Welcome to the secret back room where the Scarlet Quill Society meets.

Every year YeahWrite runs a free workshop series that explores some aspect of writing and craft in depth. The Scarlet Quill Society combines monthly written workshop posts with actual face-to-face (okay, virtual) monthly meetings where we delve into the topics and answer your questions, plus an editorial backroom on Discord!

2022 Workshop Series: Editing

Each month we’ll cover a single topic in depth in one of our traditional workshop posts and follow that up with a live virtual meeting hosted by YeahWrite Executive Editor Rowan Becket Grigsby. Scarlet Quill Society members are invited to join our editors and special guests for a deep dive into the month’s topic.

Everyone edits their work, and we mean everyone—but not everyone thinks of themself as an editor. In this year-long workshop, the YeahWrite editors will help you hone your own editing skills so that you can feel confident that the work you are submitting is at its absolute best, from how to work with editors to how to get your writing ready for editing to what to do if you’re editing someone else’s work. We’ll discuss ways to catch mistakes before you even start, and when and how to check in on your story during the writing process to make sure you haven’t committed yourself to a plot hole or trope that you’re not best placed to spot.

Here’s how it works

On the first of every month we’ll post a topical workshop post, just like in previous years. We cannot stress enough: we are not shorting these posts to add pay content elsewhere. They’re the same thorough, informative, and—we hope—engaging discussions you’ve come to expect from us. YeahWrite was founded on the principle that it benefits everyone when people can write well, and we’re committed to giving you the tools to do that. We’re excited to see what you think of them in the Coffeehouse on Facebook and Discord.

On the other hand, we’re also committed to keeping the lights on and paying our bills, so that we can bring you that content.

So we’re adding a couple pay options that give you the chance to interact more directly with our team and get your specific questions answered instead of just the general information that we think everyone will find useful and that we had to prioritize based on how often it comes up. For a few extra bucks (seriously we’re talking $3 and $5) you’ll have the opportunity to do exactly that.

On the second Sunday of the month we’ll hold a one-hour (ish) video workshop or panel (depending on the month’s topic) for our Society members that covers and clarifies the topic with opportunities to ask questions live—or by email if you can’t make it in person. You can access this video workshop as a subscriber, or just pay for the months you want. After the workshop, we’ll make the recording available for everyone. We’re also adding a special Discord channel for Society members that gives you more direct access to the editors if you have questions or comments about the month’s topic.

Join the Scarlet Quill Society!

Live Scarlet Quill Society meetings take place on the (usually; we’ll warn you!) second Sunday of every month at 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time. Each month, paid Society members will receive an email with a link to the Zoom meeting. If not every topic interests you, you can also purchase one-time access passes to each month’s meeting via Ko-Fi. If you can’t make it to the meeting, or you don’t like to speak on camera, you are welcome to submit questions before the meeting that our editors will answer in the meeting.

• $5 one-time access to this month’s Zoom session
• $5 monthly subscription: Access to all the live meetings and recordings as soon as they’re uploaded, as well as a private Discord channel where your topical questions will be answered by YeahWrite editors!
• $3 monthly subscription: Access to the meeting recordings as soon as they’re uploaded, as well as a private Discord channel where your topical questions will be answered by YeahWrite editors!

A week after the meeting, recordings will become available to all at no cost, but if you find them useful we encourage you to leave a tip in our tip jar—it helps keep the lights on over here and allows us to keep bringing you the high-quality workshop content you’ve come to expect from us, as well as acquire some exciting guest panelists.

Rules of Order. Order of Rules. Something like that.

Wondering what the next meeting of the Scarlet Quill Society will be about? Here's our club agenda for the year.

September:

• Read: Editing nonfiction: how much is enough?
• Watch: September meeting

October:

• Read: Line- and copyediting: getting picky
• Watch: October meeting

November:

• Read: Finishing touches and final checklists: more than just spellcheck!
• Watch: November meeting

December:

• Read: DIWhy? what you can (and can't) do yourself
• Watch: December meeting

About the author:

Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.

rowan@yeahwrite.me

About the author: