Writers’ Cafe
online community with support & accountability
Writers’ Cafe is an online community for all writers, offering support, encouragement, and (gentle!) accountability as you work towards your writing goals.
It costs just $10 per month (£8 if you prefer GBP) which gives you full access to our live writing hours, weekly check-ins, writing prompts, feedback on your writing, and more.
Right now, we’ve got a $5 offer for your first month, too … so you can try out the Cafe for the price of a coffee!
Writers’ Cafe
Imagine what you could accomplish with the encouragement of a supportive community of writers …
📗 Begin writing that novel you’ve been dreaming about for years 📗
🖥️ Get going with your blog again, building an audience and platform 🖥️
📝Enter a short story competition with a piece you’re really proud of 📝
⏲️ Carve out writing time to make real progress with a major project ⏲️
💲 Start making money (or bring in more money) as a freelance writer 💲
💡 Experiment with new ideas and explore your creativity 💡
Whatever your writing dreams look like, you’ll be welcomed and supported inside Writers’ Cafe.
What Members Say
Diane Says...
“The biggest benefit of the Writer’s Cafe community is the accountability. It keeps me focused on what I need to be working on. Even though I can list an array of writing projects for what I want to accomplish each week, when I begin a live writing session or even if I use the chatroom to post that I’m writing, I have to choose one item. And I have to focus on that one item for the allotted time.”
Judy Says...
“[The biggest benefit is] being included and considered part of a writing community – whether I feel like it or not.Excellent gentle and yet powerful litmus test of; are you a writer or really want to be one? Encouragement comes from witnessing the struggles and triumphs of others. The variety of personalities and writing style along with [Ali’s] easy manner and clear and honest encouragement make it ‘a home away from home’.”
What’s Included
Weekly Writing Hours
Our weekly writing hours are a chance to sit and focus on your writing alongside others. This is the best way to make time to write within a busy week: by putting it on your calendar.
We aim to pick writing hours that work across a variety of timezones and we vary these from time to time depending on what works for members.
Currently, our usual writing hours are:
- Mondays, 4-5pm UK (11am Eastern)
- Wednesday, 5-6pm UK (noon-1pm Eastern)
- Thursdays, 7-8pm UK (2-3pm Eastern)
- Fridays, 4-5pm Pacific (7-8pm Eastern; midnight-1am UK)
Weekly Writing Prompts
Each week, I give you a new writing prompt (or sometimes more than one to choose from).
The prompts are designed to work for different types of writing, so you can use them for fiction or non-fiction, for short flash pieces or for incorporating into much longer works, and so on.
Weekly Check-Ins
Each week, I post a “check-in” topic in our community, so you can share your progress from the previous week and tell us what you’re planning to work on during the week ahead.
These are great for feeling accountable to others and staying on track, as well as for getting encouragement and support during weeks where things didn’t quite work out.
Opportunities for Feedback
It can be scary to ask for feedback on your work … but it’s also such a fantastic way to grow and to improve your writing fast.
If you’re looking to enter a competition or get something published, feedback really is invaluable. You can post your work any time in our community to get thoughts and suggestions from others.
About Ali
I write both fiction and non-fiction, and I’ve been making a living writing since 2008.
Over the years, I’ve written fiction around all kinds of situations: a full-time job, alongside studies, as a full-time freelancer, and while raising kids (they’re now 10 and 12). I know how hard it can be sometimes to find even a few minutes a day to write.
During my writing journey so far, I’ve had plenty of high points, like signing a book deal for Publishing Ebooks for Dummies to publish.
But I also know the challenges involved in things like getting all the way to “The End” of a draft, wrestling a novel into shape, plucking up the courage to self-publish it or send it out to agents, and struggling to prioritise your writing in the midst of a busy life.
Writers’ Cafe is where I can come alongside you and support you, cheering you on and offering encouragement.
Join Us Now
Writers’ Cafe is just $10/month (or £8 if you prefer GBP)
That covers everything: all the writing hours, prompts, check-ins, etc.
There’s no minimum commitment: you can leave at any time.
If you join during June, your first month is just $5 (£4) … the discount is automatically applied for you.
What Could You Achieve?
Even if you just use one part of the cafe, you could achieve some amazing goals. Here are a few ideas for you…
#1: Write Your Novel Just By Attending Writing Hours
You want to write a novel. You’ve got a rough outline or some ideas, but you haven’t written the first sentence of your first draft yet.
If you join two writing hours each week and do absolutely no other writing, you could have a full 70,000+ word draft of your novel by the end of a year. That’s an entire novel or a good-length non-fiction book.
#2: Post Consistently on Your Blog Just By Checking In Weekly
Would you love to publish a blog post every week, without fail?
If you tell us each week that you’re going to write and publish a post, you share the link with us by the end of the week, and do absolutely nothing else … you’ll have thirteen new posts on your blog after three months, or 52 posts after a year.
#3: Build a Body of Work Just By Using the Weekly Prompts
Maybe you don’t even know what you want to write. You’re just tired of waiting for an idea and writing nothing at all.
If you simply spend 20 minutes each week tackling a writing prompt, that’s 52 short pieces by the end of the year. Those could be flash fiction, scenes that add up to a longer story, poems, reflective pieces for a memoir, or anything else you want.
Q & A
How much does Writers’ Cafe cost?
Writers’ Cafe is $10/month (£8/month if you prefer to pay in GBP). If you join during June 2025, your first month will cost you just $5. You’re not tied into a contract: you can leave at any time.
If you feel the Cafe isn’t right for you, just let me know within your first month and I’ll refund you in full.
Are there any discounts available?
I have a small number of free places available, if you’re a student or on a low income. Drop me an email at ali@aliventures.com if you’d be interested in one of those. (All I ask is that if you find you’re not using Writers’ Cafe for an extended period of time, you let me know so I can give the free place to someone else.)
What types of writers is Writers’ Cafe for?
Writers’ Cafe is primarily aimed at novelists and short story writers … but we also welcome bloggers, freelance writers, poets, memoirists, academics, and anyone else who would like to write – or write more.
You might be totally new to writing or you might have been writing for decades, or something in between. We’d love to have you in the Cafe regardless. 🙂
Do I need to use my legal name for Writers’ Cafe?
No, you can use a pen-name or any name you want. Just set this to whatever you like when you create your profile.
How do I create my profile?
You’ll need to enter your email address and set a password before paying.
After you pay, you’ll see a form to fill out so you can create your profile. You can change any/all of this information at a later point! All you actually need to enter at this stage is a name.
When are the weekly writing hours?
We’ll be changing our weekly writing hours soon, based on what suits the largest number of members. We try to spread out the writing hours across different days and timezones, to work for as many people as possible.
What if I can’t make the writing hours?
There’s a topic inside Writers’ Cafe where you can suggest new writing hour times, at any point.
Some members also use the Chatroom for a personal writing hour: they pop in and post when they’re starting, and say what they’ll be working on, then they come back at the end of their writing session to share how they got on. This is a great tool for accountability!
Do I have to join the writing hours on video?
Nope! Our writing hours take place in a private live room within Circle. I’ll be there on video but if you prefer to have your camera off, that’s totally fine. At the start of each writing hour, you’ll be invited to tell us what you’ll be working on. You don’t have to speak out loud if you prefer not to: there’s a text chat within the live room too.
Occasionally (usually when I’m travelling and have poor internet access) we’ll run the whole writing hour through text chat, in the Writers’ Cafe chatroom.
What if I miss the weekly check-in?
Most of us will miss a week occasionally! There’s no obligation to check in. You can just jump back in the next time you have a chance.
You’ll automatically get an email and in-app notification when I post the check-in topic (each Monday), though you can turn off these notifications if you prefer.
How do I keep up with what’s happening in Writers’ Cafe?
Each Monday, I send out an email to all Writers’ Cafe members (unless you’ve chosen not to receive this). The email includes the weekly writing prompt, reminds you about the check-in thread for the week, highlights the upcoming weekly writing hours, and lets you know about any popular discussions in the group during the past week, so you can easily catch up.
On Thursdays, I send a quick reminder email, with a reminder of the writing hours, check-in thread, etc.
How is Writers’ Cafe Different from the Aliventures Club?
If you’ve been around Aliventures for a while, you’ll know I have a private Facebook group, the Aliventures Club, for anyone who’s bought anything from me (ever!)
The Aliventures Club is still going and you’re more than welcome to join that in addition to Writers’ Cafe. It’s a great place to chat with other writers.
Writers’ Cafe is considerably more in-depth and has lots of involvement from me. It’s run on the Circle platform (much less distracting than Facebook) and gives us lots of extra options like live rooms for the weekly writing hours, email digests of what’s happening in the group, a chatroom, and more.