What do you get when you combine a community center, a cool clubhouse, fun and interesting people, consonants, vowels, tables, chairs, unique artwork, soda, coffee, snacks, periods, commas, question marks and exclamation points?
You get My Writing Shed, of course. Come along and let me show you what I’m talking about.
Here we are at My Writing Shed on Main Street. It’s right next door to Lit. on Fire and one door away from The Costume Trunk. You are invited to write your novel here!
Let’s go in and we’ll write this blog post there! It only seems right…I mean write!
Wow, it’s really nice in here and it has a nice welcoming vibe as you enter it. There’s someone in the back, let’s go say hi.
This is what I do, barge in to places with my camera and run up and say hi and take their photo. Hey, someone has to do it!
This is Jennifer Flaig, who is the founder and President of My Writing Shed along with, Cara Dossett, who is the Co-Founder and Vice President and Destinee Wilson who is the other Co-Founder. I asked Jennifer to contribute to this post and her thoughts will be sprinkled in throughout this post starting right now…I mean write now!
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Jennifer: My Writing Shed was established and the door opened up in October 2022. We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose goals are to provide a physical space for working, learning, sharing, and improving the craft of writers, and to provide opportunities online and in-person for writers to share their work and experiences with others.
We aim to serve adult writers of all walks of life from beginners to professionals, including but not limited to novelists, non-fiction writers, journalists, bloggers, songwriters, poets, and more. Everything we do is with writers in mind.
We’re proud to say we’ve had over 50 writers sign up for our pay-what-you-can writerships.
This is such a cool place in here and a perfect hang-out for writers looking for inspiration and a place to share ideas and get feedback from like-minded souls.
I love the vintage television set and there’s a Story Relay for writers to share in a continuing group story. I hope this becomes a book someday!
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Jennifer: Not every writer participates in My Writing Shed activities the same way. Some come to write, others come to community events, some want the online profile page, and others just want to be part of something unique and valuable for the local writing community.
It’s so comforting and inviting in here. They’ve really made a nice place to come and write and create.
This vintage typewriter is so cool and check out what’s typed on the page!
Lloyd would be impressed by this!
I love the art on the walls in here, a lot of it is writer-influenced art that compliments the whole theme and concept of My Writing Shed.
There’s also books in here and if you need even more books than this…
All you have to do is travel through this door to the next door neighbor…
They have a wonderful and large inventory of books in here, many of whom you won’t find online or on Amazon! While Lit. on Fire and My Writing Shed are separate entities, they do share a kinship here on Main Street.
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Jennifer: While My Writing Shed is physically connected to Lit. On Fire Books, we are separate entities. We partner together for events like Get. Lit Open Mic and the Banned Books Club.
I’ve been a longtime volunteer at Lit., which is how this partnership began. Lit. wanted to expand and I wanted to create a space for writers.
And just like magic, Litl. on Fire’s owner, Jessica appears!
It was fantastic to see Jessica and catch up on things. Be looking for a Lit. on Fire post coming up on the MBIP blog soon!
As Jennifer mentioned, Lit. on Fire and My Writing Shed partner up on events and this is one of them.
Author Mercury Stardust is coming to Lit. on Fire on Monday, November 6th and My Writing Shed has partnered up for the event. Read all about this exciting event right here!
Meanwhile, back at My Writing Shed…
There’s lots of places to sit, create and write in here.
And there’s also soda, water, coffee and snacks. Groovy!
Jennifer: While we opened at the end of October in 2022, we didn’t begin accepting donations or start paid writerships until February 2023. Opening for free allowed us to begin serving local writers while we simultaneously worked to get the required permissions to operate as a charitable organization.
As founder I’ve covered our start-up costs and has been supplementing our operational expenses. We’re at the time now when we really need public support to keep this unique place going and help it grow.
Click here to find out more information on different ways to donate to help us grow and serve the writing community here in Peoria.
Jennifer: We’re gearing up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which runs throughout November. It’s free to participate and we’re extending our hours and partnering with the local NaNo group to host write-ins and fun events.
We have a limited number of spots left for a Weekend Writing Retreat at Wildlife Prairie Park in honor of this special month.
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Thanks so much for a fun and informative tour and afternoon at My Writing Shed, Jennifer!
This is a wonderful addition to Peoria and I hope everyone helps to support this oasis for writers and those that love them and the words they write for our enjoyment and continued learning.
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716 W. Main Street
Peoria
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Related Post: Pekin Daily Times: Looking Forwards And Backwards.