In the beginning of my Write of Passage journey, there was Charlie Bleecker. Writer, Mentor, and fellow parent, Charlie and I became friends after she refused my feedback that she specifically solicited. Besides her aversion to screen sharing slides, and being known as the
This morning I could not wrangle my kids to get out the door for school. George wanted to watch TV, he wanted to play, and he wanted to eat even though he'd already had three breakfasts. I finally announced to the kitchen," That's it! I'm done! We're leaving!" and threw George into the backseat of the car with a fistful of scrambled eggs, strapped Layla into her car seat, and drove them to school. When I got back in my car I looked at my email and saw you wrote your curation piece on me.
Thank you.
I've been telling you for weeks that the Second Person Sermon is brilliant and you need to write about it. I had no idea you would write about me, too.
I'm so happy you included your comment on my Silly Epiphanies piece because that was so funny. And the way you teased it in the beginning and came back to it at the end?? Nicely done.
Also, omg I need to delete Issue 53 when I call my brother-in-law an asshole! Haha it's so cringey!
It's amazing I had no likes on my first post. What a throwback! Re-reading it brought me back to my first cohort in WoP, when it all began.
I really can't believe you did your curation piece on me. I can't stop smiling. I immediately forwarded it to Sam.
We have to make our in-person meetup happen. You and your wife and baby can stay in the Christmas room. I'll bake cookies.
You guys, if you haven’t listened to Charlie’s last few podcast episodes, I think it’s the best stuff she’s done yet. Going to listen a second time and take notes.
Steven -- amazing job with this. This a hall of fame WOP curation piece.
“By treating my essays as confessions, others can borrow in an instant the things that took ages in me to surface.” I’m taking this one with me after reading this awesome piece on Charlie. This was so fun to read! Great work :)
Also thank you for sharing the second person sermon, it was not something I was familiar with before, and probably do a lot 😬
I lost count of how many people I told in my feedback comments to check out Charlie’s Deep Dive on Compression after finding people’s hook in the body of their essay.
Such a delightful read! I can tell that you are a gift to each other.
Love the profile of a fellow Wopper! This could be a cool assignment or writing prompt in the future. We can learn so much by deeply studying others and their progress.
Steven, so much goodness in here. I was captivated by the strong beginning and the set up: “Besides her aversion to screen sharing slides, and being known as the Michael Jordan of writing, Charlie helped me overcome the tempter, the serpent, the dark lord of writing that has plagued people of all beliefs: The Second Person Sermon.”
Whereas Charlie teaches us all so much. Full stop.
This piece is so good Steven. Fun to read and... I wasn't familiar with the Second Person Sermon. As a first-timer, Charlie has been such a kind, fun, knowledgeable presence in the program.
The second sermon needs to be a concept taught in WOP! You always gently called out when I did this in my drafts Steven. Now it’s named I’ll be way more aware of this in the future. Thanks for writing!
what a beautiful tribute to your friendship & growth alongside Charlie anddd an important lesson on the the second person sermon ☝🏼 love where this landed, Steven :)
I love how this turned out Steven. I admire you and Charlie so much as writers and this was a beautiful homage. Especially the balance of highlighting Charlie both as a person and as a writer.
This piece came out so good Steven, mostly because you had the good sense to ignore most of my feedback. : ) I'm moved by your elevation of someone who truly deserves it, your honoring of the friendship, but above all, appreciating your breakdown of the importance of these principles, which I'm learning ever so slowly.
I reeeally like this piece Steven and great coined phrase too—so on point and memorable. You've helped me realise I've been using second-person sermon to hide my egotistical, self-interestedness from people reading my work. That's because I'm terrified of people thinking "Yuck, Harrison's so vain, so self-absorbed."
But I want to know how other writers think about/approach this? Do you have this fear? Do you ever read a writer's work and think "yuck, they're so up their own arse that they're out of touch with everyone else?"
Steven!!!!
This morning I could not wrangle my kids to get out the door for school. George wanted to watch TV, he wanted to play, and he wanted to eat even though he'd already had three breakfasts. I finally announced to the kitchen," That's it! I'm done! We're leaving!" and threw George into the backseat of the car with a fistful of scrambled eggs, strapped Layla into her car seat, and drove them to school. When I got back in my car I looked at my email and saw you wrote your curation piece on me.
Thank you.
I've been telling you for weeks that the Second Person Sermon is brilliant and you need to write about it. I had no idea you would write about me, too.
I'm so happy you included your comment on my Silly Epiphanies piece because that was so funny. And the way you teased it in the beginning and came back to it at the end?? Nicely done.
Also, omg I need to delete Issue 53 when I call my brother-in-law an asshole! Haha it's so cringey!
It's amazing I had no likes on my first post. What a throwback! Re-reading it brought me back to my first cohort in WoP, when it all began.
I really can't believe you did your curation piece on me. I can't stop smiling. I immediately forwarded it to Sam.
We have to make our in-person meetup happen. You and your wife and baby can stay in the Christmas room. I'll bake cookies.
You guys, if you haven’t listened to Charlie’s last few podcast episodes, I think it’s the best stuff she’s done yet. Going to listen a second time and take notes.
Steven -- amazing job with this. This a hall of fame WOP curation piece.
Ahhh thank you, Michael!!
“By treating my essays as confessions, others can borrow in an instant the things that took ages in me to surface.” I’m taking this one with me after reading this awesome piece on Charlie. This was so fun to read! Great work :)
Also thank you for sharing the second person sermon, it was not something I was familiar with before, and probably do a lot 😬
I lost count of how many people I told in my feedback comments to check out Charlie’s Deep Dive on Compression after finding people’s hook in the body of their essay.
Such a delightful read! I can tell that you are a gift to each other.
Love the profile of a fellow Wopper! This could be a cool assignment or writing prompt in the future. We can learn so much by deeply studying others and their progress.
This was a blast to read--about a writer who is always a blast to read.
Steven, so much goodness in here. I was captivated by the strong beginning and the set up: “Besides her aversion to screen sharing slides, and being known as the Michael Jordan of writing, Charlie helped me overcome the tempter, the serpent, the dark lord of writing that has plagued people of all beliefs: The Second Person Sermon.”
Whereas Charlie teaches us all so much. Full stop.
So too, do you. 🙏🙏
This piece is so good Steven. Fun to read and... I wasn't familiar with the Second Person Sermon. As a first-timer, Charlie has been such a kind, fun, knowledgeable presence in the program.
The second sermon needs to be a concept taught in WOP! You always gently called out when I did this in my drafts Steven. Now it’s named I’ll be way more aware of this in the future. Thanks for writing!
what a beautiful tribute to your friendship & growth alongside Charlie anddd an important lesson on the the second person sermon ☝🏼 love where this landed, Steven :)
On the third paragraph and rushing to edit every essay I’ve ever written. 😅. This is so good!
I love how this turned out Steven. I admire you and Charlie so much as writers and this was a beautiful homage. Especially the balance of highlighting Charlie both as a person and as a writer.
So so good.
So fun, accurate and instructional, what a great ode to Charlie!
This made me smile many times. Great work paying homage to a great writer.
This piece came out so good Steven, mostly because you had the good sense to ignore most of my feedback. : ) I'm moved by your elevation of someone who truly deserves it, your honoring of the friendship, but above all, appreciating your breakdown of the importance of these principles, which I'm learning ever so slowly.
I reeeally like this piece Steven and great coined phrase too—so on point and memorable. You've helped me realise I've been using second-person sermon to hide my egotistical, self-interestedness from people reading my work. That's because I'm terrified of people thinking "Yuck, Harrison's so vain, so self-absorbed."
But I want to know how other writers think about/approach this? Do you have this fear? Do you ever read a writer's work and think "yuck, they're so up their own arse that they're out of touch with everyone else?"