Confused? Here’s What You Need to Know about SDW
What Even Is Spiritual Direction for Writers?
So many people offer so many products and services for writers. It can be confusing keeping track of everything, so we want to make sure you know what we offer here at Spiritual Direction for Writers.
Spiritual Direction for Writers™ provides nourishing co-writing sessions, retreats, courses, Solo Writing Retreat Guides, and more for writers from Charlotte Donlon and our SDW partners. We help you have the writing life you want.
Free Daily Nourishment Email from Charlotte Donlon, Lauren Winner, and SDW Guest Contributors. Learn more and subscribe here.
SDW Membership (currently $15/month) includes SDW Co-Writing Sessions, SDW Solo Writing Retreat Guides, SDW Course, exclusive weekly(ish) writing life updates from Charlotte, and exclusive Read, Write, and Pray resources. New resources drop monthly.
Yes. This is a great price. Because we know writers subscribe to so many things we want to keep our offerings affordable! Learn more and join here.
One-on-One Spiritual Direction for Writers with Charlotte Donlon or Lauren Winner. Charlotte and Lauren currently have space for a few new clients. Please email Charlotte at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com if you’re interested in One-on-One Spiritual Direction for Writers. We can set up a introductory call, describe our method, and answer any questions you have.
Wait. Is SDW for me? What’s Your Definition of a “Real Writer?”
REAL WRITERS are people who write in any capacity.
REAL WRITERS do one or more of the following:
▪️post on social media
▪️write letters to pen pals or members of Congress
▪️send group emails to family members or friends or both
▪️write papers for high school or college or graduate school
▪️journal daily or some days or rarely
▪️make to-do lists and to-read lists and to-buy lists
▪️write essays or short stories or poems
▪️hope to prepare a manuscript to send to agents and publishers
▪️and/or publish a new book every two years
Charlotte and Spiritual Direction for Writers pretty much believe we’re all writers. We all inhabit various stages of the writing life at different points along the writing journey.
We don’t have to make this more complicated than it is.
Want More?
What is Spiritual Direction for Writers?
Read and Listen to A Writer’s Diary
Sample SDW Daily Nourishment Email from Lauren Winner
A Bunch of SDW Testimonials (Coming Soon!)
Why is Charlotte Donlon qualified to do all of this?
Charlotte earned an MFA in Creative Writing in 2018, so she is qualified to teach creative writing at the college and graduate levels. Charlotte has taught writing workshops, classes, and worked one-on-one with writing clients since 2018. She has taught and/or coached 200+ writers in Birmingham and online.
Charlotte began her training to become a Spiritual Director in 2018 and received her Spiritual Direction Certificate in 2020. Charlotte has met with spiritual direction clients and led retreats since 2018. Her total spiritual direction one-on-one and retreat client base clocks in at around 400 people, and that number contines to grow with every Four-Hour Retreat, etc.
In an effort to put most of her work and interests into one lane, Charlotte made the switch to do spiritual direction primarily with writers in January 2021. At least 85% of her clients were writers from the beginning of her practice since 2018.
Charlotte began writing seriously in 2012. Her first piece was published online in 2013. Dozens of other essays and articles have been published since.
Charlotte’s first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other, was published by Broadleaf Books in 2020.
Charlotte’s next book, Spiritual Direction for Writers, will be published by Eerdmans in 2024 or 2025.
See Charlotte’s full bio here.
Why is Spiritual Direction for Writers™ Trademarked?
After a couple of different business names and websites (shoutout to Our Faith in Writing and Writing Life Spiritual Direction!) for Charlotte’s Spiritual Direction for Writers work, Charlotte launched the Spiritual Direction for Writers™ website and new business name on May 27, 2022. She also began the Trademark process to trademark Spiritual Direction for Writers™, its services, products, and methods.
No one offered Spiritual Direction for Writers™ products and services before Charlotte, so she wanted to protect her intellectual property, as well as the quality and high standards for all Spiritual Direction for Writers offerings. Other people are welcome to offer similar products and services, but they can’t call it “spiritual direction for writers.” The Trademark process is moving along. The full process should be complete in the next couple of months.
Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. She’s currently writing her next book, Spiritual Direction for Writers, which will be published by Eerdmans in 2024.