Gillian Cooper

What is a question worth asking?

Why? I’m always trying to as myself “why?”. Whether on a micro, personal level, or macro level, I think asking why keeps us from getting complacent. Why did I do that? Why do I have certain habits? Why are certain systems in our culture, society, or government the way that they are? Why? Why? Why? Basically I just become a super annoying 5 year old, inside my own head (lol). But, I think the more we ask why, the deeper we get to the root of things, and that is the only way to illicit change. Rather than just accepting that things are as they are, I think it’s important to always ask why they are that way.

What is a concept worth understanding?

Empathy. It is a lot easier, and more comfortable, to feel bad for someone than it is to feel with them - to feel sympathy, rather than empathy - but understanding and sharing in someone’s emotional experience is what makes us human. Being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, to understand and share in their emotions is the most important thing we can do as people. Ram Dass famously said, “we’re all just walking each other home.” We’re all only here for a short blip, until we die and return to what ever it is that is bigger than this life. I think it’s important to share in that connected experience and remember that everyone is trying their best to get through this crazy thing called life. It’s remarkable how the world opens up and smiles when you smile at it first.

What is a book worth reading?

I love this question. As an avid reader (I’m on book 35 with a goal of 40 this year), I love giving recommendations and always take ones I receive very seriously. There are so many phenomenal books out there, but I think the book worth reading is the one that sucks you in. No matter what that is. We’ve lost whimsy in this world, and I’m a huge believer that everything doesn’t need to be so serious all the time. It doesn’t need to be some heavy, intellectual, self-help book that triggers an ego-death and deep healing to be worth your time. Books are magic!! Anything you can get lost in (and that makes you put down your phone) is a book worth reading. I still read everything from young adult to sci-fi/fantasy, historical fiction and psychology. That being said, here are some of my favorites. If you ever want to talk books or have recommendation to share please come find me!

1. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
   (A fantastic dive into the connection between psychedelics, neuroscience, consciousness, your mind etc. etc.)

2. All About Love by Bell Hooks
   (Changed the way I see the world and every relationships from friends to family to romantic)

3. Red Rising
   (Absolute favorite book series. First 3 are a YA sci-fi trilogy and then they grow up but if you want to feel like a kid again 11/10 recommend)

What is an activity worth doing?

Anything that scares you. Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear. Do the things that make you uncomfortable. Life is so short! So, SO, short. So go after the things you want with wild abandon. Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself. Dance, fall in love, act like a kid, travel, try new hobbies, adopt a dog, touch grass, do anything and everything. Life is going to devastate you and bring you to your knees no matter what. Trying to avoid getting hurt or embarrassment or loss wont get you anywhere. It’s a choice. Choose to live.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

Despite my mother’s best efforts, I actually don’t use Substack. So, as blasphemous as this feels to say given that this is going out in a newsletter, I actually don’t subscribe to any (except ATX Writing Club of course). I’m always trying, and often failing, to be less connected and addicted to screens or drowning in emails.

What is a video worth watching?

I guess this is technically more of a podcast, but it is on youtube so I’m counting it as a movie - Craig Mazin’s (Chernobyl, The Last of Us) Scriptnotes podcast Episode 403. I know us screenwriters aren’t the majority in this group but I think it’s a must listen for anyone writing a novel or any kind of storytelling. He does a deep dive into how he writes a screenplay, coming from theme, and how to motivate your plot from the character rather than the other way around. It absolutely changed everything about how I think about my writing and storytelling.

Check out Gillian's Instagram here!

How to join ATX Writing Club?

Here’s how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the SUMMER 2026 cohort!

Have a great week,
—Zac

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week (you guessed it) to write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🔥 05/09 - Fireside Chat with Lucas Schaefer

Join novelist Lucas Schaefer for a clear, step-by-step look at how a debut novel actually gets written, revised, sold, and launched. You’ll hear what worked, what didn’t, and what he’d do differently. Come with questions. Leave with a concrete understanding of the path from draft to publication. Space is limited.

✍️ 05/09 - Members Writing Session!

If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🧠 05/17 - The Art of Knowing: Part 3

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

📣 05/29 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale

A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation. Space is limited.

🚀 06/06 - Member Book Launch: The Laboratory Assistant

Come support fellow member Natalia Loya as she celebrates the launch of The Laboratory Assistant, an Editor’s Pick from BookLife at Publishers Weekly. Join other members for a relaxed evening honoring her work, hearing about the book, and showing up for someone in this community who brought a novel all the way to publication.

Member of the Week: Paxton Duff

What’s a book worth reading?

Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is short and full of wisdom. The book addresses some all-too-familiar enemies of any writer: perfectionism, self-doubt, avoidance, and [insert any other neuroses you have, I’m not judging!].

To write better and publish more, 90% of advice can be reduced to a single metric: “butt in chair.” How many days per month do I get my butt in the chair without my phone? Creativity is a muscle, and inspiration occurs once our flighty brains get used to slowing down.

It’s also incredibly hard to both write well and make the reader laugh out loud (without reverting to shallow slapstick), so the Lamotts and Vonneguts of the world (and Tim Urban) are some writers on my metaphorical mantle.

What’s a concept worth understanding?

Mood follows action. After years of consulting/working with people who are job-searching or considering career changes, my number one learning, by far, is that our thoughts are rarely our friends.

Whether someone is depressed or just extra stuck, no additional book, Reel, hack, or future day with magically more motivation is going to help. The secret is that there isn’t one. We have to take a single, small step before our mammal brain feels remotely ready: run literally 0.3 miles, call a friend’s friend who has a nice job, or vulnerably post a single essay to an audience of 3.

The longer we avoid something, like a hard conversation, the bigger the mental monster gets, and the more calcified we feel. As Gillian Cooper shared here recently, fear is uniquely powerful, but it’s also entirely human to feel fear! When we act while still feeling that fear, the mental monsters shrink.

What’s a question worth asking?

What happens when I choose subtraction over adding more inputs (even good inputs)? Do I die??

As fellow curious people know, there is an infinity of interesting things/people we can access instantly with zero friction. We could spend literally every moment of the rest of our lives consuming it. I’ve been writing some drafts about modern escapism and have enjoyed Zac’s updates about embracing a lower-tech life—slowing things down in a world of immediate gratification. I’d love to hear from you if you enjoy exploring this topic.

What is a video worth watching?

I’m largely off of social media, but YouTube has been my ultimate kryptonite for nearly two decades. In lieu of linking a video, my dead serious but also tongue-in-cheek answer is “the video to watch, Paxton, is only the video you searched for two hours ago and not the subsequent 51 Shorts.” While that would be an usual forearm tattoo, getting it would improve my life!

What’s a newsletter worth reading?

Coming full circle, here are two standalone pieces that I really enjoyed over the holidays:

• Your phone is why you don’t feel sexy (essay by Catherine Shannon)

• How Social Media Shortens Your Life (essay by Gurwinder)

You are welcome to check out my Substack, Future of Tuesday, or my bookabout how to do a less soul-crushing job search (the book has dozens of jokes you won’t laugh at and three or four that will hit and lift your spirits!).

It’s been great meeting so many of you through the ATX Writing Club, and cheers to an ever better 2026!

—Paxton Duff

Read Paxton's Substack!

How to join ATX Writing Club?

If you’re new around here, this is how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the summer 2026 waitlist here!

Have a great week,
—Zac

Join our 12-week workshop and finally write your novel!

Starting on July 9th, join us for twelve weeks of Zero to First Draft Novel Workshop Series! Each workshop session blends a craft lessons, with guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones—led by author and professor Eli Ryder.

Make 2026 the year you finally turn your idea into a finished draft.

Write your novel in 2026!

Rachel wrote 64,601 words in 12 weeks and you can too!

My name is Rachel. I am originally from Colorado, but have hopped around the world for a while. Currently I am a teacher, but who knows what’s next in store.

I initially signed up for the [ATX Writing Club] novel cohort because I wanted to feel challenged in my writing, but also hold myself accountable. I have always had the goal to write a novel, but not the accountability or a clear structure. Having weekly discussions and meeting up with people in a similar boat is a great drive to keep writing. I was also excited to see how much I could possibly put on paper and let go of having to know every step of the process.

My novel ended up being a sci-fi story with the general post-apocalyptic plot line. I haven’t rehearsed my elevator speech enough to share more, but in the end I wrote 64,601 words in 12 weeks, so it’s got something to it!

This was a course really geared towards fiction writers, however, the process is helpful in many ways to other writers. I think the thing that every writer should know is that they need to be ready to let go and voyage into the unknown. Discovery writing is messy, but it’s a lot like an improv show; you have to be willing to say “yes, and” and see what happens next. It can be a freeing experience if you let it be one, especially once you accept that the first draft, or even the first story of any award-winning author wasn’t written perfectly at first try. I hate to quote the cliche, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but it fits perfectly well here. It’s a great experience, especially for the writer who’s ready to try something new.

The year is halfway through…

…there’s still time to hit your writing goals!

Here’s how you can write a full manuscript in 12 weeks with ATX Writing Club

A 12-week sprint from idea to finished draft

• ​Accountability checkpoint: Did you hit your writing goal? What’s working and what isn’t?

• ​Process conversation: Explore how, when, and where you write—so the habit becomes sustainable.

• ​Milestone lesson: Learn that week’s narrative pillar and how to build it from the inside out, grounded in your character’s choices.

• ​Writing sprint: Put new lessons into action. Get words on the page, right then and there.

• ​Goal-setting: Commit aloud to your next word count target (usually 5–8k words between sessions).

​By the end, you’ll have a full draft—and a writing practice strong enough to carry you into revision.

You’ll be guided by our expert instructor Eli Ryder!

​​Eli is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Austin Community College. He has appeared as a panelist and podcast guest for several venues discussing both the craft of writing and the thrill of dark fiction.

​​His horror and sci-fi has appeared in numerous online, in-print, and audio publications, and his plays have appeared on stage in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

​​He is a Roswell Award honoree and stole his M.F.A. from U.C. Riverside. He plays D&D, has the best kid ever, and is an avid lover of all things spooky.

​Weekly Milestones

​July 9th: Idea, Character, Setting

​July 16th: Inciting Incident & Character Change

​July 23rd: Resistance & Early Conflict

​July 30th: The Debate & Forward Momentum

​Aug 6th: New Pressures, Changing World

​Aug 13th: Escalation & Major Setback

​Aug 20th: Midpoint Shift—Reaction to Action

​Aug 27th: Rising Stakes & the Cost of Change

​Sept 3rd: Dark Night of the Soul

​Sept 10th: Revelation & Decision

​Sept 17th: Resolution & Consequences

​Sept 24th: Completion, Celebration, and Next Steps

​Each story beat is drawn from timeless narrative frameworks—the Hero’s Journey, five-act structure, Truby, Dan Wells—but reframed through a character-first lens.

​Where plot becomes the natural consequence of who your protagonist is and what they want.

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week (you guessed it) to write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

Join the SUMMER 2026 waitlist here!

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🌳 05/03 - Writers Walk

Get out of your chair and onto the trail. Join us for a relaxed, social morning with ATX Writing Club. We’ll grab coffee, then head out for a 3-mile walk around Town Lake with light prompts to spark conversation. You’ll rotate partners, meet new people, and spend time outdoors with a whole bunch of writers.

🌹05/06 - Rosedale Write Night

If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Rosedale Members may bring one guest with RSVP.

🔥 05/09 - Fireside Chat with Lucas Schaefer

Join novelist Lucas Schaefer for a clear, step-by-step look at how a debut novel actually gets written, revised, sold, and launched. You’ll hear what worked, what didn’t, and what he’d do differently. Come with questions. Leave with a concrete understanding of the path from draft to publication. Space is limited.

🧠 05/17 - The Art of Knowing: Part 3

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

📣 05/29 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale

A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation. Space is limited.

🚀 06/06 - Member Book Launch: The Laboratory Assistant

Come support fellow member Natalia Loya as she celebrates the launch of The Laboratory Assistant, an Editor’s Pick from BookLife at Publishers Weekly. Join other members for a relaxed evening honoring her work, hearing about the book, and showing up for someone in this community who brought a novel all the way to publication.

How many events does ATX Writing Club host each year?

If you’re looking for ways to connect with other writers in Austin, there’s really no better place. Last year we hosted 47 different events for our members, and this year we’re on track to more than double that!

In the month of May alone we have 10 events on the calendar!

If you’re interested in joining us, we accept new members on June 1st.

Join the waitlist below and we’ll keep you in the loop!

Join our SUMMER 2026 waitlist now!

Member of the Week: Anu Pandey

What is a question worth asking?

What is lost when society becomes too comfortable?

We have a society that wants quick fixes and accomplishments without putting in the hard work or developing discipline, leading to the overall erosion of merit in institutions. We have also become highly comfortable as technology has eliminated the friction from the lives of the professional class, in particular. This structural condition begins at the micro level and spreads throughout our social world, so we’ve decided that catering to the least common denominator is preferable to confronting the ways the least disciplined person in the room drags everyone else down.

The conversation about the collapse of truth in public life avoids the question of comfort. The tendency to preserve emotional consensus and harmony at all costs, in the name of keeping everyone comfortable, is the root cause.

As a woman, I’ve observed that women in particular resist becoming intellectually uncomfortable for long enough to examine whether we are actually victims or falling prey to a narrative that tells us we lack agency in shaping our lives. I don’t feel like a victim of men, but the narrative once functioned to preserve my comfort and self-concept. I was self-deceiving in the name of preserving friendships and falsifying my preferences to belong to my professional class, a female-dominated social context. Merely writing these sentences feels radioactive because we refuse to talk about it.

What is a concept worth understanding?

A concept we ought to understand is that almost every broken system in our culture comes from the refusal to acknowledge incentives and tradeoffs. We work hard to preserve our own moral innocence, believing that neither we nor our social circle is acting blindly in response to the system’s incentive structure. This denial is particularly common among professionals and creatives because we like to think of ourselves as enlightened. However, this self-concept prevents us from examining how we and everyone around us are driven by the incentive structure of the social systems in which we live.

All decisions, individual or social, involve tradeoffs. You cannot optimize for both belonging and truth seeking in professional or creative class spaces, regardless of what individuals want in a group. Professional-class social spaces incentivize maximizing safety and belonging, but the trade-off is that we cannot be honest with each other, nor can we test truth claims in a group. And if groups are unwilling to falsify their truth claims, they become closed to new information. This is what I call epistemic closure — the prohibition of considering phenomena outside a narrow frame allowed by the group, which preserves safety and belonging at the expense of truth. Whatever fosters social cohesion becomes truth without our realizing that we’ve built our identities on false ideas about how the world works. I’ve lived in a variety of work environments and institutions, and this is the through line. The longer we refuse to self-examine, the worse the correction will be later on.

What is a book worth reading?

Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death was published in 1985. He argues that technological advances in communication change the nature of truth itself. He observed that the transition of American society from a print-dominated culture to a television-dominated culture has changed the parameters of truth, that the media has an epistemology. He built on Marshall McLuhan’s adage ‘the medium is the message’ by observing that the medium has its own format for truth claims, which limits what can be claimed.

With the dominance of a visual medium, television rewarded performance rather than deep thought. This has intensified in the smartphone age, in which we are constantly performing and surrounded by marketing. It’s so total that we’ve stopped noticing that a handful of marketing companies are the bulk of our GDP and try to generate desire in us 24/7. It feels like there is no shared reality in our society precisely because the technology we’re glued to precludes it. We’re always talking about one political tribe or another falling prey to ‘disinformation,’ but what if the medium itself incentivizes falsity for all people in how we understand reality?

What is an activity worth doing?

Build something that doesn’t rely on social permission. True empowerment for me has come from building an intellectual space outside my professional identity, so I no longer fear job loss. I gathered skills outside jobs and across disparate roles, which now serve me better than if I had stayed in a single lane, as people expected. I threw out the script, and I encourage everyone to ask themselves what script they’re still living by. I see most people living to ensure social belonging, which is very often a trap.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

Rob Henderson’s Newsletter teaches me something new every week. He is a scholar of psychology but isn’t inside academic institutions, so he writes what they cannot: with honesty about social incentives, competitive strategies, and status games. Once you see the incentives embedded in our social world, you can’t go back, and Henderson illuminated several for me. His concept of luxury beliefs has high explanatory power for the current cultural divide.

What is a video worth watching?

Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky debating human nature is a foundational one for anyone interested in why things feel unmoored from reality. If this is too dry, I encourage you to watch any debate between people who genuinely disagree. This is rare because our conversations about difficult topics usually happen between people who agree or aren’t very far apart. True debate requires discomfort and areas of disagreement.

—Anu Pandey

LinkedIn | Substack

Here’s how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join our SUMMER 2026 waitlist now!

Have a great week,
—Zac

📝 TOMORROW - 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026

ONE SPOT LEFT: Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

💰 04/25 - How to Land a Literary Agent

An insider’s guide to querying literary agents, getting represented, and getting paid for your writing. Join Leila Sales for a practical breakdown of how agents actually evaluate submissions. Learn how to target the right agents, craft a query that gets opened, and navigate requests, rejections, and offers. Small group, real Q&A, and clear next steps for your book.

🧠 04/26 - The Art of Knowing: Part 2

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

🌹05/06 - Rosedale Write Night

If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Rosedale Members may bring one guest with RSVP.

✍️ 05/09 - Members Writing Session!

If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

Member of the week: Chris Oberdorfer

What is a question worth asking?

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? You might think that this would invite a quick answer, but I assure you that my response to this could be obnoxiously long-winded.

What is a book worth reading?

Lonesome Dove or East of Eden (both obviously). They call them classics for a reason. On one hand, you have Steinbeck who is probably the writer whose style I find to be the most whimsical - I wish I could write like that. Then you have McMurtry who makes storytelling look absolutely effortless. He’s never trying too hard, and it never feels like he’s trying to impress you with his vocabulary or sentence structure. He just tells it like it is and it is one of the most incredible adventures you will ever read. Both books are thick as can be and by the end you’d be happy for them to be twice as long.

What is a recipe worth trying?

Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk Chicken from her book, “Salt, Fat, Acid & Heat”. It’s not a particularly complicated recipe, in fact I think I can list all of the ingredients required on one hand. It’s one of those recipes that opened my eyes to the joy of simple cooking and to the richness of flavor that can be achieved with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of cooking.

There are so many recipes and cookbooks that I live by. Whether it’s Alison Roman, Molly Baz, Ottolenghi, Melissa Clark or Samin, etc… You can get me jibber jabbering for a long time about cooking. I also love to hear about other books/recipes that others depend on for their culinary endeavors.

What is a concept worth understanding?

The concept that came to mind for me was the principle of affording others “the benefit of the doubt”. I think it allows for more kindness, softness, and acceptance of others. Embracing it relies on a principle where there is justification for shortcomings, explanations for limitations, and also celebration for achievement. I find it to be an approach to life that tends to be more beneficial than detrimental.

I particularly enjoy this theme in writing because it allows for “reasons”, and the assumption that all people have their own reasons. I love to uncover, explore and articulate these little intricacies that I think form the fibers of our humanity and connectedness.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

I’m not sure this counts, but The New Yorker. It just has everything. It has fantastic writing at all levels. There’s incredible investigative reporting, there’s clever and witty storytelling covering subject matters that you’d be hard pressed to find filling the pages of any other publication held in such high regard, and then there’s even a great fiction section that has featured greats like Baldwin, Capote, and Murakami. Oh, and the comics - the comics are great.

Have a great week,
—Zac

I.

It was hard for me to come up with the right words to describe who The Rosedale Society is for. The more I tried, the more archaic the lexicon became that I need to pull from. And if I’m being completely honest, most of the words I found meant very little to me at first.

The world used to have an entire language dedicated to describing rigorous truth seeking, earnest camaraderie, and diligent enterprise. Words like: assiduous, dialectic, discerning, discriminating, enterprising, hearty, industrious, penetrating, sagacious, scrupulous, and sincere. In fact, while conducting research for this article, I repeatedly came across the phrase Old World Values, and references to Teddy Roosevelt’s “The Strenuous Life”—two things that carry very little meaning today.

II.

I often cite the relationship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, when attempting to describe what The Rosedale Society is.

The two met as professors at Oxford, and soon after they formed a small group called The Inklings. Every Tuesday night they would meet up at their local pub, and discuss current events, their professorial duties, and most importantly their work.

But this wasn’t just a friendly get together, it was also an opportunity for iron to sharpen iron. Each member would bring new material to their sessions, and then read their work aloud. After, they would nitpick, and poke-holes, and argue over the themes and messages and syntax of each other’s work. In doing so they were able to refine their respective creations beyond the limits of their own individual ability. As a result, their friendship was the fire that forged two literary legends.

Using their relationship as inspiration, I started the rigorous process of articulating what exactly The Rosedale Society seeks to bring back from the dead.

III.

The Rosedale Society sits at the intersection of three different worlds

INDUSTRIOUS: First, and foremost, The Rosedale Society is a place for people working on creative projects. The definition here is kept purposely loose—because the medium of creativity matters far less than the act itself. Whether it’s an author creating a novel, or a director creating a film, or an architect creating a structure, or an entrepreneur creating a business—all share elements of the same struggle. The same long, arduous task of bringing something that currently does not exist, into existence. Industriousness is a steady, active, and persevering pursuit toward a goal. It’s earnest, and honest, and sincere. Someone who is industrious wants their work to be a culturally and commercially successful—and they aren’t afraid to say it.

HEARTY: Secondly, The Rosedale Society is a place for those who are warm, and cordial, and bold, and eager. It’s a place for people who genuinely care about their fellow man, and employ tact in the face of hard truths. They care for their neighbors as they do their own family. Which means they are not afraid of saying what people need to hear, instead of simply what they want to hear. They are the tide that lifts all ships and they do so through rich, nourishing, and abundant relationships.

DISCERNING: Last, The Rosedale Society is a place for those who are attentive, and observant, and not easily misled. They have a certain quality of mind that allows them to see a multitude of things which escape others. They inspect ideas from the ground up, they question dogma, and they have a sound equanimity to their judgements. These skills make them an invaluable resource to all those who are in their sphere of influence. They are keen, and well read, and pursuant of education long after they leave the classroom.1

In a word, The Rosedale Society is for those who are magnanimous.

IV.

This is why the most important work I can do right now, is help The Rosedale Society grow to its fullest potential: because the world is sorely lacking in spaces where sincere effort and creative enterprise are the norm, where rigorous thought and truth-seeking are the norm, and where sincerity, tact, and mutual betterment are the norm.

But spaces like this used to exist. In Paris, these spaces took the form of salons. They were often held in the houses of nobility, and were comprised of writers, philosophers, painters, and politicians informally discussing the ideas of their day. This cross pollination, from men and women of varying disciplines, was the precursor to one of the most intellectually influential periods in Europe—it was called The Enlightenment.

Two centuries later, the famous poet Gertrude Stein started her own salon in Paris. In attendance were people like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Georges Braque. They called this time period Les Années Folles, or The Crazy Years—in part because of the exuberant creation of art, music, and literature that punctuated the 1920’s.

Which makes me wonder: What will emerge when we find the most industrious, hearty, and discerning people in Austin? What will happen when we put the right people, in the right room, at the right time? Is it naive to think that in one-hundred years from now historians will look back on 2020’s Austin and scratch their heads—wondering what was in the water?

I hope so.

—Zac

Presently there are 33 members of The Rosedale Society. We come from all walks of life and represent a wide array of creative pursuits and aspirations. If you’re interested in joining us, please check out our website to learn more.

Learn more about The Rosedale Society

Welcome to ATX Writing Club. If you’re new around here, my name is Zac Solomon and I’m your host. Over the next few months you’re probably gonna see less and less of me, mostly because I’m going to be a first-time dad soon, and I don’t want to fuck it up.

So I’ll be taking care of my wife, and our new little baby, and running to HEB, and doing the laundry, and cleaning bottles, and doing all the other stuff you gotta do to be a good dad.

In the meantime, I have some really great friends who have offered to help in my stead. Nicole Stump and Katy Ward will be hosting our Members Only Writing Sessions. While a wide panoply of friends and members have stepped up to host the myriad of other things we have going on. So rest assured, you’re in good hands.

Wish me luck, and hope to see you around!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🌹TONIGHT - Rosedale Write Night

If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Rosedale Members may bring one guest with RSVP.

💰 04/25 - How to Land a Literary Agent

An insider’s guide to querying literary agents, getting represented, and getting paid for your writing. Join Leila Sales for a practical breakdown of how agents actually evaluate submissions. Learn how to target the right agents, craft a query that gets opened, and navigate requests, rejections, and offers. Small group, real Q&A, and clear next steps for your book.

🧠 04/26 - The Art of Knowing: Part 2

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

✍️ 05/02 - ATX Writing Club: Bring a guest!

SPECIAL EVENT: You can bring ONE guest with you to this writing session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

New Rosedale Member: David Ramos

What’s a question worth asking?

How much is an answer worth? My personal rule is that I’m allowed to spend up to 10% of whatever a decision would ultimately cost to help make that decision (i.e., I can spend up to $100 informing a $1,000 purchase). Probably the best use-case in my own life has been exploring cities my wife and I wanted to move to. When we both became remote, we spent a few weeks in each of the cities we were considering moving to. For a few thousand dollars, we could “test” the decision lightly: rent a house, run errands, etc. No test is perfect, but it gives you more data to work with than jumping feet-first into a complete unknown. Rent the car you want to buy. Borrow expensive tools before purchasing. Buy a book on a subject before a course. Dipping the toe might end up saving the foot.

What’s a concept worth understanding?

Whatever you do to your body, positive or negative, will always show up in the way you think. For example, there’s evidence that exercise makes us smarter. A short workout improves our reading comprehension, our thinking speed, and our ability to connect the dots. But movement can also fix our brains. Depression and anxiety, at their core, are missteps in our brain’s construction. Whether from environmental or internal factors, wires got crossed. Exercise can help uncross them or even force growth around them in order to neutralize their negative impact.

What’s a book worth reading?

Harold Kushner is famous for his book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” but my recommendation is his later work, written 35 years after his son’s death, in which he challenges a lot of his earlier ideas about suffering and fate: “The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person.” There’s a line in Job that goes... “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand...” and you get the sense that’s how Kushner feels. Like this idea of suffering is something he’s had to live with his whole life, just to see how little of it he gets, how little of it we all get. And yet, you can’t help but come away from the book feeling hopeful. He convinces the reader that there are some things in life, some beautiful things, that can only be gained through it.

What’s an activity worth doing?

Dual-tasking or pairing a physical activity with a mental one. Like memorizing a poem while balancing on one leg, or doing mental math while jogging (safely, of course!). As you can imagine, this fires up multiple parts of the brain that don’t usually work in tandem. Besides forcing you to split your attention, it also draws on reserves you didn’t know you had so that you can find creative ways to solve the challenge in front of you. As these “reserves” get used, they’re rebuilt stronger, which, in the long term, can be a major defense against neurodegenerative diseases. But if all this sounds like too much work, just become bilingual, which can lower your risk of dementia by 90%.

What’s a video worth watching?

This 3-minute and 30-second clip from the show Billions: In the clip, Paul Giamatti’s character cooks an egg. That’s literally it. There’s something about its simplicity that makes it hard to look away. And that makes me think about how many of my own little moments go unnoticed and undervalued. Which makes me want to use my time better. Like cutting back on YouTube, where I watch people cook eggs...

Have a great week,
—Zac

How Rachel wrote 64,601 words in 12 weeks…

My name is Rachel. I am originally from Colorado, but have hopped around the world for a while. Currently I am a teacher, but who knows what’s next in store.

I initially signed up for the [ATX Writing Club] novel cohort because I wanted to feel challenged in my writing, but also hold myself accountable. I have always had the goal to write a novel, but not the accountability or a clear structure. Having weekly discussions and meeting up with people in a similar boat is a great drive to keep writing. I was also excited to see how much I could possibly put on paper and let go of having to know every step of the process.

My novel ended up being a sci-fi story with the general post-apocalyptic plot line. I haven’t rehearsed my elevator speech enough to share more, but in the end I wrote 64,601 words in 12 weeks, so it’s got something to it!

This was a course really geared towards fiction writers, however, the process is helpful in many ways to other writers. I think the thing that every writer should know is that they need to be ready to let go and voyage into the unknown. Discovery writing is messy, but it’s a lot like an improv show; you have to be willing to say “yes, and” and see what happens next. It can be a freeing experience if you let it be one, especially once you accept that the first draft, or even the first story of any award-winning author wasn’t written perfectly at first try. I hate to quote the cliche, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but it fits perfectly well here. It’s a great experience, especially for the writer who’s ready to try something new.

So my question for you is…

Do you actually want to write a book in 2026?

If you’re like most writers, you’ve been carrying a book idea around for months—maybe years. You jot notes, tweak your outline, open the document, close it again. You tell yourself you’ll get serious “when life slows down.”

But life never does.

​Meanwhile, the pages stay blank, the story stays unfinished, and the gap between the writer you want to be and the one you are keeps widening. Every week you don’t make progress, it gets harder to believe you ever will.

​A twelve-week sprint from idea to finished draft

​This workshop is designed for writers ready to stop circling their novel and finally get it on the page.

​Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from a spark of an idea to a complete first draft—through a mix of structure, accountability, and deep creative work.

​Each session blends craft, process, and progress:

• ​Accountability checkpoint: Did you hit your writing goal? What’s working and what isn’t?

• ​Process conversation: Explore how, when, and where you write—so the habit becomes sustainable.

• ​Milestone lesson: Learn that week’s narrative pillar and how to build it from the inside out, grounded in your character’s choices.

• ​Writing sprint: Put new lessons into action. Get words on the page, right then and there.

• ​Goal-setting: Commit aloud to your next word count target (usually 5–8k words between sessions).

​By the end, you’ll have a full draft—and a writing practice strong enough to carry you into revision.

​Meet your Instructor Eli Ryder!

​​Eli is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Austin Community College. He has appeared as a panelist and podcast guest for several venues discussing both the craft of writing and the thrill of dark fiction.

​​His horror and sci-fi has appeared in numerous online, in-print, and audio publications, and his plays have appeared on stage in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

​​He is a Roswell Award honoree and stole his M.F.A. from U.C. Riverside. He plays D&D, has the best kid ever, and is an avid lover of all things spooky.

​Weekly Milestones

​July 9th: Idea, Character, Setting

​July 16th: Inciting Incident & Character Change

​July 23rd: Resistance & Early Conflict

​July 30th: The Debate & Forward Momentum

​Aug 6th: New Pressures, Changing World

​Aug 13th: Escalation & Major Setback

​Aug 20th: Midpoint Shift—Reaction to Action

​Aug 27th: Rising Stakes & the Cost of Change

​Sept 3rd: Dark Night of the Soul

​Sept 10th: Revelation & Decision

​Sept 17th: Resolution & Consequences

​Sept 24th: Completion, Celebration, and Next Steps

​Each story beat is drawn from timeless narrative frameworks—the Hero’s Journey, five-act structure, Truby, Dan Wells—but reframed through a character-first lens.

​Where plot becomes the natural consequence of who your protagonist is and what they want.

If finishing a book has been on your list year after year, now is the time!

Starting on July 9th, join us for twelve weeks of Zero to First Draft Novel Workshop Series! Each workshop session blends a craft lessons, with guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones—led by author and professor Eli Ryder.

Make 2026 the year you finally turn your idea into a finished draft.

Write your novel in 2026!

🌹04/01 - NEW: Rosedale Write Night

If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Members may bring one guest with RSVP.

✍️ 04/04 - Members Writing Session

If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🧠 04/05 - NEW: The Art of Knowing: Part 1

What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

📝 04/23 - 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026

Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

🏆 07/09 - 12-Week Novel Workshop Series

Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from idea to completed first draft through structure, accountability, and serious creative momentum. Each session includes lessons on craft, guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones. Led by author and professor Eli Ryder. Make 2026 the year you finally write that book!

Member of the Week: Erin Laverone

What is a book worth reading?

Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me) by Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson. A great read to understand how we make and defend our decisions. It unpacks the psychology of cognitive dissonance, revealing how we self-justify our beliefs, rationalize our actions, and maintain a sense of being right. Perhaps most powerfully, it shows why we’re quick to spot moral lapses in others while quietly blurring the gap between our own actions and moral convictions. I feel that it is quite an important read for understanding and creating connections with others, particularly those who think, act, and vote differently than us.

What is an activity worth doing?

Any type of movement that you love, particularly if it is outdoors and with others. We are meant to move, and to move often. Motion is lotion. All of our systems--physiological, mental, spiritual--thrive when we move our bodies.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

I’ve unsubscribed from almost all newsletters so that I can actually focus on taking action on important things in my life and not get distracted or feel FOMO, but I still subscribe to a handful (like literally only five), and Mitchell Cohen’s Making Connections 3-minute Sunday newsletter is one of them. I look forward to reading it every Sunday morning and always get at least one valuable nugget from it. Funny enough, I met him at the first ATX Writing Club event I went to around two years ago when there were like only 10 of us writing together in Vintage Bookstore and Wine Bar.

What is a video worth watching?

The Heineken “Worlds Apart” campaign from 2016. I know it’s an ad, but I think the overall message is extremely powerful. A genuinely curious conversation can go a long way these days. We all have more in common than not.

What is a recipe worth trying?

This Homemade Lasagna recipe! It’s my go to when I host a nice dinner at my home for friends or family. It takes me 3 hours to make from start to plate and is a labor of love, but it is absolutely delicious and thus so special to share with those you care about. For the ground beef I use Force of Nature’s Regenerative (meat/heart/liver) Beef Blend and for the sausage I use Aidells Italian Style Smoked Chicken Sausage. I also sub Silk Cashew Milk for cow’s milk in the bechamel sauce.

and you should probably know…

I am publishing my first book (which I have been working on for the last year at ATX Writing Club), Do The Thing: A Science-Backed Process to Help You Take Action Even When Motivation Fails and Life Gets Messy, on April 14th. I am currently looking to grow my launch team between now and then. It’s simple to sign up and there are three levels of commitment depending on what feels right for you. In exchange for signing up, you get free access to a digital copy of the book plus first access and the lowest price ever for the ebook and paperback. It takes one minute to join. Learn more and sign up here.

Get a free digital copy of Erin's Book!

Thinking of joining The Rosedale Society?

The Rosedale Society is a private, 24/7 co-working space for writers to gather, socialize, and get their best work done.

When creating this space, we were part inspired by famous writing groups like The Bloomsbury Group and The Inklings; part inspired by 1700’s Parisian Salon culture; and part inspired by the idilic notion of having our own private cabin in the woods.

The space is small, and focused, but I think what really sets it apart is the people. All of our members are committed to two things: Deep, thoughtful conversations and reaching their creative potential.

If you’d like to learn more about The Rosedale Society, check out this entire post I wrote about it and how we select our members.

Apply to join The Rosedale Society

Have a great week,
—Zac

My name is Zac Solomon, and I’m your host around here. If you’ve been reading for a while, you might notice that the newsletter looks a bit different this week. Since our event calendar is really starting to grow, I wanted to break it out into a few different sections.

• Events for dedicated writing

• Events for thinking big thoughts

• Events for elevating your craft

• Member of the week

• Are you ready for The Rosedale?

—Zac

Events for dedicated writing

🐺 03/25 - NEW: Evening Writing Session. For writers who prefer the quiet focus of evenings, this session is for you. This is a smaller, more focused group of about 25–30 writers who meet at night after work to write alongside one another. You’ll find a mix of experience levels, from published authors to hobbyists returning to the page. The environment is calm, consistent, and centered on getting words down.

✍️ 03/28 - Members Writing Session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🌹04/01 - NEW: Rosedale Write Night. If you’re a member of The Rosedale Society, drop in anytime between 5 and 9pm to write alongside fellow Rosedale members. Settle in with a glass of wine or sparkling water and get focused work done from 5 to 7, then stay to socialize from 7 to 9. Members may bring one guest with RSVP.

Events for thinking big thoughts

📣 03/27 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale. A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation.

💰03/29 - How to get your nonfiction book published. Leila Sales is an Austin-based author and former Penguin Random House editor, and she’s sharing a practical, no-fluff guide to nonfiction publishing. We’ll cover what makes a strong book concept, how to build a proposal, how to pitch agents, how advances and deals work, and what actually happens after you sign.

🧠 04/05 - NEW: The Art of Knowing: Part 1. What’s true, what’s false, and how do we actually know? In this first session of a multi-part series, Bradley Mankoff (PhD, UCLA) breaks down the fallacy of consensus and how it shapes modern belief. You’ll leave with sharper tools for evaluating information and thinking independently in a world flooded with noise and competing narratives.

Events for elevating your craft

📝 04/23 - 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026. Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

🏆 07/09 - 12-Week Novel Workshop Series. Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from idea to completed first draft through structure, accountability, and serious creative momentum. Each session includes lessons on craft, guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones. Led by author and professor Eli Ryder. Make 2026 the year you finally write that book!

Member of the Week: Monica Sakura Urso

What’s is a question worth asking?

What do you do with loss?

We are no strangers to this. It happens at different junctures within the space of life we occupy. This question came to me as I had undergone a sort of yearlong transformational season of loss – of relationships, a job, and the loss of a dear friend/co-author, even old versions of myself. What do you do with loss? But this time, it also came to me with answers. As I grappled the various depths of it, I came to a point of a kind of surrender. And within that I was guided to create, to write. Writing has been with me most of my life, but not like this. It was all that was left for me to do – all the other distractions simply did not work. Grief and loss could no longer live within me, following me around like it needed something to latch onto. I began to realize it all needed a place to go – to unwind and that happened to be on paper in various notebooks, notepads, physical and digital, in substacks, anywhere but left dormant in my mind. And to be honest, what a relief. However loss moves through you, let it be there and let it show you even if everything is uncertain. While it has taken me a long time to figure this out – loss has been one of the greatest teachers and gifts in my experience. If grief is an emotion and emotion is energy, you have the ability to transform and transmute it – into writing, dancing, art, singing, screaming, movement – all of it, it can turn into something unexpectedly beautiful and moving.

What is a concept worth understanding?

I’ve been thinking a lot about Carl Jung’s idea of Individuation. It’s about the lifelong process of becoming the truest version of yourself. Not the version of you that was shaped out of survival, expectation or the roles you were handed, but really the self that emerges when you start to integrate your shadow, grief, contradictions, and your deepest truths. It’s a movement toward a wholeness within that shapes your life not by unconscious patterns but by a conscious and embodied sense of who you really are. This past year made this concept for me feel more like a lived experience. Through loss, heartbreak, writing and returning to my body, I’ve watched old identities I’ve held onto fall away and new parts of myself emerge. Delving deeper into the understanding of individuation has given me a kind of framework about how things have been unfolding lately like the way suffering can reshape someone, the way creativity reveals forgotten parts of our true selves, and the actual courage it takes to become who you truly are. It’s a concept that reminds me that transformation isn’t just possible, but essential when it comes to self-evolution.

What is a book worth reading?

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I read it a few years ago and it somehow made it to the table during my first ATX Writing Group Session (shout out to Jess!). I no joke thought about the book the night before the writing session. What this book achieves is that it cuts straight through the noise and into a silent truth. Pressfield writes about the invisible force of resistance that bubbles up whenever we try to grow, create, or step into who we’re meant to be or rather, becoming. What stayed with me the most is the underlying message in the final pages: that our true work in life is not to become someone else, but to finally allow ourselves to become who we already are. Above all else, in us lives things we are to do and you’re the only one that can do it, simply because there is no other person that is you. And the thing is, the only way to find out is if you actually do the thing. There’s certainly a lot more gems to find in this book beyond this message wherever you happen to be on your path. Hope you find it useful.

What is an activity worth doing?

Boxing. It doesn’t have to be sparring, but simply focusing on technique and hitting the bag is enough. It’s about using your body and overcoming mental traps your mind sets for you. Boxing has become one of the most grounding practices in my life. As someone who lives in story- always thinking, imagining, observing, boxing pulls me out of my mind and directly into my body. It demands presence and discipline, much like writing, but different. For me and writing, it requires a certain level of emotional excavation on my part, and boxing counterbalances that by giving me a place to release, to breathe and feel, well, here. I feel more clearer, steadier, and more open creatively, even. For writers who tend to live in their heads (air sign, anyone?), there’s something transformational about a practice that brings you back into your body as you move with intention and strength.

For me, it interrupts any preconceived notions that I had about myself (most of the time), and when overcoming something physical, it can be more of a mental thing. You begin to notice the ways you’re not just fighting physically, but how you’re also confronting your own thoughts, too. When you begin to push through something difficult with your body, you are far more capable of doing some tough things than you’ve given yourself credit for. This type of resilience also translates into writing and anything that seems challenging at first. Boxing reminds me that I’m alive in a powerful and physical way and directing your mind to overcome such demands is completely possible. Give it a go! You may surprise yourself. And when you do, you can’t help but wonder: what else am I capable of?

What is a recipe worth trying?

This is a subtly sweet treat that was passed down to me from a Seattle-based pastry chef: matcha muffins. They’re soft, earthy with just enough sweetness, and taste like a soft morning in Kyoto. I love them because they are a comforting homemade treat that perhaps doesn’t exist in Austin.They’re simple to make and beautifully swirled with green and white. If you need a creative pick-me-up, matcha muffins are gentle and grounding. Reach out, I’d be happy to share.

Here is a little bit about what I’m working on.

I’m the co-author of Can You Open My Eyes?, a memoir written with my late friend, Dr. Qusay Hussein Al-Mamari. Our book was recently awarded the 2025 Best Indie Book Award (BIBA), which has been a deeply meaningful honor. I’m currently writing Book 2 of the memoir series, continuing Qusay’s extraordinary story and the legacy we began together.

I also recently started a Substack called Love Letters to Self, which consists of a collection of letters that are reflections on love, life, becoming and more, to remind us that being human is a winding path inward.

My website and contact information can be found at www.monicasakura.com, you can also find me on Instagram @monicasakura.

Thinking of joining The Rosedale Society?

The Rosedale Society is a private, 24/7 co-working space for writers to gather, socialize, and get their best work done.

When creating this space, we were part inspired by famous writing groups like The Bloomsbury Group and The Inklings; part inspired by 1700’s Parisian Salon culture; and part inspired by the idilic notion of having our own private cabin in the woods.

The space is small, and focused, but I think what really sets it apart is the people. All of our members are committed to two things: Deep, thoughtful conversations and reaching their creative potential.

If you’d like to learn more about The Rosedale Society, check out this entire post I wrote about it and how we select our members.

Apply to join The Rosedale Society

Have a great week,
—Zac

Needless to say, I’m very excited to be a dad. I’m excited to change our little guy’s diapers and get puked on and stay up late and watch all three Lord of the Rings back-to-back while my wife’s feeding him at 3 a.m.

Thankfully, her job offers an incredible 5.5-month maternity leave. But strangely, my job doesn’t offer anything at all.

The funny thing about running your own business is although you get all this freedom to be creative and choose your own destiny—you also get no benefits and no parental leave and you’re always working even if it’s just in your head. But I’m still gonna try to take some time off because, at the end of the day, this is just a job, and if 90s movies taught me anything it’s that your family is much, much more important than your job (I just rewatched Hook last night. If you haven’t seen it in a few years trust me, it hits different as an adult—Rufio, Rufio, Rufio!)

So you’ll hopefully see less of me in the next few months. But worry not, I have some great friends. You’ve probably already met a few of them. Folks like Katy Ward, Nicole Stump, and Alex Exum. They’ve been helping me out, and guest hosting as I’ve built cribs and hung up wallpaper and gone to dozens of OB/GYN appointments.

Thanks guys, and thanks everyone for joining us at writing club.

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🐺 03/25 - NEW: Evening Writing Session. For writers who prefer the quiet focus of evenings, this session is for you. This is a smaller, more focused group of about 25–30 writers who meet at night after work to write alongside one another. You’ll find a mix of experience levels, from published authors to hobbyists returning to the page. The environment is calm, consistent, and centered on getting words down.

📣 03/27 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale. A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation.

✍️ 03/28 - Members Writing Session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

💰03/29 - How to get your nonfiction book published. Leila Sales is an Austin-based author and former Penguin Random House editor, and she’s sharing a practical, no-fluff guide to nonfiction publishing. We’ll cover what makes a strong book concept, how to build a proposal, how to pitch agents, how advances and deals work, and what actually happens after you sign.

NEW: Upcoming Craft Workshops!

🚨 NEW: 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026.

If you’re a early-career writer with a vision, this group is for you. Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

🚨 NEW: Zero to First Draft - A 12-Week Workshop Series:

Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from idea to completed first draft through structure, accountability, and serious creative momentum. Each session includes lessons on craft, guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones. Led by author and professor Eli Ryder. Make 2026 the year you finally write that book!

See our full calendar here!

The Rosedale Society Member of the Week: Molly Richardson

What is a question worth asking?

I work generally in the integrative and functional health space, so I’m curious how can we shift from individual health optimization towards collective health liberation? What mindsets and systems need to be shifted or disrupted to do so - and are we willing to?

What is a concept worth understanding?

Right now I’m working with the idea of framing both health and generative output as natural expressions of congruent mind, body, spirit - as well as community, environment, and lineage. I love the belief that humans are self-organizing beings that tend towards health, harmony, and creativity when the conditions are right. The big question of my life and work is how can we influence those conditions at local and system levels - and especially support equitable conditions in areas that have been systemically neglected.

What is a book worth reading?

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown has been really influential as I’m get ready to launch my Integrative Health business this year. It’s like a guidebook for being in right relationship with change and how to learn from living systems, patterns, and nature as you go, rather than forcing a plan from beginning to end. I’m also adopting the idea of “building the future in the present tense” as I make decisions in developing and launching work that promotes this goal of health in relation to liberatory work. This can often feel like bushwhacking new territory, and this book has felt like a friend along the way.

What is an activity worth doing?

Community Singing. There are groups popping up all over the place right now. It’s fun, it’s creative, it’s social, and it can also be a form of activism and resistance. At its core, I appreciate that singing is a way to alchemize feelings of pain, anger, grief and uncertainly into something generative in real time, together. I love the motto of these groups, that they are about “connection, not perfection.”

Austin also has such an amazing two-step scene! It brings me so much joy whenever I can get out on the dance floor.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

I think it’s worth following The Work that Reconnects newsletter, which is based on the work of Joanna Macy (eco-philosopher, Buddhist scholar, systems thinker). It provides a framework around “The Great Turning,” a term they use to describe the shift from an “industrial growth society” to a life-sustaining civilization. I’m interested in folks and projects who are trying to influence what things can look like while/after certain systems crumble. I find this to be a nourishing community with local chapters and offshoot groups that hold space for grief, climate/cultural anxiety, and some other giant feelings that may not easily find a home.

What is a recipe worth trying?

Hmm, I’ve been trying to take advantage of the last of Texas “winter” with all the pozoles, and beef/lamb stews, and Sunday roasts. I love chilly weather and am trying to stretch out the season of coziness as long as I can.

This is only an ingredient, but I’m currently in an obsessive phase with the organic butter lettuce from True Harvest (or probably any local grower.) It’s still so alive when you get it, and elevates every salad to a joyful experience. Also, the leaves are sturdy (especially the smaller ones) and can be used as shells for quick, refreshing “tacos,” if you’re into that kinda thing.

Want to support Molly?

I’m launching my business, Root to Flower Integrative Health, this summer/fall! I don’t have biz socials up and running yet, but would love to connect with you on my personal IG if you resonate with anything I’ve written here and might wanna collab, be friends, or support one another.

Check out Root to Flower

Check out Molly's Instagram

Thinking of joining The Rosedale Society?

The Rosedale Society is a small, private space for writers to gather, socialize, and get their best work done.

When creating this space, we were part inspired by famous writing groups like The Bloomsbury Group and The Inklings; part inspired by 1700’s Parisian Salon culture; and part inspired by the idilic notion of having our own private cabin in the woods.

The space is simple, and focused, but I think what really sets it apart is the people. All of our members are committed to two things: Deep, thoughtful conversations and reaching their creative potential.

If you’d like to learn more about The Rosedale Society, check out this entire post I wrote about it and how we select our members.

Have a great week,
—Zac

This month, we have a record TEN events that we’re hosting, which means you’ll have a ton of opportunities to meet new writers, have smart discussions, and crush your word count goals.

Speaking of—over the years we’ve had many members of writing club come and go. Several of them, who have moved away to other states, have reached back out, letting me know that there is nothing like ATX Writing Club where they live. A handful of those people message me asking if I would give them advice on how to start their own writing community (or any community for that matter) in their new home. My reply has always been the same—let me write something up for you, and I’ll send it over.

So I’m finally getting around to that, and let me tell you, I’m absolutely ripping. Last week I wrote an average of 4,200 words per day. On my most productive day I wrote 6,000 in 4 hours. It’s just flowing, my friends, and it feels good. The essay (guide? book?) is tentatively called “Everything I Know About Starting Communities.” I’m sure you’ll hear more about it in the next few weeks.

So I hope your writing is going well too!

Talk soon,

—Zac

Upcoming Events

✍️ 03/14 - Members Writing Session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🤪 03/22 - Symposium Series: Amusing Ourselves to Death. A guided, peer discussion for those ready to wrestle with Postman’s warning that cultures collapse not from censorship, but from distraction. We’ll examine media, attention, and how amusement reshapes public life. Expect rigorous, good-faith conversation that asks what happens when entertainment quietly replaces meaning across politics, education, religion, and everyday thought.

🐺 03/25 - NEW: Evening Writing Session. For writers who prefer the quiet focus of evenings, this session is for you. This is a smaller, more focused group of about 25–30 writers who meet at night after work to write alongside one another. You’ll find a mix of experience levels, from published authors to hobbyists returning to the page. The environment is calm, consistent, and centered on getting words down.

📣 03/27 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale. A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation.

💰03/29 - How to get your nonfiction book published. Leila Sales is an Austin-based author and former Penguin Random House editor, and she’s sharing a practical, no-fluff guide to nonfiction publishing. We’ll cover what makes a strong book concept, how to build a proposal, how to pitch agents, how advances and deals work, and what actually happens after you sign.

See our full calendar here!

Upcoming Craft Workshops

🚨 04/23 - 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026.

If you’re a early-career writer with a vision, this group is for you. Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

📚 07/09 - Zero to First Draft - A 12-Week Workshop Series:

Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from idea to completed first draft through structure, accountability, and serious creative momentum. Each session includes lessons on craft, guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones. Led by author and professor Eli Ryder. Make 2026 the year you finally write that book!

Member of the Week: Erica Rose

What is a question worth asking?

“What’s the best thing you could be working on, and why aren’t you?”

I admit to being a professional procrastinator - so this is a question I often ask myself. What is the best thing I could be working on in my professional life? In my writing? In my personal life? On a daily basis, if I can identify that “best thing” - it really helps me prioritize the time I have.

Asking myself this question has also led me to having the courage to make some monumental shifts in my life. Ambitions/goals/dreams that might have been murky in mind, suddenly became crystal clear. Ask the question of yourself and take action.

What is a concept worth understanding?

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness of self and others. I share this because it is a concept I work at understanding, so I have many questions (yet at the same time, I try to dodge it.)

Without taking up a lot of space, I know I can safely say that writing has brought me to new understandings of this concept. If I wasn’t writing, I don’t know where I would be in trying to unpack forgiveness.

What is a book worth reading?

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My goal in life is to be able to read this novel in its original Spanish language. I have read the English translation - and it is one of the most beautiful, epic novels I’ve had the pleasure of reading and re-reading.

This fiction title, set against the backdrop of post-Civil War Barcelona, is for anyone who loves books, history, hauntings, humor, mystery, romance and more. It truly has something for everyone. It reminds me of falling in love with books during my childhood and why I fell in love with reading in the first place.

(other top fiction recommendations: Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende and Still Life by Sarah Winman)

What is an activity worth doing?

Two things and they are so simple….smile at a stranger and DANCE!

1 - Smile at a stranger. I spend my weekdays on a college campus, going up and down the stairs, hopping on and off elevators, rushing around corners - and the students are doing the same. In a rush to get everywhere and nowhere, we tend to nearly bump into each other and share a quick “I’m sorry.” I try to find opportunities to make eye contact and smile at the people I cross paths with…we may never strike up a conversation or become friends, but sharing a smile can have an impact.

2. DANCE! Everything is better when you dance. Turn on loud music during your morning bathroom routine. Turn on the tunes in the car. Sing along as you cook dinner. Stay in, invite friends over and have a dance party in your living room - or do it solo!….I’ll even do this on a Monday night and it sets the tone/energy for the rest of my week.

What is a video worth watching?

Bad Bunny’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show

Watching this was a blip of hope in a daily onslaught of chaos and unrest in our nation.

If you have 13 minutes to watch or re-watch this celebration of life, you may as well turn it up loud and dance. As a proud Latina, I realize my bias. But I also have to make the case for realizing that growing up, I did not see myself reflected back on television (or in books, for that matter). Movies, TV shows, music, books - in the larger American culture - there was a standard appearance or message….and I really didn’t fit in anywhere. None of this began to shift for me until my junior year in college (late 1990s).

I had a student recently write about something she once hated, but now loves. She used to hate her curly brown hair, as did most of the females in her Mexican American family…and then she eventually came to love and celebrate her hair. She referred to the “standard American look.” While she couldn’t completely change the color of her dark hair, she could add highlights to get closer to the standard and she could straighten it into submission.

She and I shared the same hair stories. And we shared similar reactions to seeing multiculturalism/diversity being celebrated on a global level. As Americans, we may not speak the same languages or look the same - but we are humans that can share in real connections through creativity, dance and love. Why not celebrate in that, as all of America?

Check out Erica's Instagram

Thinking about joining The Rosedale Society?

The Rosedale Society is a small, private co-working space for writers to gather, socialize, and get their best work done.

When creating this space, we were part inspired by famous writing groups like The Bloomsbury Group and The Inklings; part inspired by 1700’s Parisian Salon culture; and part inspired by the idilic notion of having our own private cabin in the woods.

The space is simple, and focused, but I think what really sets it apart is the people. All of our members are committed to two things: Deep, thoughtful conversations and reaching their creative potential.

If you’d like to learn more about The Rosedale Society, check out this entire post I wrote about it and how we select our members.

Have a great week,
—Zac

Their first real writing club session will be this Saturday at a new location, and I’ll be there hosting. So make sure to come out, say hi, and make sure our new members feel welcome!

Now with each new cohort, I ask the same few questions to get a better feel for who’s joining and how we can best serve the community. Then I make some charts (because who doesn’t like a good chart) and I share them with the rest of the group.

A few things this time stood out to me. First, a shocking percentage of our new members have advanced degrees. Second, most new members are in their mid-to-late thirties. Third, most people joined to be a part of a creative community rather than to find an accountability structure or develop their writing skills. Finally, and this ties right in with that last point, more people are excited to be a part of our salon dinners and small-group discussions than anything else.

Interesting, right? Here’s the full breakdown.

How long have you lived in Austin?

Highest level of education completed?

How old are you?

What brought you to ATX Writing Club?

How would you describe your experience as a writer?

What topics are you most drawn to exploring in your intellectual life?

What kinds of events are you most excited for?

Some Upcoming Events

🍷 03/07 - Members Writing Session! We will start with a short welcome, then move into quiet, focused work. Returning members, please find someone new, say hello, and help them get oriented. ATX Writing Club is at its best when writers are comfortable talking shop with other writers. A quick introduction, a shared table, and brief conversation will introduce new members into our community!

🐺 03/10 - NEW: Evening Writing Session. For writers who prefer the quiet focus of evenings, this session is for you. This is a smaller, more focused group of about 25–30 writers who meet at night after work to write alongside one another. You’ll find a mix of experience levels, from published authors to hobbyists returning to the page. The environment is calm, consistent, and centered on getting words down.

✍️ 03/14 - Members Writing Session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🏛️ 03/22 - Symposium Series: Amusing Ourselves to Death. A guided, peer discussion for those ready to wrestle with Postman’s warning that cultures collapse not from censorship, but from distraction. We’ll examine media, attention, and how amusement reshapes public life. Expect rigorous, good-faith conversation that asks what happens when entertainment quietly replaces meaning across politics, education, religion, and everyday thought.

📣 03/27 - Show your work: readings at The Rosedale. A casual night of live readings and conversation, hosted by Jeremy Striffler, Founding Member of The Rosedale Society. Bring a 5–7 minute excerpt or just come listen. Reading aloud sharpens your ear, exposes what’s working, and builds confidence in your work. Doors open at 6:00pm, readings begin at 6:30, followed by drinks, and conversation.

💰03/29 - How to get your nonfiction book published. Leila Sales is an Austin-based author and former Penguin Random House editor, and she’s sharing a practical, no-fluff guide to nonfiction publishing. We’ll cover what makes a strong book concept, how to build a proposal, how to pitch agents, how advances and deals work, and what actually happens after you sign.

…and a few special events

📝 04/23 - 8-Week Feedback Group: Spring 2026. If you’re a early-career writer with a vision, this group is for you. Each week, you’ll submit pages and your peers will show up having read and annotated your work. This group will be led by Professor of Creative Writing, Eli Ryder. Each discussion will sharpen your draft, and turn into a clear path forward. This next cohort is capped at 12 writers, and runs Thursdays from 6pm-8pm.

🏆 07/09 - Zero to First Draft - A 12-Week Workshop Series: Over twelve focused weeks, you’ll move from idea to completed first draft through structure, accountability, and serious creative momentum. Each session includes lessons on craft, guided writing sprints, and real progress milestones. Led by author and professor Eli Ryder. Make 2026 the year you finally write that book!

See our full calendar here!

The Rosedale Society’s newest member: Benjamin Nelson

The Rosedale Society is a small, private space for writers to gather, socialize, and get their best work done. If you’d like to learn more about The Rosedale Society, check out this entire post I wrote about it and how we select our members.

What is a question worth asking?

“Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?

Do you realize we’re floating in space?

Do you realize that happiness makes you cry?

Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes let them know

You realize that life goes fast

It’s hard to make the good things last

You realize the sun doesn’t go down

It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.”

- Flaming Lips

What is a concept worth understanding?

New Orleans is the best and worst city in America. I grew up in Louisiana and started visiting New Orleans as early as I can remember. Members of my family were among the first 800 residents of the xcity. I eventually moved there, and my first real job involved trying to obtain relief money for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

As familiar as I was with the place I did not fully grasp its significance and importance to me until I left. When I moved to Texas I joined bands that toured all over the country. I then understood that Louisiana has a culture that is wholly unique. When I got back from tour, I had an overwhelming urge to write about New Orleans and the things and people I had seen, felt and heard.

The result was a screenplay called Reconsider Me which I will direct later this year. While it is not a true story, per se, each element of the story is based on the truths and tall tales from people I grew up observing.

What is a book worth reading?

Federico Fellini Interviews - This book is a collection of interviews of Federico Fellini, who was an Italian director and screenwriter. He speaks passionately about film and the creative process.

He describes the theme of all of his films as the “terrible difficulty people have in talking to each other - the old problem of communication, the desperate anguish to be with, the desire to have a real, authentic relationship with another person.” — My own film centers around a similar concept of misunderstanding.

“I believe deeply in artists from the provinces, because their cultural formation always takes place under the sign of fantasy - under a pressure which, held back and suppressed by silence and immobility, develops in a fantastic vein, as a dreamlike quality, which is the greatest wealth an artist can have.” — I spent a lifetime trying to leave Louisiana and get to bigger cities. To my own surprise I immediately started writing about Louisiana as soon as I got out and saw the rest of the country.

“The things you grow up with, you know best, so that you feel most sure of them in case you are attacked. I think home is the place where a man has the best chance to express himself freely. Even if he is a modest artist, and even if he is limited by environment in the things he tries to express, those are more likely to be human things, things that really exist.” — My own ambitions are similar. If nothing else, my writing is based on humans that exist or existed.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

I only subscribe to one newsletter, JFKFacts, which is a substack related to the assassination of JFK… haha, yep.

Over the past six decades, the federal government has slowly released its records related to the assassination. The editor of this newsletter is a former Washington Post reporter who has consistently covered what is actually in the documents. Regardless of who killed Kennedy these records involve extremely interesting stories and anecdotes involving the underbelly of the American intelligence apparatus, business leaders, and organized crime as well as those groups’ movements and operations in South Louisiana (and elsewhere) in the period before and after the assassination.

Honestly… maybe I just love The Parallax View which is one of a slew of fantastic 70s movies which reveled in the growing paranoia of the American public in the aftermath of the assassinations of the 60s.

What is a video worth watching?

The B52s - Give Me Back My Man Live at US Festival 1982.

The B52s are one of the greatest American bands of all time. The entirety of this concert was released as a DVD, and a rip of this song is on YouTube (I highly recommend the full set via DVD). They are a genuinely weird, Southern, party group essentially doing a bit about being a band, but they do it so well that they are an actual great band.

The guitar player, Ricky Wilson, is dressed like a cheeky valet in an 80s teen movie. He wears shorts, black socks, a light blue blazer, and a polo shirt. He is a completely unique guitar player and one of my favorites. His sister, Cindy, shakes her tambourine and the fringe of her dress as she delivers an incredible vocal that both anticipates grunge and conjures the girl groups of the 60s.

This performance is from the Us Festival, which was founded and financed by Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak. He thought the 70s were the “Me Generation” and wanted the 80s to be for “Us.” He wanted to create the spirit of Woodstock, but “brought to you” by emerging tech corporations. The man was a true trailblazer. Forty plus years later the music industry is completely and totally dominated by tech companies who continue to want the spirit of something organic but where they keep all of the money. His vision is reality.

More about Ben…

My wife and I recently launched a music and film production company called The January July Company which is where a large percentage of my projects will operate from.

Check out Ben's Production Company

Check out Ben's Instagram

Have a great week!
—Zac

Why I actually started writing club

Two years ago I moved to Austin and didn’t know a soul.

But I read the research, and I knew how important community was to your health and your sense of belonging to a place. I also knew that, for men, community felt especially elusive. I didn’t want to die alone, and I also didn’t want to spend all my nights watching TV. So I knew I had to do something.

At the time, I was in my most prolific period of writing. I was publishing essays online every week, and I had a sincere desire to elevate my abilities as a writer. I figured that finding a community would help me plant roots in this Austin, while also pushing me to grow in my craft.

I spent a month looking around for such a group, and found nothing that resonated with me. I wasn’t looking for an MFA course, I didn’t want to talk about my feelings and trauma, and I didn’t want to navigate weekday night traffic at 6pm. So, after a month of searching I just said fuck it, and decided to start my own. Two years later, we are the largest writing group in Austin.

Now don’t get me wrong, writing is a solitary craft—full stop.

Community or not, it’s an intimate practice of reflection and expression that can only take place between you and yourself. But your life as a whole—the people you meet, the discussions you have, and the work you produce—doesn’t have to feel isolated. That’s why writing club exists, and that’s why I believe it’s growing so quickly.

We all want to be in smarter rooms. We all want to grow as writers. Simple as that.

If you want to join us, Spring membership day is March 1st.

Join the waitlist here

—Zac

What you get as a member

In the past two months, we’ve hosted TWELVE members-only events.

These events have ranged from our classic writing sessions, to our new and very popular Symposium Series. In addition to a multitude of events each season, members also have the opportunity to meet 50–60 writers in Austin each month.

Events you unlock with membership…

For building your ritual

• 8-Week Feedback Group: If you’re looking for real, credible feedback from writers who know what they’re talking about. Not beta-readers, not wanna-be’s, but real deal writers who are right there in the arena with you.

• 12-Week Novel Workshop: This is a comprehensive, zero to first draft, novel writing course. We bring in local writing professors to teach each class, and help guide you along the way of finishing a full manuscript in 12 weeks. It’s likely the hardest, and most rewarding thing you can do at ATX Writing Club.

• Weekly Members Writing Sessions: This is our bread and butter. Each Saturday at 10am, we meet at a different location around the city for some focused, heads-down writing time. You’ll meet 5–10 other writers each time, and get a fantastic amount of work done.

For smart conversations with smart people

• Members Appreciation Social: We host this event once per season. It’s a low-stakes hangout designed to get you acquainted with the members of our community. In the past we’ve rented out bars and coffee shops, and gifted every member who attended a free book from First Light Books.

• Classics Book Club: Writers can’t just read like everyone else. They need to read deeper, and more thoughtfully, with an eye for style and metaphor, and nuance. That’s exactly what we do. We study the classics, and try to understand what makes them so perennial.

• Live Talk + Q&A with Ryan Holiday: Last year we bought 100 tickets to Ryan Holiday’s live, in-person talk on his book Wisdom Takes Work. Each season we do the same for other big-name authors who come into town. We give these tickets away to our members for free.

• A Moveable Feast: This is our recurring dinner series. We gather 12–16 writers, artists, sculptors, developers, and entrepreneurs around our table and discuss big topics that are important to living a creative life. Last year’s most popular topic was “How to make art while also making money”.

• Show Your Work: Sometimes what you need to push some work across the finish line is the ability to read your words aloud. What’s even better is reading them aloud to a group of your peers. At Show Your Work, we invite 10 writers to read their work aloud. It could be a poem, or a piece of journalism—the medium doesn’t matter.

• Symposium Series: This is an expert-led, topical discussion, usually centered around a timeless piece of written work. Our most popular discussion this year was one hosted by a PhD in Political Science, and a MA in History, with the title “1984: fiction or nonfiction”.

For making money as a writer

• Insights on a $100M Book Launch: Last year, the most lucrative non-fiction book of all time was published. It made $100M overnight and very few people were talking about it. This series broke down the exact mechanics as to how it was done, and what we can learn as writers when publishing our own work.

• How to Make Money With Newsletters: A recurring series from Ethan Brooks, the founder of The Austin Business Review. During these live, in-person discussions, Ethan unveils the mechanics of the newsletter world. It turns out that the biggest newsletters in the world all follow the same playbook—and Ethan’s got it.

• How to Find, Vet, and Pitch Literary Agents: Hosted by six-time author Natalia Loya, this series chronicled her difficulties finding, vetting, and pitching literary agents. If you are a writer looking for a traditional, big-five publishing deal, this event is critical.

• How to Get Your Nonfiction Book Published: Hosted by friend of ATX Writing Club, and former Penguin Random House Editor, Leila Sales, this presentation walks us through exactly what it takes to get a non-fiction book across the finish line.

• Getting Paid and Getting Published: Again, hosted by Leila, this series discussed the actual monetization breakdown and structures you can expect when getting that big-publishing deal. Leila also walks us through the biggest mistakes first-time writers must avoid when in contract negotiations, and how to get as much leverage as you can with publishers.

• The Indie Path: Hosted by Anu Pandey and David Kadavy, David walked us exactly through how he’s used his writing to generate $30,000/month in passive income from his online writing. For the essayists and newsletter writers at ATX Writing Club, this was an eye-opening discussion.

…and this is just a small glimpse into our full roster of events!

How to become a member

(open march 1st only)

If you’d like to join 210 writers who meet in-person, in Austin, every single week. You must follow the steps below.

1. Join our Spring 2026 waitlist here!

2. On March 1st, at 9:00am I will email you a secret link to join

3. The link is only valid for 24 hours

4. Pay your first membership dues (they automatically renew every 3 months)

5. You’ll receive a confirmation email after payment

6. Congrats! You’re officially a member of ATX Writing Club. You’ll now have free access to 12+ events per season, plus huge discounts on instructor lead feedback groups, writing workshops, seminars, and publication talks!

Join the Spring 2026 waitlist!

If you have any questions, feel free to respond directly to this email!
—Zac

P.S. Please note: we only accept members 4 days per year. March 1st, June 1st, September 1st, and December 1st. We do this to ensure our community stays small, and high-impact!

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week to write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

If you’d like to become a member of ATX Writing Club and unlocking a whole bunch of ways to connect with other creatives in Austin, you can join our Spring 2026 waitlist here.

Join the Spring 2026 waitlist!

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

🚦02/22 - Symposium Series: Brave New World, Fiction or Nonfiction Is Brave New World a warning or a mirror? Join us for a guided, peer to peer symposium for readers of Aldous Huxley who want to examine pleasure, conformity, technology, and control in modern life. This is not just a book club. It is a serious conversation about what we trade away for comfort and why that trade still matters today.

💵 02/24 - How to Make Money With Newsletters Hosted by Ethan Brooks, this practical session is for writers planning to start or restart a newsletter in 2026. We will cover how newsletters make money, what builds a valuable audience, and how to get started without overthinking it. Expect clear frameworks, industry expertise, and time for direct Q&A.This event is open to the public

✅ 03/01 - Become a member of ATX Writing Club! We only accept new members four days per year, and this is one of them. If you’d like to join over 200+ writers in Austin, who meet in-person every single week, here’s your chance. Sign up for our waitlist now, and we’ll email you on March 1st, at 9:00am when new membership spots drop!

🍷 03/07 - Welcome new Spring Members! We will start with a short welcome, then move into quiet, focused work. Returning members, please find someone new, say hello, and help them get oriented. ATX Writing Club is at its best when writers are comfortable talking shop with other writers. A quick introduction, a shared table, and brief conversation will introduce new members into our community!

🤪 03/08 - Symposium Series: Amusing Ourselves to Death. A guided, peer discussion for those ready to wrestle with Postman’s warning that cultures collapse not from censorship, but from distraction. We’ll examine media, attention, and how amusement reshapes public life. Expect rigorous, good-faith conversation that asks what happens when entertainment quietly replaces meaning across politics, education, religion, and everyday thought.

✍️ 03/14 - Members Writing Session! If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

💰03/29 - How to get your nonfiction book published. Leila Sales is an Austin-based author and former Penguin Random House editor, and she’s sharing a practical, no-fluff guide to nonfiction publishing. We’ll cover what makes a strong book concept, how to build a proposal, how to pitch agents, how advances and deals work, and what actually happens after you sign.

See our full calendar here!

Member of the Week: Dalton Bloodworth

What question is worth asking?

I love asking people the question, “If you could fly, would you quit your job?” It’s silly, but I love hearing people’s answers and the arguments that ensue. In my eyes, the world has become a much more serious place over the last few years, and I find it fun to ask people a question that isn’t serious in the slightest, just to have some fun and laugh. Personally, I would quit my job because I like to think I’d find some way to make money with my new flying skills, but to each their own.

What is a book worth reading?

A few years ago, I read Project Hail Mary and really enjoyed the story and characters. If anyone is looking for a fun fiction read, that is usually the first book I suggest. I’ll go off script here a bit (apologies) and also give one of my favorite books that offers great insight into the human mind: Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. It’s been a while since I read Emotional Intelligence, but throughout the book, I had multiple “ah-ha” moments when it came to understanding the mind, emotions, trauma, family, and social skills.

What is an activity worth doing?

I’ll be a bit cliché and say whatever you have fun doing is an activity worth doing. For me I love spending time at Barton Springs; jumping in the water, getting out and reading or writing, and maybe falling asleep outside after a hard morning of relaxing and doing nothing. I spend a lot of time at the desk during the week, so getting outside on the weekends is a must for me.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

There’s a newsletter that I am subscribed to relating to the field of work I’m in, energy. I’ve never been passionate about work or interested in talking about it, much less subscribed to a newsletter about it, but the person who writes the newsletter is the CEO/founder of a small company, who is very goofy, and I can tell he has a blast writing his weekly newsletter. In an industry that’s so serious, I love seeing a guy end his newsletter each week with “BRING ME YOUR FINEST MEATS AND CHEESES!” It gives me hope that even in a very serious corporate America world, I can be a goofball.

What is a recipe worth trying?

<Insert a shameless plug for any kind of Cajun food> All of my family is from Louisiana, so growing up, I ate a lot of catfish and shrimp. For Cajuns, however, the unrivaled dish is gumbo. If you have never had gumbo, I hope you get the chance to try a good cup or bowl of gumbo, and to take it one step further, I hope you get the chance to make it and take turns stirring the roux with your friends and/or family. A good gumbo takes time and usually even tastes better the day after making, once all the seasoning has time to soak in. Definitely worth a try.

Thank you,

Dalton

If you’re new around here, this is how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the waitlist for Spring 2026!

Have a great week,
—Zac

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week to (you guessed it) write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of ATX Writing Club and unlocking a whole bunch of ways to connect with other creatives in Austin, you can join our Spring 2026 waitlist here.

Join the Spring 2026 waitlist!

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

✍️ 02/14 - Members Writing Session If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🚦02/22 - Symposium Series: Brave New World, Fiction or Nonfiction Is Brave New World a warning or a mirror? Join us for a guided, peer to peer symposium for readers of Aldous Huxley who want to examine pleasure, conformity, technology, and control in modern life. This is not just a book club. It is a serious conversation about what we trade away for comfort and why that trade still matters today.

💵 02/24 - How to Make Money With Newsletters Hosted by Ethan Brooks, this practical session is for writers planning to start or restart a newsletter in 2026. We will cover how newsletters make money, what builds a valuable audience, and how to get started without overthinking it. Expect clear frameworks, industry expertise, and time for direct Q&A.This event is open to the public

✅ 03/01 - Become a member of ATX Writing Club! We only accept new members four days per year, and this is one of them. If you’d like to join over 200+ writers in Austin, who meet in-person every single week, here’s your chance. Sign up for our waitlist now, and we’ll email you on March 1st, at 9:00am when new membership spots drop!

🍷 03/07 - Welcome new Spring Members! We will start with a short welcome, then move into quiet, focused work. Returning members, please find someone new, say hello, and help them get oriented. ATX Writing Club is at its best when writers are comfortable talking shop with other writers. A quick introduction, a shared table, and brief conversation will introduce new members into our community!

Member of the Week: Dustin Godevais

What is a book worth reading?

David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

I used to read almost exclusively non-fiction, but these days fiction has taken over my “for fun” list. It’s probably a reaction to the day-to-day drudgery of adult life. When I want to escape, I want total immersion and David Mitchell delivers that better than most.

Mitchell is an extraordinary scene-setter. He researches history obsessively and brings it to life with an almost absurd level of detail. Once he drops you into a world, you’re fully there and nothing feels careless or throwaway.

I even got the chance to meet him at a book signing in Edinburgh and loved hearing about his process. For example, he writes letters from different characters to each other as an exercise to build empathy and force a first-person perspective for each character even if they are not represented as such in the book.

Though The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet isn’t his most ambitious work, it’s the perfect introduction to his style without the complexity of his infinitely nested narratives like Cloud Atlas. It also rewards a second read: his characters are subtly interconnected and his endings often loop back to redefine the beginning.

What is a question worth asking?

“What the hell is water?” — Some fish probably

Whatever his faults (as I understand it, there were many), David Foster Wallace gave a speech that profoundly impacts the way I think about my day-to-day life.

During the talk, he recounts a parable with two young fish swimming along who happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way. The older fish nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water???”

The point is that sometimes the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

When I ask myself “What is water?” I’m questioning the unconscious — my natural default setting, my baseline interpretation of the world and how I can consciously adjust it to be a version of the truth that empowers me to better connect to those around me with more humility, patience, and empathy.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

Andrew Chen’s Substack

If you’re interested in tech or building consumer products, Andrew Chen is the “OG” voice on network effects. I work in tech and have spent years on my own apps and projects; I find this guy has been there, done it, and seen it all. His posts are always topical and relevant to the “Cold Start” problems I’m usually trying to solve. For example, I really enjoyed a recent one titled “Every Marketing Channel Sucks Right Now,” which hits on the exhaustion many founders are feeling with the current media landscape.

What is a video worth watching?

Ken Cheng — “Kill Two Birds With One Stone”

Stand-up comedy might be my favorite art form. It involves storytelling, acting, and best of all, laughing till it hurts. Ken Cheng isn’t the most famous comic, but this seven-minute set is one of my favorite pieces of comedy of all time.

For me, it perfects three critical aspects of any standup comedy bit:

1. The writing.

2. The performance.

3. Representing the performer’s “truth” and genuine lived experience.

You could have incredibly well-crafted, witty jokes, but if the delivery is off, the audience won’t connect. Similarly, you could be an engaging performer, but without decent writing, the audience is just laughing at you rather than with you.

The third point is the most difficult to define, but perhaps the most important. There is something that rings hollow about a performance that doesn’t feel true to the author. In this set, you can tell Cheng is a “nerdy over-analyzer.” Everything about the way he deconstructs the pros and cons of “two birds, one stone” suggests something fundamental to how he views the world and his place in it.

What is an activity worth doing?

If I can be so simplistic as to categorize everyone into “left-brain” or “right-brain” leaning, then I think the most valuable activity is whatever task puts you in a state of unfamiliarity or discomfort with your “other” side. If you’re naturally inclined toward logic and rational thinking, try painting something abstract or noodling with sound on a piano. If you “suck at math,” try getting good at chess or programming an app (idk lol). I find a lot of value in forcing my brain to operate outside its primary comfort zone.

Check out Dustin's writing here!

If you’re new around here, this is how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the waitlist for Spring 2026!

Have a great week,
—Zac

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week to (you guessed it) write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of ATX Writing Club and unlocking a whole bunch of ways to connect with other creatives in Austin, you can join our Spring 2026 waitlist here.

Join the Spring 2026 waitlist!

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

✍️ 02/14 - Members Writing Session If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🚦02/22 - Symposium Series: Brave New World, Fiction or Nonfiction Is Brave New World a warning or a mirror? Join us for a guided, peer to peer symposium for readers of Aldous Huxley who want to examine pleasure, conformity, technology, and control in modern life. This is not just a book club. It is a serious conversation about what we trade away for comfort and why that trade still matters today.

💵 02/24 - How to Make Money With Newsletters Hosted by Ethan Brooks, this practical session is for writers planning to start or restart a newsletter in 2026. We will cover how newsletters make money, what builds a valuable audience, and how to get started without overthinking it. Expect clear frameworks, industry expertise, and time for direct Q&A.This event is open to the public

🍷 03/07 - Welcome new Spring Members! We will start with a short welcome, then move into quiet, focused work. Returning members, please find someone new, say hello, and help them get oriented. ATX Writing Club is at its best when writers are comfortable talking shop with other writers. A quick introduction, a shared table, and brief conversation will introduce new members into our community!

Member of the Week: Mitchell Penningroth

What is a question worth asking?

If you never had to worry about money, how would you live your life? How differently would you live? Not in terms of luxury, but rather where would you place your attention and effort? What actually matters to you? The most meaningful contributions I can make will likely stem from pursuits that I care about, independent of money. Obviously, money matters, but this question has helped orient myself time and again. Whoever I am without money is who I will be with money — money magnifies who you are, like the Super Mushroom power-up in Mario.

What is a concept worth understanding?

Exercise-induced neurogenesis. For a long time, there was this notion that once born, the brain has a fixed number of neurons, with no new ones being made. There is emerging evidence that this is not exactly true.

Adults have the ability to generate new neurons at minimum in the hippocampus (you can think of the hippocampus as the brain’s mapmaker and archivist, helping you make new memories and linking experiences to their overall context). This is great, with one caveat — much of this ability seems to be dependent on regular exercise.

What is a book worth reading?

Ordinary Men had a big impact on me when I was in my early 20’s. Germany was a westernized society — not all that dissimilar than the US. I had long wondered how did people who were seemingly good (although as Solzhenitsyn wrote, “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being”) end up participating in the atrocities of the 1930s and 1940s?

This book examines that exact question. It follows a battalion of white collar German men who, prior to enlistment, were ordinary, upstanding citizens. It follows their collective psychological transformation as they were asked to commit increasing amounts of evil as World War II progressed. Who participated, and why? Who was able to resist group pressure, and what allowed them to say no? And how can I be more like the people who refused to cooperate, even when everyone around them went along?

I read this book 6 years ago, and still think about it regularly. Some men have a thing for the Roman Empire, and some for WWII. And some have had flings with both!

What is an activity worth doing?

Riding e-bikes with others for a day in Glacier National Park. Endorphins combined with the breathtaking seemingly never-ending beauty made me feel like I was in a dream in the best way. I was like, is this a simulation? Is this real? Am I a kid again who has run into a completely novel experience? It felt a bit like the first time I glimpsed the open world of Skyrim when I was 16. Simply astounding.

What is a newsletter worth subscribing to?

Wait But Why. You never know when there will be a new post. It could be weeks, months, or years — but! — whenever Tim Urban has something to say, you can count on it being entirely original. He’s got a way of thinking about things that always provides new lenses through which to view the world. For example, every day you have about 1000 minutes of being awake. This means you have 100 10 minute blocks per day. Each 10 minute block is 1% of your day, how do you want to spend those blocks?

Read Mitchell's Substack!

Listen to Mitchell's Podcast!

If you’re new around here, this is how membership to ATX Writing Club works.

1. We accept new members only 4 DAYS per year!
   (December 1st, March 1st, June 1st, and September 1st)

2. The rest of the year, we do not accept new members.
   This means if you miss out on that window, you’ll have to wait another 3 months to join us. If you’re interested in learning how why this makes our community stronger than literally any other writing community in Texas, read more here.

3. Membership costs $349/season
   ($349 billed once every three months)

4. In those first three months you can expect to meet 50-80 writers, and attend a minimum 12 in-person writing events.

5. If you want to learn more, here’s our FAQ!

Join the waitlist for Spring 2026!

Have a great week,
—Zac

This is Zac, and I’m the host of ATX Writing Club.

If you’re new around here, welcome! We’re a group of more than 215 writers in Austin, Texas who meet up each week to (you guessed it) write. Everything we do is in person. No Zoom calls, online classes, or WhatsApp groups. Ever. That’s a promise.

We also do some other fun things aside from writing. As you’ll see as you scroll down the page, we gather for book clubs, workshops, dinner discussions, magazine launches, and all kinds of fun things that get you out of the house and into the world.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of ATX Writing Club and unlocking a whole bunch of ways to connect with other creatives in Austin, you can join our Spring 2026 waitlist here.

Aside from that, I’m happy you’re here and hope to see you soon!

—Zac

Upcoming Events

📚 01/21 - Book Club: Lonesome Dove As a writer, it’s a given that you should be reading a lot. But you can’t just read like everyone else—it can’t just be a passive leisure. You need to read like a writer. That’s why we have a book club. This month we’re discussing Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Spots are limited.

🔥 01/23 - Magazine Launch: Sobremesa Vol. 5 Come celebrate ATX Writing Club member Katie Rice as she launches Volume 5 of Sobremesa, her Austin-based magazine exploring food, art, and writing. Join us for drinks, conversation, and community while supporting a local artist. Stay awhile, meet fellow members, and pick up a copy before they sell out. This event is open to the public

💵 01/27 - How to Make Money With Newsletters Hosted by Ethan Brooks, this practical session is for writers planning to start or restart a newsletter in 2026. We will cover how newsletters make money, what builds a valuable audience, and how to get started without overthinking it. Expect clear frameworks, industry expertise, and time for direct Q&A.This event is open to the public

🍷 02/06 - The Table of Contents: February Once a month at The Rosedale Society we host a dinner discussion for our members. This one will focus on reviewing the past year and setting clear direction for what comes next. We will examine our creative and professional output, how we used our time, and what changes we can make to get closer to our professional goals. This event is for members of The Rosedale Society.

✍️ 02/07 - Members Writing Session If you want to be a part of our dedicated inner-circle of writers, this one’s for you. Expect to meet about 60 writers of all experience levels here. Some are traditionally published authors. Others work in media, or write for magazines, and still others are doodlers and daydreamers trying to get back in touch with their creative side. You must be a member to join.

🚦02/08 - Symposium Series: 1984, Fiction or Nonfiction Is 1984 fiction or a documentary in disguise? Join a guided, peer to peer symposium for readers of 1984 by George Orwell who want to think seriously about language, power, fear, and modern life. This is not a book club. It is a rare chance to test ideas together and sharpen how you see the world right now together honestly.

Member of the Week: Paxton Duff

What’s a book worth reading?

Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is short and full of wisdom. The book addresses some all-too-familiar enemies of any writer: perfectionism, self-doubt, avoidance, and [insert any other neuroses you have, I’m not judging!].

To write better and publish more, 90% of advice can be reduced to a single metric: “butt in chair.” How many days per month do I get my butt in the chair without my phone? Creativity is a muscle, and inspiration occurs once our flighty brains get used to slowing down.

It’s also incredibly hard to both write well and make the reader laugh out loud (without reverting to shallow slapstick), so the Lamotts and Vonneguts of the world (and Tim Urban) are some writers on my metaphorical mantle.

What’s a concept worth understanding?

Mood follows action. After years of consulting/working with people who are job-searching or considering career changes, my number one learning, by far, is that our thoughts are rarely our friends.

Whether someone is depressed or just extra stuck, no additional book, Reel, hack, or future day with magically more motivation is going to help. The secret is that there isn’t one. We have to take a single, small step before our mammal brain feels remotely ready: run literally 0.3 miles, call a friend’s friend who has a nice job, or vulnerably post a single essay to an audience of 3.

The longer we avoid something, like a hard conversation, the bigger the mental monster gets, and the more calcified we feel. As Gillian Cooper shared here recently, fear is uniquely powerful, but it’s also entirely human to feel fear! When we act while still feeling that fear, the mental monsters shrink.

What’s a question worth asking?

What happens when I choose subtraction over adding more inputs (even good inputs)? Do I die??

As fellow curious people know, there is an infinity of interesting things/people we can access instantly with zero friction. We could spend literally every moment of the rest of our lives consuming it. I’ve been writing some drafts about modern escapism and have enjoyed Zac’s updates about embracing a lower-tech life—slowing things down in a world of immediate gratification. I’d love to hear from you if you enjoy exploring this topic.

What is a video worth watching?

I’m largely off of social media, but YouTube has been my ultimate kryptonite for nearly two decades. In lieu of linking a video, my dead serious but also tongue-in-cheek answer is “the video to watch, Paxton, is only the video you searched for two hours ago and not the subsequent 51 Shorts.” While that would be an usual forearm tattoo, getting it would improve my life!

What’s a newsletter worth reading?

Coming full circle, here are two standalone pieces that I really enjoyed over the holidays:

• Your phone is why you don’t feel sexy (essay by Catherine Shannon)

• How Social Media Shortens Your Life (essay by Gurwinder)

You are welcome to check out my Substack, Future of Tuesday, or my book about how to do a less soul-crushing job search (the book has dozens of jokes you won’t laugh at and three or four that will hit and lift your spirits!).

It’s been great meeting so many of you through the ATX Writing Club, and cheers to an ever better 2026!

—Paxton Duff

Read Paxton's Substack!