We started Coastery, a company that makes people write. We want to share how it was born.

There’s No Right Time

Sometimes it just comes in an unexpected moment but you know you have to start it right now. No waiting time, no more preparation. Just execute, as some people in the inter-webs like to say.

I wish writing classes were structured like this —> https://t.co/wEtTpunDpG (and this is how I'd like to teach writing)

— Jason Fried (@jasonfried) February 25, 2015

Or read the right message at the right time, like I did when I saw Jason Friedman’s tweet. Thank you for that!

His tweet gave the final push for us to go online.

An unknown, pretty wise man said:

Remember…
Whoever comes are the right people.
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
Whenever it starts is the right time.
When it’s over, it’s over.

So, Coastery is now online, not state-of-the-art but something to get us started in our journey.

Motivating people to write

Coastery is a space motivating people to write — through interactions, interviews and tools. We don’t care where and what you write as long as you write.

Not only since Julia Cameron introduced morning pages to a wide audience in her book “The Artist’s Way”, do we know that writing has a big effect on your mental space, your health and capacity to think. You become more productive and focus better.

Easy tagline. Expressing a doer mentality.

In fact, only taking the time to write serves as a perfect companion to a morning meditation or in the evening or whenever you feel your world is “collapsing” on you.

In our childhood we wrote diaries or journals. It’s time to review and re-apply what was good for us when we were young. Because it won’t harm us, it will only give us a better understanding of ourselves. And yes, you may enter very dark corners of your inner spiritual world. Let it happen. It’s important for you whole overall well-being.

One text, five versions — our start

As said above, Jason Friedman’s tweet (about a writing class he would like to lead) made us start putting Coastery online. So, the writing class structure he refers to there goes like this:

In every writing assignment you hand in five versions: 3 pages, 1 page, 3 paragraphs, 1 paragraph, 1 sentence.

I don’t care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression. I care about taking three pages and turning it one page. Then from one page into three paragraphs. Then from three paragraphs into one paragraph. And finally, from one paragraph into one perfectly distilled sentence.

Write five versions

Since Coastery is about making people write we put Friedman’s idea into a hands-on exercise which everyone can participate.

Writing Class: Five versions (open in Google Docs)

Writing Class: Five versions (open in Google Docs)
Although he ignored my message (reply to his tweet) that we would like to execute it, we just did it.

People can request access to our shared Google Document (invitation only) and start writing. However, you will need to be logged in into your Google account to make a request.

Feel free to try, write and practice as much as you want. Invite your friends and share it with all people who need that motivation to write or inspiration to move forward in their writing.

We’re happy to get your feedback if you like or don’t like particular things. Write us: info@coastery.com.

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This post is written by Alexander Kluge, Founder of Coastery. He is creating Coastery as a unique writer’s space with only one objective: Making people write_