TELL IT ANYWAY

A 12-week writing adventure with Allie Michelle and Dr. Jeremy Goldberg

For the story you keep almost telling.

January 12 to April 3, 2027

A prompt every weekday, a live Zoom session every Wednesday, two writers who will actually read your work, and on the last night, you’ll read yours out loud.

Are you intrigued? Read on.

Save your spot.

Every hero's journey starts with an inciting incident.

(Here's yours: Twelve weeks, two writers, and a room full of people finally doing the thing.)

Then the hero has to face what they've been avoiding.

(Which, in this case, is likely a blank page and a story you've been circling for years.)

Then comes the part where they come back changed.

(And having written something you'll read out loud on April 1.)

Let’s be honest: You already know what you'd write about.

You're not short on material. You've got the things that happened, the person who left, the year that rearranged you, the jokes only you find funny, and the story you've told at parties but never actually written down.

You've got notes. Voice memos. A folder. Half a poem in your phone from 2:00 a.m. three Octobers ago.

There are countless heartbreaks and various hardships the universe tossed your way.

You have the material to alchemize.

What you don't have is a reason to sit down and write, or maybe you don’t have or want anyone waiting to read it. Or the nerve to find out if it's any good. Or enough overwhelm required for bravery’s birth.

So you stay stuck, and it stays where it is.

Almost told.

We built this for that exact spot.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS?

  • A welcome call on Wednesday, January 7, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific. We meet, you meet each other, we walk through how the twelve weeks work, and answer everything before the first prompt lands. It’ll be recorded, like all sessions, if you can’t make it.

  • A prompt sent every weekday, Monday to Friday, to your phone/inbox. Ten to fifteen minutes to write. Most will be readable, but some are voice notes or short videos from us.

  • A live session every Wednesday, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific, on Zoom. We both lead every single one. Teaching, writing together, reading out loud, answering questions, and in-depth giggling.

  • Every session is recorded and posted in a shared folder, so a missed week is just a missed week and not a reason to quit or despair.

  • A WhatsApp group to join the folks doing this alongside you. Lines you love. Lines you hate. Proof that someone else is also up at 11 p.m. wrestling with one paragraph or verb choice.

  • A live showcase on April 1, where you read what you made, out loud.

That's the gist. What changes is you: from someone who writes occasionally to someone who writes.

Save your spot

What's a normal week like?

  • Monday: a short teaching from one of us, then a prompt. Coffee, ten minutes, done before the day eats you.

  • Tuesday to Thursday: a prompt a day. Some will crack something open. Some will be a dud. That's the practice.

  • Wednesday night: 90 minutes together on Zoom. We teach something, write together in real time, and people read what they made. Nobody has to read. Most people eventually do.

  • Friday: something lighter. Reread your week, find the one line that's actually alive, send it to the group as a voice note.

  • All week: the WhatsApp group, which is equal parts encouragement, delight, swearing, and "is this terrible?"

WHY US AND WHY TOGETHER

We first met at a writing workshop in 2019, stayed in touch online, recorded a couple podcasts together, and then decided to lead a group of eight people across northern Spain on a walking and writing retreat called Poetry and Pilgrimage.

We walked 75 miles, wrote every morning, and watched people share things they'd been carrying for decades.

This is that, without the blisters and bunk beds.

Here's what each of us brings.

Allie is the poet. She'll teach you to find the line within the life, and to trust the image before you explain it. She is wholehearted, effervescent magic, a wandering giggle, and a ferocious defender of the power of the written word.

Jeremy is the behavioral scientist who spent years studying why people don't do what they say they want to do, then wrote a memoir about the story he'd been avoiding most of his life. He'll get you to the page on a Tuesday, unpack the limitations disguised as truth, and nudge you gently towards your inner megaphone.

Permission and structure. Poet and scientist. Heart and head.

A kaleidoscope of synergies.

That's the whole idea.

Also…

MAKE NO MISTAKE: THIS WILL ASK SOMETHING OF YOU.

YOU MIGHT CRY. YOU'LL DEFINITELY WRITE SOMETHING TERRIBLE AND WANT TO QUIT AROUND WEEK SIX. YOU'LL SIT DOWN SOME MORNINGS WITH NOTHING, AND SOME NIGHTS WITH TOO MUCH, AND THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT WHAT COMES OUT WILL BE PRETTY BECAUSE THERE IS NO SHORTCUT AROUND THE PART WHERE YOU TELL THE TRUTH AND FEEL IT PULL THROUGH YOU AND INTO THEM BUT AT THE END OF TWELVE WEEKS, YOU'LL HAVE WRITTEN MORE THAN YOU HAVE IN YEARS, YOU'LL HAVE READ IT OUT LOUD TO PEOPLE WHO GET IT, AND YOU'LL STOP CALLING YOURSELF SOMEONE WHO USED TO WRITE OR WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU WROTE MORE.

SOUNDS FUN, RIGHT?

HOW THE WEEKS WORK

Weeks 1–4: DIG IN: Discover the material. Memory, noticing, the stuff you skip past. You'll write badly on purpose and find out it's a relief. Part archaeological excavation and part purge inventory.

Weeks 5–8: SHAPE UP: Craft and enhance the scene, image, line, structure, the turn. What makes a reader lean in, and what makes them leave. (Inner Circle one-on-one calls happen in here.)

Weeks 9–12: SHARE IT: Revision, reading aloud, and the nerve that takes. Where the work goes next: a Substack, a stage, a collection, a person you've been meaning to send it to.

April 1: The showcase. A live Zoom reading open mic night. Everyone who wants to read gets to read, and nobody has to. We've watched people do this for years. It'll be the best night of the whole thing.

DIG. SHAPE. SHARE. REJOICE.

save your spot

THIS IS FOR YOU IF:

  • You write in your notes app and call it nothing

  • You've said "I should write a book" more than twice

  • You want to write regularly but can't seem to do it alone

  • You want real people, not an algorithm, to read your work

  • You’d love some guidance on how to write more frequently

  • You're carrying something you've never actually put into words

THIS IS NOT FOR YOU IF:

  • You want a published book in twelve weeks. That’s a different job, but we can point you toward people who do it.

  • You want a hard critique workshop. We'll tell you the truth, but not so gruffly.

  • You want somebody to write it for you. This is not a ghostwriter find and seek club.

If you're over 18, you can sign up. All earthlings are welcome.

THERE ARE TWO WAYS FOR YOU TO JOIN US:

THE INNER CIRCLE — 8 SPOTS

$2,450 through October 31 and $2,750 after. Payment plans are available.

Everything in Core, plus:

  • A 60-minute one-on-one call with each of us, between weeks 6 and 8. Each of us, on the call, discussing you and your work.

  • Written feedback on two pieces. Up to 2,500 words each, or up to eight poems per submission. Notes from Allie and notes from Jeremy.

  • An additional separate and private WhatsApp group with other members.

  • First and discounted access to whatever we do next, including future walks.

Only twelve spots available.

Join the inner circle

THE CORE — 30 SPOTS

$795 through October 31 and $895 after. Payment plans are available.

  • A writing prompt every weekday for twelve weeks

  • The live Wednesday Zoom session, every week, led by both Allie and Jeremy

  • All recordings in a shared folder for you to rewatch at your convenience

  • The WhatsApp group to connect, share, and stay accountable

  • The April 1 showcase Open Mic experience

Join the core

NOTE: Payment plans are billed monthly. Need a different arrangement? Email us and we'll sort it out.

THREE SIMPLE NEXT STEPS:

1. Save your spot.

Pick Core or the Inner Circle and grab a seat. You'll get a welcome email the same day, an invitation to the WhatsApp group in early January, and a calendar invite for the welcome call on January 7 and other weekly calls.

2. Get a notebook and clear a window.

Fifteen minutes a day and a free Wednesday night. That's what we're asking you to commit. Decide now where those fifteen minutes live, or get Jeremy to help you - he’s got a PhD in changing behaviors and building healthy habits.

3. Show up on January 7 and start writing.

We meet on the welcome call Wednesday, January 7. The first prompt lands Monday, January 12. The first full session is Wednesday, January 14. By April 1 you'll be reading your own work out loud to a room that's rooting for you.


WHY THIS MATTERS

There's usually a story you’re avoiding. The thing you talk around. The version you've smoothed over so many times you're not sure what's real or true anymore.

Most people keep it that way. It's safer, and the cost is invisible, which is exactly what makes it expensive. But wasting your life is a high price to pay.

Here's what we've watched happen, on the trail and on Zoom: somebody finally sees what’s happening, writes the truer version, speaks it out loud, and then magic happens.

Tears flow. Breaths slow down. Shoulders drop. Giggles erupt.

You don't need a publisher for that kind of shift.

You need twelve weeks, a deadline every weekday, and people who will actually read it.

Creativity takes courage.

What are you made of?

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH US?

[These are from Poetry and Pilgrimage, the writing and walking retreat we led together in Spain in 2026. Paste the four written quotes from that page here — they're about this exact pairing of us, so label them honestly: "— Poetry and Pilgrimage, Spain 2026."]

[JEREMY: email the eight walkers this week and ask one question — "What changed about your writing?" Two or three writing-specific lines will outperform everything else on this page.]

[VIDEO: embed two of the sixteen participant videos. No more than two, and pick the ones that mention writing.]

[ALLIE: any quotes from your workshops or Pen 2 Publish students would sit well here.]


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • January 12 to April 3, 2027, with a welcome call on Wednesday, January 7, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Pacific. Live sessions are every Wednesday, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific, from January 14 to April 1.

  • No, but we hope you are. It's the night the group stops being a list of names. It's recorded either way.

  • Come when you can. Every session is recorded and posted in a shared folder within 24 hours.

  • Yes. Most people who sign up for this feel like frauds on day one. The prompts assume nothing. Neither do we.

  • Ten to fifteen minutes a day, plus 90 minutes on Wednesdays. You can do this around a job, a baby, or a life.

  • You won't be behind, because every prompt stands on its own. Skip a day or a week, and pick up wherever you are.

  • Never. You can read every week or never read at all. Nobody gets put on the spot, including at the showcase.

  • Both, and everything adjacent. Memoir, essay, poems, letters, the thing that doesn't have a name yet. Allie leans poetry and fantasy, Jeremy leans memoir and non-fiction, and the prompts will work for whatever you're writing.

  • Core is the room: prompts, the weekly session, the group, the showcase. The Inner Circle is the room plus our eyes on your actual work — written notes on two pieces and a 60-minute call with each of us.

  • Yep. Three monthly payments at both tiers. If you need a different arrangement, email us.

  • Email us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific on January 18, 2027, the end of week one, and we'll refund you in full, no explanation needed. After that we can't offer refunds, because the seat was held and the group has formed.

  • Maybe. We're not promising it, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.

  • Is it fear you're feeling, or is it aliveness? Those two are famously hard to tell apart. Ask yourself what happens if you're still carrying this story, unwritten, next year.

Anything else? Email us.

Just so we're clear:

This is twelve weeks of showing up, getting honest, writing badly, writing well, being seen and read and heard by people who care, and then finally saying the thing out loud.

You can keep almost telling it. That's a genuine option, and plenty of people take it forever. The story sits where it is, safe and unfinished. Nothing bad happens, but nothing fully alive does either.

Risk is the price of admission we pay for love, and it’s also the cost of true creative expression.

So, yes, you can definitely stay silent.

Or you can spend twelve weeks with a poet, a scientist, and a room full of people (who are also finally doing the thing) cheering for you.

What do you say?

Say it anyway.

Early pricing ends October 31. Enrollment closes December 15.

SAVE YOUR SPOT

WHO'S LEADING THIS?

Allie Michelle

Allie is a poet and fantasy novelist who believes storytelling can build empathy in the world. She's a three-time bestselling author who has performed and taught workshops around the globe, and her newest collection, Don't Wait to Light the Candles, is out with Simon & Schuster. She co-hosts the Easy A podcast, where she talks with artists and storytellers about the line between creativity and mental health, and she's certified in craniosacral therapy, breathwork, meditation, and yoga. She reads a poem like she's handing you something breakable.

Dr. Jeremy Goldberg

Jeremy is a recovering scientist turned life coach, keynote speaker, and spoken word poet who speaks fluent burrito. He spent five years studying how our brains shape our actions and wrote a PhD thesis about it, then spent considerably longer avoiding while writing his second book, a memoir called A Giraffe Named Feelings. He founded Long Distance Love Bombs, gave a TEDx talk about making kindness cool, has recorded 225 podcast episodes, and has led six group walks across Spain.

SOME DELICIOUS FINE PRINT

Tell It Anyway runs January 12 to April 3, 2027, with a welcome call on January 7, 2027. Core is capped at 30 participants; the Inner Circle at 8. Prices are USD. Payment plans are billed monthly; if two consecutive payments are missed, the spot is released to the waitlist. Full refunds are available through January 18, 2027; after that, payments are non-refundable and any remaining installments remain due. Sessions are recorded for participants only and are never shared publicly. You keep all rights to everything you write. Nothing you share in the group, on a call, or in a submission will be quoted publicly without your written permission. Got questions? please email us.