Keep It Going! & What’s Next
by Brooke Warner
For the many of you who participated in JanYourStory last month, thank you and congratulations! We ended the month with a party, where people shared their word count achievements and experience of writing in community and getting the work done!
We were most moved by the writers who shared that having this space to write, and doing the writing in community, was transformative and life-changing. Finding a space that holds you changes everything. It can support you to go from saying you want to write to actually doing it.
Since it’s the first week of February, we’re dedicating this newsletter to Keeping It Going and What’s Next, and though we’ll have to wait eleven months for JanYourStory 2027, we have a lot of exciting things for writers for the rest of 2026.
If you missed the party and want to see the recording, and want to be inspired by the sharing that happened, you can watch it in the Community in the JanYourStory space under RECORDING: Keep It Going party!
Keep It Going!
Join us on Wednesday, Feb 4, at 11am PT/2pm ET for Keep the Momentum Going via Zoom. This is free to anyone; just create an account (free) to join us.
We’ll discuss:
• building habits
• accountability
• structures to support you with your goals
• new ways into your writing
• and more
Then on Wednesday, Feb 11, at 11am PT/2pm ET, also free, join us for All About Revision. This will be structured as a class where we (Brooke & Grant) will walk you through your next steps and possibilities if you’ve reached the revision stage. And if you’re here, congratulations! We know a lot of people used JanYourStory to finish manuscripts-in-progress. Thrilling!
What’s Next?
Many Memoir Nation citizens and writers have asked us to put all in one place what is happening on the paid tier, so we’re doing that here. We want to reiterate that there will always be a robust free space at Memoir Nation, and we’re also building out our Path #3 level with more and more options for your $299/year membership.
On our Path #1 FREE LEVEL, you:
✓ have access to the Community, where you can post and share and connect
✓ can join a small private group with up to eight other writers
✓ receive our monthly newsletter
✓ get 2 PDF downloads (beautifully designed, we must add): "Crafting Your Memoir" and “2026 Memoir Writing Road Map” to support you with your writing and your writing goals
✓ will be invited to free events and get-togethers over the course of the year
✓ are welcome back to JanYourStory 2027 in all its glory
On our Path #3 PAID LEVEL, you get:
✓ Weekly Newsletter
✓ Substack subscription
✓ All monthly classes + access to recordings of past classes
✓ Biweekly Show Up & Write accountability sessions with Brooke and/or Grant!
✓ Monthly Book Club (starting in February with Belle Burden’s Strangers)
✓ Quarterly Writing About Other People support group with Sara Roahen
✓ Quarterly Mining the Depths Writing circle with Ronit Plank (of the Let’s Talk Memoir podcast)
✓ Quarterly Generative Writing group with Grant Faulkner
✓ Quarterly Craft Corner sessions with Brooke Warner
We’re proud of these offerings, and excited about the partnerships we’re forging with people like Sara and Ronit who are memoir teachers and editors and bringing their expertise to Memoir Nation to support all of you.
And let’s not forget to spotlight who’s teaching for us in our monthly classes between now and September. All of these classes come with Path #3.
And Let’s Not Forget About Classes
We continue to expand our offerings!
Agent Alia Habib, who has been blowing up on Substack and whose new book, Take It from Me, is just out and is fabulous!
Sue William Silverman is the author of four memoirs (Love Sick, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, and How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences), all of them difficult subject matters which she manages to deliver with such beauty and care.
Mark Nepo, best-selling author of The Book of Awakening, who’s been called a spiritual voice for our times and who happens to know a lot about self-expression and the power of personal writing.
Marketing expert Fauzia Burke, who runs a publicity and marketing firm out of San Diego and specializes in memoir.
Marya Hornbacher, author of two best-selling memoirs, Wasted and Madness.
Victoria Chang, acclaimed for many amazing books, including With My Back to the World, OBIT, and Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief.
Next Class - Alia Hanna Habib
on February 16
An Inspirational Quote
“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”
—Cheryl Strayed
A Memoir Prompt
Write down one thing you want to continue doing, one thing you will start doing, and one thing that you will stop doing as we come into this next season of our writing commitment.
Weekly Question
Answer this in the Community.
What is ONE next step that you’re committing to?
Name it. Claim it.
Podcast: #ReadingAfrica
A Panel with Sahra Noor, Joanne Bloch,
Colleen Higgs, and Patrice Nganang
This week Memoir Nation has the privilege of elevating the voices of four African-born authors who were part of a panel conversation with Brooke back in December. This was part of #ReadingAfricaWeek, a global reading celebration in which individuals and organizations share African books, create booklists, hold talks or panels, and spotlight writers. You can find out more at https://www.catalystpress.org, and we’ve curated a list for you as part of our own challenge this week to choose and read one African author (at least) in 2026: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/88198.Top_50_books_by_African_Authors_you_should_read. Thanks for listening and celebrating these authors with us this week.
