Writing Our Eras

A 3-Week  Online Workshop for Midlife Women

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Non-writers and non-Swifties welcome.

 

No prior knowledge of Taylor Swift or her music is needed to join us for this three-week experience.

Whether or not you’re a “Swiftie,” or even Swift-curious, there’s no denying that Taylor Swift is rewriting the narrative on the value and power of women telling their stories. She has built an empire on sharing her personal experiences, and even using fictional stories to convey raw feelings through her song lyrics. And in so doing, she has given permission to a generation of women: tell your stories, celebrate who you are, and never be afraid to reinvent yourself.

Write about the eras of your life

Join a three-week community of other midlife women.

For writers, non-writers, creative women, journal writers, Swifties, non-Swifties, artists, and every woman looking to make sense of her experience.

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INTRODUCING...

WRITING OUR ERAS: A Workshop for Midlife Women

December 1st-19th

HERE'S HOW THE WORKSHOP WILL WORK:

You'll hear from us three times each week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Each time we'll send you:

  • A lesson on the theme for the week
  • A small playlist of songs
  • A writing prompt based on the theme and song lyrics

Our discussions and writing will be posted in our own private community forum. There, you'll also receive encouragement, support, and feedback on your writing from the instructors and other participants.

We will have optional Zoom meetings throughout the workshop. These are scheduled for Monday, December 1st at noon EST, Wednesday, December 10th at noon EST, and Wednesday, December 17th at noon EST. 

INTRODUCTION

Get acquainted with the workshop and our community. Introduce yourself and connect with all of us.

"Please picture me in the trees. I hit my peak at seven."

First, we'll explore our childhood eras—magical thinking, our families of origin, and how we learned to see ourselves in the world.

"Look what you made me do." 

Next we'll explore how rage has shown up in our own lives. Are we going to imagine burning the patriarchy to the ground? Maybe. (shrug)

"Make the friendship bracelets" 

The HerStories Project began as an exploration of women's friendship, and we're going back to our roots for this one to explore the role friendships have played throughout our lives.

"I can do it with a broken heart" 

Did you really think we could have a Taylor Swift writing prompt workshop without writing about breakups? Don't worry; we won't linger here too long. 

"This empire belongs to me" 

Finally, we'll explore our very own Empress Eras by diving into our own sovereignty, reinvention, triumphs, and transformations. 

We all have our Eras

From childhood to adolescence all the way through midlife, we have all experienced heartbreak, rage (so much rage), transitions, and reinvention. Midlife becomes an integration receptacle, whether that looks like assimilating past incarnations of ourselves, making peace with situations or relationships we regret, or coming to terms with endings and boldly seeking new beginnings. 

We are Jessica and Stephanie of The HerStories Project.

Jessica Smock, Ed.D. and Stephanie Sprenger are the co-founders of the HerStories Project and co-editors of Midstory Magazine on Substack. We've published five essay collections by and for midlife women's experiences on topics such as the pandemic, friendship, motherhood, and mental health.

For the past decade, we've taught writing and led writing groups for hundreds of women online.

Steph will be facilitating this session, and while she is a die-hard Swiftie (think, staying up late to listen to album drops with her daughters and dressing up to attend the Eras tour in 2023), she is excited to connect with ALL of you, whether or not you've ever heard All Too Well. 

"Maybe this is the real Taylor Swift effect: That she gives people, many of them women, particularly girls, who have been conditioned to accept dismissal, gaslighting, and mistreatment from a society that treats their emotions as inconsequential, permission to believe that their interior lives matter. That for your heart to break, whether it’s from being kicked off a tour or by the memory of a scarf still sitting in a drawer somewhere or because somebody else controls your life’s work, is a valid wound, and no, you’re not crazy for being upset about it, or for wanting your story to be told."

 
Time Magazine

"Maybe that’s what Eras really is: the acknowledgment of girls as people to memorialize, of who we are and who we were, all existing in the same body, on the same timeline. You are your sluttiest version, your silliest version, your most wholesome, your smartest, your dumbest, your saddest, your happiest — all at once.”"

 
New York Times 

Write about your eras with us.

December 1st-19th

ONE PAYMENT

$87

eighty-seven dollars

  • Access to our private forum
  • 3 weeks of prompts, lessons, and discussions
  • Weekly Zoom meetings
  • Get feedback about your writing from the instructors and participants
JOIN NOW

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SIGN UP?

On December 1st, we'll send an invitation to join our online forum, and we'll post the first "lessons," playlist, and prompts, and our workshop will officially begin!

IS THIS WORKSHOP RIGHT FOR YOU?

 

We hope so! Are you having some doubts?

 

 

"I loved this workshop. Reading the other women's work has been powerful and inspiring, and tapping into some of my own stories that I didn't know were laying around, waiting to be seen and told, has been cathartic and refreshing. The process was so intentionally developed and skillfully led. And receiving such supportive and kind feedback on my writing was some much needed encouragement to keep going, and keep writing." - Writing Our Eras participant (2024 session)

 

"As someone who is very new to sharing my writing, I was looking for a supportive and fun environment that still offered a challenge. I'm not really a Swiftie, but I loved the way the songs and lyrics were woven into the prompts, and I found myself looking forward to letting my brain percolate and seeing what came up. It definitely brought up some stuff that was good material for exploration! I appreciated the positive feedback from the group members, and really loved getting to read their writing." - Writing Our Eras participant (2024 session)

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