119: January – Writing for Joy, Not Publication

The Cru gathers for their annual Christmas retreat a little later than usual (although, as our generous host, Spliff, was keen to point out- the Christmas Season ends with the Epiphany, and we're under the wire with that one!) From the cozy chaos of the Christmas Cabin, we talked about writing just for the fun of it—no publishing pressure, no perfectionism—plus Lord of the Rings Risk, cinnamon rolls, and the joy of staying up until 3 a.m. for your own reasons, not because of a toddler.After that, we shared first‑draft stories inspired by January, a month of new beginnings, frosty names, and revolutionary zeal.Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!  Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do. Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.