Living Material
Structure to turn your ideas into writing that does your creative brilliance justice
★ Break your No Writing streak
★ Learn new writing tools
★ Workshops that get ideas out of your head and onto the page
Does it feel like even though you know you have every desire to write…you’re in this constant boring cycle of putting it off?
Maybe you’ve got notes, screenshots and drafts…but no way to turn them into something real.
You tell yourself that you’re waiting for the big idea, the right moment, or more clarity on where it’s all “going” before you'll let yourself begin.
You’re absolutely knackered from the demands of being a friend, colleague, parent, partner - keeping the house tidy, and all the other roles and responsibilities you carry.
So if it feels like everyone else is pushing on and getting it done, and you’re still hiding out in your avoidance cave…you’re in the right place.
You don’t need strict schedules, hours of undisturbed silence, or to reach ambitious word count goals to have a “real” writing practice. You need simple tools that can fit into your real life.
Living Material is a place where writing stops feeling punitive and starts to feel organic, playful, and FUN.
Even if you don’t have your “big idea” figured out, or you think you’re not ready or “serious enough” - you’ll learn to take scattered scraps of ideas you DO have and work with compost as a metaphor to turn it into new, beautifully rich writing material.
You’ll learn how to make the most of your time (as much or as little as you have!!) - with tools that give you a creative scaffold to refine and grow your writing…so you make real progress every time you sit down to write.
When you’ve got playful prompts, creative footholds, and gentle guidance and structure - your writing (and relationship to writing!) will completely transform.
How would it feel to finally be able to:
Break your Not Writing streak and endless rumination - and make more progress on your writing than you have in maybe months (or years!!).
Stop circling your ideas and finally get them onto the page, and watch your small, regular efforts accumulate into something real.
Build a writing practice that feels easeful, playful, and genuinely yours - and something you actually look forward to
Take exciting steps towards bringing your big writing dream to life, like seeing your name on a book, publishing research, creating a collection of poems, writing regularly on Substack, or submitting for an award or grant
Just like these past attendees…
“For the first time in over a year, I'm excited about writing again.”
“Since the first week of the course, I've been writing more regularly, able to work on both new pieces and return to my ongoing projects. I also understand my own process better, what gets in the way of my writing and how I can make it easier for myself to restart and keep going.” - Flo
“I’ve broken down the belief that I need long stretches of time to do anything worthwhile.”
“I'm writing in a more 'little and often' way, rather than writing intensively and prolifically for a few days and then not writing anything for a month. I’ve learned ideas don't always need instant, intensive action. A lot of the time they need space to breathe and the exercises in Living Material have really taught me that.” - Rebecca
“Writing feels more accessible and not something to be feared. Week after week I’ve proven to myself that I can write and I write more than I realise.”
“I think I'm giving myself permission to ignore the voice in my edit that says that's rubbish, and instead just lets it flow out and be messy and half-baked, because there's always one line that's golden. I think I'm also now noticing things in my day-to-day life that I'll go, that would be really interesting to write about. And that would never have happened before.” - Caroline
If it’s time to feel buzzy and excited about your writing again, and leave with real pages written and a writing practice you love and can sustain…
Let me introduce you to:
Living Material
Six Writing Workshops that give you structure to actually write
You’ll get instant access to six workshops - each designed to move your writing forward.
There’s no falling behind - you can move through them at your own pace, pause + replay as you need, and return to them any time.
Creatively expansive tools and concepts that help you develop, iterate, and build on your ideas
You’ll learn new writing concepts like the Compost Framework and Big Chaotic Doc, and more - that help you collect inspiration, shape ideas, start writing, and sustain your practice.
Writing prompts you can print & take with you
You’ll also receive a PDF of the writing prompts and the readings for each individual workshop, as well as have them all in one place.
This will be your tasty resource you can print out, take with you, and return to over and over.
BONUS
Live Watchalong! 🎬
To celebrate your decision and kick you off, on Sunday 20th September, 6–7.45pm UK time, I'm hosting a live Watchalong where we'll watch the first workshop recording together, start our Big Chaotic Docs, and do a group check-in at the end.
Living Material will provide everything you need to collect, develop, and iterate your ideas - so they can finally take shape.
The six workshops
When you enroll, you’ll get instant access to six, 90 minute workshops. These workshops help you use expansive prompts, exercises and methods from published writers to shape your material into vivid, finished pages: without overthinking.
Week 1: Detail in the Everyday
Together we will read and write ideas of 'the everyday', with the attitudes of writers like Joe Brainard, Georges Perec & others. Work with creative & playful exercises that orientate your curiosity towards the vivid details, rhythms, and themes already hiding in plain sight.
Week 2: Collecting From Life
How to collect from life, so that it becomes second nature. This week asks: which everyday observations are ripe, and what is allowed to be collected? How do we do it when life is already so full? We also explore stealing, and if it's ever okay as writers to steal.
Week 3: Noticing Ourselves
Discover how to find your self, voice and stories from the rich material of your life (even if it doesn't yet feel 'rich'!) Choose whether and how to write into personal lore, memory and attitudes.
Week 4: Writing as Compost
Gather what's been sitting quietly but is full of possibility: like phone notes, fragments, memories and drafts — and work with compost as a metaphor to turn it into new fertile written material. We'll explore simple, invigorating and clever methods used by published writers to organise material into finished works. We'll ready our unique toolkits that allow us to return to writing again and again.
Week 5: Delicious Restriction
Discover & appreciate how creative limits can actually let you focus, refine, and complete your writing — so that it takes form. Stockpile creative, sustainable & lively tools you can use over and over.
Week 6: Finding Your Narrative Themes
Learn to identify the narrative ideas you're circling in your work, and how to shape them into something cohesive. We'll work with exercises for noticing, and experimenting with what's been emerging over the previous weeks – and exactly what you need to keep going.
Each workshop is valuable on its own, and together they build on each other to help you start and sustain a writing practice you love.
It’s time to return to the You who writes.
By the end of these workshops…
You'll shed this feeling of being the person who is meant to write…or used to write…or is planning to write - and become someone who does.
You'll finally see all your ideas in front of you and feel hopeful watching your small and regular efforts accumulate into real progress.
You’ll drop the suffocating idea that “real” writing means having hours of uninterrupted focus and producing perfect pages - and learn how to write in a way that is iterative, expansive, playful, and deeply soul-filling.
By the end, you won't just have pages. You'll officially have a writing practice and the methods to keep it going long after the workshops wrap.
You'll embrace that a Big Creative Life is meant for you and you’ll be on your way to doing the work you know you’re meant to do.
Gorge <3
Join Living Material
*
Join Living Material *
Sign Up Today
Here’s how to join
Living Material Self-Paced
Living Material Self-Paced
All six workshops, writing prompts, and readings. They’re yours to move through at your own pace, and revisit whenever you need.
✓ Six galvanising writing workshops that leave you feeling creatively expanded and crack open your writing
✓ Easeful + expansive writing tools that make writing feel organic, playful, and FUN and speed up your progress.
✓ Simple strategies for making big progress even in small pockets of time & when your big idea doesn’t feel “clear” yet
✓ Walk away with a writing practice you can sustain, finished pages, and exciting progress on your big brilliant ideas
£499 (or 3x payments of £166.33)
Living Material 1:1
Includes everything inside Self-Paced, plus hands-on 1:1 writing support and accountability from me (Stevie!) for 6 weeks.
You’ll have all my attention and support to untangle your ideas, talk about what’s been holding you back, and build your unique toolkit that allows you to return to writing again and again.
This is perfect for the writer who wants a full jumpstart for their writing and knows they’d benefit from hands-on support, accountability, and personalised feedback to make even more progress.
✓ Your pick of start dates in October / November
✓ One 1:1 welcome call to lay groundwork and goals
✓ Weekly check-ins to keep you moving and building a writing practice that works for you + your unique brain and goals
✓ One mid-way submission of your writing to receive detailed feedback on your writing
✓ All support is async so you can make the most of it - even if life feels full
£1,299 (or 3x payments of £433)
What previous participants say:
“I got so much out of Living Material. I was really struck by how connected I felt and how easily I became immersed in the prompts. Stevie is so great at what she does, and I’m so thankful for the boost of inspiration and motivation.”
“I LOVED the all-inclusive, expansive nature of the texts/media you chose for us to consider and respond to. From podcasts to songs, and writers from Perec to Goldberg to Heti, all the excerpts were unusual, really well chosen, and sparked a new train of thought for me.”
“I normally work across lots of notebooks and lots of notes in the notes app. It’s so easy to feel so overwhelmed by it all. But since you introduced your concept of ‘Big Chaos Document’, I’ve started my own big messy document – and it’s been going really well for me. You’ve been a big inspiration and enabler of creativity to me. Thank you!”
About your host
Hi, hello, that's me, Stevie Mackenzie-Smith. As a writer, artist and accredited facilitator, I know that the right environment (warm, unpretentious and creatively alive) leads to brilliant – and sometimes surprising! – creative progress.
I've designed Living Material to give fellow writers what so many of us need: gentle structure, delicious source material to fuel us, accountability and genuine connection & support.
I'm a skilled facilitator, and draw on my experience as a coach to support creative progress that feels both stretchy and actually possible.
People I've supported have kickstarted a regular practice of publishing on Substack, been featured in major publications, and have secured grants and prizes for their work.
If you’re ready for writing to feel wildly playful and productive again, I can’t wait to support you.
Living Material - FAQs
-
Living Material is for anyone who already has a connection to writing. You don't need to identify as a 'real writer' or have a regular writing practice. But you know writing is something you have a deep yearning for and you're ready to do more of it. Living Material has been loved & enjoyed by a range of people including academics, creatives, journalists, researchers, authors, screenplay writers, poets, artists and those in completely ‘unrelated’ professional fields.
-
Yes - you’ve absolutely got more than you think! Because material isn't just polished drafts. It's phone notes, half-finished documents, memories, and things you've noticed but never written down. Living Material shows you where to look and how to start using what's already there.
You don't need total clarity on your “big idea” before you begin. Living Material is built on the idea that you write your way into clarity, not think your way into it. With this process, you can expect your big idea and themes will emerge through the process. -
Living Material isn't a course you need to sit and carefully study or do “perfectly” to be able to benefit from. Instead, it’s your writers toolbox you can reach into whenever you need it.
I’ve designed it so there's no such thing as falling behind and there's no right or wrong speed to move through it. It's a new way of moving through the world as a writer, and gives you tools you can use over and over to sustain your practice.
However if you do want a deeper layer of accountability - I recommend booking in for Living Material 1:1 because that’s exactly what it’s there for. <3
-
Self-Paced gives you full access to all six workshops, prompts and readings, to move through in your own time. 1:1 includes all workshops, plus hands-on 1:1 support with Stevie - including a welcome call, weekly check-ins, and personalised feedback on your writing, practice, and progress for extra guidance and accountability along the way. Send me a DM on Instagram if you'd like to chat about whether 1:1 is perfect for you!
-
Yes. Everything is hosted in Circle, so the curriculum is all in one place and ready for you to return to. Regardless if you choose Living Material Self-Paced or Living Material 1:1 - once you’re in, the workshops are yours to return to whenever you need a creative reset.
Get ready to have the words come pouring out -
no matter how long your Not Writing streak has been
From stuck for ages to writing 1500 words in a single day
"I haven't been able to get stuck into any 'serious' writing for what feels like an age, but today I decided to pick up a novel idea I'd started months ago and just play with it. Well, tell you what, I've bloody written 1500 words today which is masses for me. And it's been FUN."
From feeling ‘rusty’ to seeing inspiration everywhere
“I have been getting stuck quite a bit, and even though I am a hoarder of all sorts of records (I take a lot of photos, scribble a lot, journal, keep a lot of tickets, receipts etc) I didn't realise how easily that can fuel my writing. It's like realising that just by living your life you have so much interesting stuff to pour into your writing.” - David
From waiting to know enough - to finally starting and making exciting progress
“I've become really comfortable with being a 'learner' and using that as an excuse not to complete anything or hit publish or pitch. But actually, I see that I have loads to say and that I don't need to know everything about everything before I write about it. LM has given me a new confidence about my opinions and ideas which I'm really grateful for.” - Rebecca
If you've been telling yourself it's time to return
to your writing, this is it!
Don’t let more months (or years!!) go by where you let your best ideas circle in your head instead of getting them on the page.
The way Living Material is set up, I can promise you're not going to do this wrong. You're not going to fall behind. And you won't waste it. What you’ll finally do - is write.
And it's going to feel so much more easeful than you think.
Six workshops. New writing habits that feel FUN. A practice that sticks!
It’s all yours when you sign up today. <3