Introducing The Writers Happiness Movement!

Imagine a world where happiness, kindness, equity and the arts not only matter but also build the foundation for everything else—including finances. Author Lori R. Snyder is building that world. 

The Writers Happiness Movement is rooted in the beliefs that kindness and equity matter; that the written word is one of the most powerful ways to promote courage, empathy, and ferocity of the heart; and that we, as writers and humans, have the power to build a world where every single person is supported in their own creativity.

The goal of the movement is to create more happiness for every writer while making the world a better place for all writers. It does this partly through free happiness tools for writers such as online retreats, yoga and meditation for writers, writing salons, and more, all of which are designed to help writers access more joy, writing time, and spaciousness for and around their writing life. The movement also provides financial support in the form of microgrants and, down the road, residencies. A foundation of the movement is that it itself is sustained financially through a community-based economic structure meant to shift the relationship between art and money by creating a financial system that centers kindness, equity, and the well-being of humans and the planet. 

The Writers Happiness Movement grew from wanting to live in a world where kindness and creativity matter more than money, and where every writer has access to tools that give them the mental and physical space to write. So Lori’s constructing that space: A space both external and internal, both literal and figurative — for writers of all kinds to access their own creativity, power, courage and happiness. There, writers can not only write the work they want to write, but they can also feel balanced in their whole lives and selves.

We’re delighted to feature this interview with Lori!

What does the “happiness” in Writers Happiness Movement refer to? 

 

“Happiness” is such a strange word in our language because we use it for everything without much room for nuance. Here’s my shorthand: Think of happiness as the deepest thing you want more of in your life, the thing that underlies all other wants. Maybe you call it peace, maybe contentment, maybe understanding. Whatever that is for you is what I hope the Writers Happiness Movement helps you cultivate, because the more we have that, the more we are able to write whatever it is only we can write. 

What is your background as a writer, and how did it lead you to starting Writers Happiness Movement?

I’ve been writing my whole life in one way or another, but I didn’t decide I wanted to write “for real” until I was in my late 20s … and then it took me a very, verrrrry long time to write a book that actually got published. I was working full time or more through all of this, and at some point, I realized that what I needed was the time to write — not more conferences or classes, but TIME. That led to me creating the Splendid Mola retreats for writers, which offer distraction-free writing time with a yoga chaser, which led to me wanting to figure out how to offer that experience to all writers regardless of their income or financial situation. Eventually, that led to the Writers Happiness Movement.

What are your goals for Writers Happiness Movement? What steps are you taking to execute those goals?

The goal of the movement is to create more happiness for every writer while making the world a better place for all writers — and also to create a new financial system that changes the relationship between art and money. I’d also love for the movement to give other people a template for how to create their own [fill in the blank] happiness movement!

One of the big goals down the road is to be able to build retirement homes and residencies for writers that are paid for completely by the Writers Happiness Movement, including giving writers a stipend that covers lost wages when they take time off to write. I also hope to be able to offer large-scale grants at some point. With this in mind, I’m aiming for 100,000 patrons in the next five years, writers who want to support this vision at $5/month. Imagine what we could build with that, how much we could help writers everywhere! It’s a lofty goal, but I think it’s attainable. 

Can you speak a little more on that economic structure you mentioned?

Yes! The economic structure is a fundamental part of the Writers Happiness Movement. It was important to me to finance everything in a way that was itself rooted in the values of the movement. 

Here’s how it works: Everything is free for everyone, patron or not. Anyone who would like to support the vision of the Writers Happiness Movement and is in a position to do so can become a patron at $5/month or throw some money in the tip jar. Five dollars a month is the only option very purposely; it’s part of the philosophy of the Writers Happiness Movement that patronage be as affordable and inclusive as possible. It is small enough that it might be do-able for some of us, but big enough that it will add up quickly.

I also kind of dig the idea of no hierarchy even here, although people can (and do) easily change their patronage to be more or less. 

These funds go to build and manage everything the Writers Happiness Movement offers. As a note, I do fully intend to pay myself well as the patronage grows. It’s the only way I can devote the time this needs to really work. The contrarian in me also wants to prove that it is possible to make the world better and also support yourself and your family. The belief that those things have to be mutually exclusive is, in my opinion, part of the problem. 

What are the microgrants Writers Happiness Movement provides and how are those funded?

The microgrants are one of my favorite parts of Writers Happiness! They are tiny, no-strings-attached, $25 grants that are intended to cheer a writer on. Anyone can nominate someone for a microgrant: The only requirements are that the nominee is a writer of any kind (published or not) and that the person nominating them thinks they are amazing. Two microgrants are awarded each month. The recipient receives a beautiful card in the mail with $25 cash and a note from the friend who nominated them about why the friend thinks they are amazing. Like everything in Writers Happiness, these are funded by patrons. As the patronage grows, so will the size of these grants.

 How do people’s financial obligations damage or constrict art-making?

This is a big one. Right now, people who don’t have money have a much harder time creating art of any kind, let alone making it their main focus. 

Our culture doesn’t support artists financially for the most part, and when it does, it’s usually only once someone has already spent all that time creating something. It’s pretty rare that anyone says, “Hey, you have amazing creative potential! I’m going to pay you a living wage for five years while you explore that!” This leads to so many people giving up out of sheer exhaustion and lack of resources, and we end up with a large portion of the art we see coming from people of a certain socio-economic class. 

As a note, I don’t dislike money. What I dislike is how much it determines who gets heard, who gets helped, and who gets to feel safe and happy. Too often money creates hierarchy where there should be community, and too often it isolates voices and talents that are outside the current or historical group in power.

Many people are of the mindset that the best art comes from anger and pain. What’s the relationship between happiness and art? 

Happiness definitely gets a bad rap in the creative community! And I want to be clear that good art can come from anywhere and any emotion. We need all of it, all the emotions, because this is how we connect, how we grow in empathy, how we feel less alone. You do not have to be happy to create. 

When I think about true happiness, I think about each of us stepping into the part of ourselves that is wild and free, unencumbered by the labels or roles that we’ve given ourselves or that others put upon us. That sense of freedom, of being who we truly are, often allows for such profound creativity and art. On a more scientific side, there have now also been several studies that show how positive, energetic states lead to innovation and creativity. For me, this sounds a lot like happiness!

How does our culture’s view of happiness damage us? 

I think we just don’t understand it very well! We tend to believe that happiness is a result of something we do or buy. It’s a consumer-based view of happiness, which is damaging and exhausting. It keeps us too busy chasing after the things we’re told to want (or the money to get those things) that we don’t have any energy left over to stop and figure out who we really are or what really needs our attention. 

I recently heard this referred to as “dual happiness,” meaning the kind of fleeting happiness that is the opposite of sadness or pain. That’s the happiness our culture tends to look for, rather than a true happiness that encompasses all of it.

But true happiness isn’t dependent on outside validation or buying something other than food and shelter, so it’s a harder sell (har har). True happiness is simply a state of being, a deep and abiding sense of kindness, of compassion, of purpose, and of worth. It doesn’t feed into greed or fear. It’s hard to exploit or control. It is its own revolution. With this in mind, happiness doesn’t just equal more creativity; happiness equals power.

What is your definition of happiness?

For me, true happiness is the ability to stay connected to our own hearts and spirits and to be able to recognize the beauty of the world while still recognizing what needs to change and why, and working toward that.  

Please do not think that any of this means you have to be cheerful 24/7. Not at all. True happiness doesn’t mean we never feel sadness, grief, fear, anger, rage, loss or any other emotion that is part of life. For many of us right now, these are truly hard times, with far too much blatant cruelty in the world. It’s important to remember that true happiness doesn’t pretend this isn’t so. True happiness is, rather, a state of knowing that there is beauty and joy in the face of it all, and then actively letting that beauty and joy be accessible. It’s about feeling the luminosity of life regardless of what else is happening.

This kind of happiness exists deeper than anything external. It’s the baseline from which we move, an understanding of joy and gratitude and love paired hand-in-hand with an understanding of sorrow and pain and the suckier things in life. It allows us to show up for all of it while still staying filled with, and rooted in, love and joy and kindness. It reminds us what we’re capable of. It not only lifts us up; it gives us the strength to lift others up, too. And, as writers, it lets us create our very best work.

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About Lori R. Snyder

Lori R. Snyder is an author, teacher, yoga instructor, and speaker who has always been enthralled with the places where creativity, science, ethics and joy intersect. This has taken her through many careers and fields of study: She has been a marine biologist, an outdoor educator, a dancer, a fourth-grade teacher and a freelance book editor. Since 2015, she has run retreats for writers that offer distraction-free writing time with a yoga chaser, which were the inspiration for the Writers Happiness Movement. Her middle grade fantasy, “The Circus at the End of the Sea,” is a love letter to Venice, California, magic, and being fully alive, and her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is also a big believer in idealism and the ferocity of the human heart, and is the world’s best cheerleader for anyone following their dream or trying to change the world.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing