A workshop for writers who feel buried under their own brilliance

If your desk, desktop, or brain currently resembles an overturned library cart, you’re not alone. Research overwhelm isn’t a personal failing—it’s a predictable stage in the meaning-making process. But that doesn’t make it any less miserable to live inside.

From Mess to Masterpiece is a workshop designed to help research-driven writers stop spiraling and start shaping. Instead of forcing productivity systems or color-coding your way out of chaos, we’ll focus on what actually creates clarity: reconnecting with the internal current of your project and learning to listen for the meaning underneath your material. 

Across this practical, thoughtful session, you’ll:

• Understand why research spirals happen—and how to recognize the point where collecting stops helping.
• Identify the early version of your book’s “invisible magnetic river,” the underlying momentum that gives a project shape.
• Learn and use diagnostic tools that reveal what your draft is actually doing (not what you hoped it was doing).
• Practice containment strategies that help you let go of what dilutes your focus.
• Begin to see the architecture of your book emerge—not by force, but by attention.