Hello!
Welcome to 2 x 40, the quietest club in town.
Well ‘hello there’, she screams, into the void.
Welcome to 2 x 40, an idea I dreamt up while driving my daughter to school. If you’re anything like me, and I’ve been around the sun enough times to know that I’m not special, you probably have a few personal projects that you’re working on right now, or at least, would like to.
The trouble with creative work, however, is it often feels self-indulgent, or unnecessary, or low priority. It can be hard to find the time to do any of it while life is so bloody busy with all the responsibilities we have to our employers, our families, our friends. When you do manage to assign a few idle hours to your personal writing or drawing, even the most seasoned creatives can turn up to the page and wish that their brain was as buzzing as it was when their hands were tied up with something else.
This is where we come in. 2 x 40 was born out of experience. After I spent much of 2023 having cancer treatment, I gave myself permission to prioritise my creative writing, and I have been beavering away at it ever since.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? I am very fortunate that I have been supported in doing this. However, I learnt that it isn’t enough just to permit yourself to make time for your creative work. There will still be times when you feel utterly stuck, lonely, mad, a waster, and there are still more times when you can’t find the time.
Probably the most important thing I have enjoyed over the last year that I didn’t have for the preceding twenty, is a writing buddy. This relationship has helped keep me on task, it has inspired and motivated me to keep going when I felt like giving up, and while I now know that I am on a path with no foreseeable end (aside from my inevitable, eventual demise) I am enjoying ambling along it more as a result.
This is why I want to share this platform with you! I’m not reinventing the wheel, I’m just using the tools I have to hand to build a network of writers and artists. I want to write, and read, with you, so we can be more productive, together. I hope you will join me for this experiment.
The first 2 x 40 is The Double, and it will be held online via Zoom on Thursday 27th March at 7.30pm.
We will spend 2 x 40 minutes (that’s 80 whole minutes!) together in silence, working on whatever is of importance to us. No sharing, no talking (other than a polite hello and goodbye) and a menu of small prompts to use if anyone is stuck for inspiration.
The Double is free to attend but if you can afford to, please consider making a donation of €5. Any income raised will go towards putting on more events in future and perhaps even the cost of a professional Zoom subscription, howzat?!
I invite you to show up, you do the rest.