Queer & Affirming Writer’s Collective
I read on Twitter, “As you binge watch your thirteenth entire series or read a book or sleep to music, remember. Remember that in the darkest days when everything stopped, you turned to artists.”
Artists kept us human. Writers kept us sane.
And yet we treat writing like a hobby, something that doesn't count as "real work" until it pays the bills or goes viral.
That's a lie that keeps good work from getting written.
Your ability to put language to the unsaid things, to name what the rest of us are feeling but can't articulate, is not a side project. It's essential. It's how we stay connected to ourselves. It's how we find each other in the dark.
We need you to write. And you need support to do it.
The problem isn't that you don't have the talent.
You do. You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't.
The problem is that writing in isolation is brutal. There's no deadline unless you invent one. No accountability unless you manufacture it. No feedback unless you beg for it from people who don't really get what you're trying to do.
So your work stays in drafts. Your voice stays half-formed. The thing you're supposed to be writing never quite gets written, because everything else is louder and more urgent and doesn't require you to sit with your own doubt for three hours at a time.
Here's what that costs you:
Not just the book or essay or piece that didn't get finished. It costs you the version of yourself that emerges through the writing. The clarity. The voice. The you that exists on the other side of doing the thing you keep saying you're going to do.
You don't just want to create good work.
You want to become good work.
What if you didn't have to do this alone?
The Queer & Affirming Writer's Collective is a weekly live space where your writing stops being something you squeeze into the margins and starts being something you're accountable to, supported in, and witnessed for.
This isn't a workshop where a famous author lectures you on craft while you take notes. This is peer-to-peer, in-the-trenches accountability with other queer and affirming writers who are doing the same thing you are: showing up, wrestling with the blank page and trying to build something worth reading.
Here's what happens in this group:
Weekly live Zoom calls (recorded if you can't make it) where we show up for each other's writing journey, not just the finished product
Real feedback on your work - not "great job!" comments from your mom but the kind of honest, generous response that makes your writing sharper
Shared accountability - when you tell the group what you're working on, it stops being theoretical. It becomes real.
Mike facilitates the dialogue - drawing from years of ministry, teaching and his own practice as a writer building in public to 100K+ people
A space where queer and deconstructing voices are centered - you won't have to translate your experience or soften your truth to fit someone else's comfort level
This is where the isolation stops. This is where your writing becomes part of something bigger than just you and the cursor blinking on your screen at 11pm.
This group is for you if:
You've been "going to write that thing" for six months (or six years) and it's still not done
You have work you're proud of but no one to share it with who actually understands what you're trying to do
You're queer, deconstructing, post-evangelical, or adjacent — and tired of writing for audiences who don't get you
You want to take your writing seriously but you're doing it without a degree, without an MFA, without anyone telling you you're allowed
You need structure, accountability, and actual humans who will notice if you disappear for three weeks
You're ready to stop waiting for permission and start building the body of work you're supposed to leave behind
Why this costs money (and why that matters)
This is a paid, application-based group. Membership is $50 every 4 weeks.
We charge because people value what costs them. Free groups are where good intentions go to die. Paid groups are where people show up, do the work, and get the results.
When you invest in your writing, your writing stops being optional. It becomes something you protect. Something you prioritize. Something you actually do instead of just talk about doing.
$50 every four weeks is less than you'd spend on two cocktails at a bar where you talk about the book you're going to write someday.
This is the space where you actually write it.
Let this year be the year you stopped waiting.
The version of you that finishes the thing, publishes the thing, finds your voice and uses it - that person is on the other side of consistent, witnessed, accountable work.
You don't need more time. You need structure. You don't need more inspiration. You need feedback. You don't need permission. You need people.
This is where you find them.
Ready?
Apply below. Tell us where you are as a writer, what you're working on, and what you need from this group. We'll get back to you within 48 hours.
This isn't about being "good enough" yet. This is about being ready to become good enough through the work itself.
If that's you, we're here.
