Summer WriteClub

Online Coaching Programme for 
Productive Writing in Balance with the Rest of Life

Establish strategies for productive writing practices in balance with the rest of your life
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Build and sustain confidence, motivation and strategies to overcome barriers
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Set writing goals that are meaningful, balanced, possible, and satisfying
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Tap into ongoing peer support and learn from the collective wisdom of the group
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Learn more about who you are as a writer

Whether you're an academic, PhD researcher, blogger or creative writer, WriteClub is for anyone wanting to create a productive process of writing and establish a more effective, balanced writing experience.

Facilitated by Will Medd, a former academic who became a professional life coach and who has been working with writers for well over ten years. Will brings an intimate understanding of the experience of writing life, and a commitment to coaching with professionalism, emotional sensitivity, and humour.

The 2026 programme starts on Monday 8th June with a one-day online live coaching writing retreat, followed by three months of group writing and coaching and one-to-one support. Full details of the timetable are below – please take time to look at that (you are not expected to attend it all).

1. Establishing an effective writing practice while getting writing done. The method - WriteHere, RightNow - offers a structure designed to enable you to write and edit effectively while holding up a mirror to your own habits and strategies with a view to establishing an intentional approach that works for you.


2. Sustaining motivation and overcoming barriers (such as self-doubt and ‘the imposter’). In response to the challenges many participants find, group coaching engages with issues around core motivation, overcoming fear and insecurity, finding inherent confidence, and establishing effective intentions and goals.


3. Who are you as a writer? A principle underlying the programme is to develop a better understanding of who you are as a writer, letting go of assumptions of who you are trying to be or thinking you should be. We work with what matters to you, with your strengths, with your vision of what your writing is for.

WriteClub is designed to enable you to write. Will brings experience of coaching writers with academic papers, PhD, novels, blogs, websites, books, and proposals. The programme is about enabling you to create a successful process of writing and establish a more effective, balanced and sustainable approach.

The WriteClub programme has been attended by researchers, lecturers, professors, creative writers, bloggers and PhD researchers, and has benefitted people from all backgrounds, from physicists to creative writers, sociologists to mathematicians, therapists to coaches.

What's involved?

WriteClub has two stages, and is designed to adapt to the needs of participants.

Stage one: WriteHere, RightNow one-day virtual retreat
Monday 8th June 2026

The day’s agenda includes:

• Setting up: Introducing a coaching approach and the relationship between performance, potential and interference; sharing current experience of writing and how participants would like it to be; setting intentions
  
  
• Engagement: Developing an agreement amongst the group for the time together and establishing principles for writing, including: when it’s writing time, write; separate preparing, drafting and crafting; be curious with a beginner’s mind; warm up and warm down
  
  
• Live coaching experiments: Focused writing time paired with reflective exercises that lead to insights about process, challenges, successes, and self. Themes include: setting intentions; realigning vision and purpose; managing fear; being present; seeing mood as perspective; writing with joy, confidence, creativity, focus, and rhythm
  
  
• Developing strategies and commitment: Applying the principles; incorporating new insights; setting the conditions; developing writing habits that sustain momentum; establishing individual goals for the writing period; creating peer-support systems for sharing progress

Stage two: group writing and coaching, fortnightly review and one-to-one coaching, peer support

Following the retreat, participants put into practice their writing strategies and come together regularly to reflect on learning and write:

• Group writing and coaching (via Zoom): A fortnightly group coaching writing session offers a regular opportunity to write together and reflect on progress. We address topics that participants bring – examples have included staying motivated; pacing oneself; maintaining focus; setting reasonable goals; working with co-authors; and managing guilt, anxiety and lethargy.
  
  
• Optional peer support: Participants have the option to support and learn from each other in small self-managed groups. Each group’s members will determine how they want to support each other. Options might include: weekly check-in; regular shared writing time (virtual); and a system of reward and challenge. Some people may want to exchange writing for feedback.
  
  
• Fortnightly review: Every other Friday participants submit, by email, a brief review of progress and plans for the next fortnight, and receive support by email from Will as needed (with the exception of August).
  
  
• One-to-one coaching (via Zoom): Mid-way there will also be opportunity for one 30-minute individual focused coaching conversation, and a 20-minute individual coaching conversation, if needed, at any point in the programme (not during August).

Timetable and Overview (British Summer Time)

Stage one: WriteHere, RightNow one-day virtual retreat

Stage two: group coaching writing sessions

9.30 am - 12.30 pm

June - September

Through this period there will also be:

Peer support: Optional self-managed weekly opportunity to connect with peers. Details to be determined by the group and may include agreed ‘writing times’ to check in with each other.

Fortnightly review: Every other Friday participants submit, by email, a brief review of progress and plans for the next period, and receive support by email as needed (though not through August).

One-to-one calls: Mid-way there will also be opportunity for one 30-minute individual focused coaching conversation and a 20-minute individual coaching conversation, if needed, at any point in the programme (though not during August).

Note
I expect that participants will miss some parts of the programme – indeed I hope you will be getting the balance right and taking a break when needed!

About Will Medd

Indeed, while Will does write and has published in different formats – including two self-coaching books for students - the strategies offered emerged more from the experience of people he has coached, including academics and creative writers.

He is passionate about enabling people to be at their best while balancing work with the rest of life. Will is deeply committed to developing conditions of challenge and support which are conducive to all participants' engagement and learning.

His sessions are regularly scored as ‘excellent’ and comments have included: “respectful, sensitive to needs of the group”, “fantastic, created a really safe atmosphere to expose the issues raised”, “excellent, very patient when dealing with quite a few of us, kept us on track”, and “exceptional – humane, forgiving, thoughtful and able to bring out the best in a diverse group.”

Booking and payments

There are two different ways to register depending on your situation...

1. Self funding individuals

The programme costs are based on a sliding scale of £450 - £850 and we ask you to choose the amount that reflects your circumstances. Pay a £50 deposit now to reserve your place, after which you'll receive a link to pay the balance of your choice. The amount is inclusive of VAT and the deadline for balance payment is 31st May 2026.

For this option, click the 'Register & Pay Deposit' button below.

Or:

2. University funded places

For PhD researchers the price is £750 + VAT, and for university staff members £900 + VAT. These amounts are payable in full and the deadline for payment is 31st May 2026.

Once you've registered, you'll receive an email with information on the different ways you can pay. There will be a link to pay by credit card as well as details of how to request a PO or invoice. 

If you have any queries, please email hello@willmedd.com and we’ll be pleased to help!