A Website Is Born
Writing is a process. Not only the actual production of it, the sitting at the computer or legal pad and clawing down into unknown depths, but the living of it. The writer, like all writers, starts at the beginning. Here, there is only a small voice and little knowledge of the craft, save what she intuits from the books she reads, the classes she takes, her own work, which in the early days is terrible, just awful and stays that way for years, squeezing her heart of joy and her wringing her ego of self-esteem, until she believes she has failed, is a failure, must give up, and throw it all away, until … one day.
One day she writes her first shining sentence and sees that the struggle has not been for naught.
I am that writer and this is my journey. Along the way, I have discovered that surrounding myself with writers, who like myself, are working at it day in and day out, unflinching in the face of defeat, or maybe flinching, but writing on, is the best ways to persevere. To that end, I started a writing workshop on MeetUp. That was back in 2013 and steadily, the membership grew to a small but dedicated group.
As my writing evolves, so has this group. Today, I launched the website for Fresh Pond Writers, and am offering a couple more workshops to reach those writers who have made some significant progress already, but could use a network of supportive folks to help them reach the next level. There is always another level.
I’m joined by Jamie McPartland, who will lead one of the workshops. Jamie has an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, and has participated in panels and workshops at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, The Writhing Society and Slice Literary Writers’ Conference. Among other things, she has taught fiction workshops at the Emerging Writers Institute at Yale and Brown and at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
I hope you’ll come to Fresh Pond Writers and check us out. If anything, I’ve included a page of writing resources for Boston-based writers of all levels.
All the best.
Tracy Staedter 
An inspired, honest confession about the journey, Tracy. And I am sure the new project will be terrific, and is much needed!
Thanks Josh!