Write for The Cure for Sleep on Substack...
welcome information
“Shadrick wrote The Cure for Sleep to chart her reinvention from shy, small-town outsider to someone stamping their presence on artistic and literary life…and she wants to help others follow in her footsteps.” The IPaper
Thank you for joining me here. I’m Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep: my story of what it takes (and costs) to wake up and make a more creative life – even as I remained a wife and mother in a small town.
Here’s where you can start to turn your own creative dreams into reality by finding like-minds, discovering life-changing stories, and - importantly - daring to share your own true tales.
Read on to learn more about what’s on offer and how to take part…
“A sublimely written account of refusing to be defined by social constructs and embracing life-enhancing change, The Cure for Sleep is a poignant and inspiring slice of literary memoir.” A Waterstones Non-Fiction Book for 2022
what to expect
The Cure for Sleep on Substack is a three-season archive of writing prompts based on themes from my acclaimed memoir that were sent out as monthly posts between 2021 & 2023. Stories collected in that time were all curated over on thecureforsleep.com - and it’s a wonderful archive to explore if you want to get a sense of the huge range of subjects, styles and voices that have constellated around the prompts.
In 2024 and beyond there will only be occasional posts, notes and threads from me here (and you can read why in my ‘last post’, A Tender Thing). However, all the prompts from Seasons One to Three remain open for your story submissions. Feel free to contribute your tales without any pressure of deadlines. I give feedback on each piece you submit and my usual response day is now the first Wednesday of each month.
getting started
Use the Your Stories section to begin exploring hundreds of short true soul stories already contributed by writers for our community.
Say hello and find out more about your fellow project members.
Dive deep into the craft of writing and what it takes to build a creative life by reading through the Q&As on my archived Ask Me Anything thread (closed this season to new comments, but full of rich material).
If you arrived at this project via a recommendation but don’t know already know my work, find out more about my background and book in the Tanya’s Story section.
You can also find links to my interviews, podcasts, essays and art projects in the Resources section.
how to become a writer for the project
Each prompt in the archive takes a story from the book, inviting you to tell me one in return on that theme from your own life.
To take part, simply use the comments field on the post you’re responding to, sharing a reflection, memory or true tale of up to 300 words.
All themes stay open for your story submissions: this helps the project remain accessible to those with health, caring or other time constraints.
You can write for just one of the themes - or all of them.
IMPORTANT: Please read the contributor guidelines before you submit your first piece to this project. I can only engage with submissions that show an understanding of the criteria for inclusion.
“I finished this wonderful book with tears in my eyes. A book about daring to be, daring to head out, to encounter truths and to understand what place desire must have and must not have in a life. It is beautifully written, both careful and passionate, both slight and strong in its gestures like the best of art, and astonishingly, heartrendingly open. Intensity, beauty, subtlety, pain and courage – all are here” Adam Nicolson, author of The Making of Poetry
recommendations
“A beautiful participative community created by writer Tanya Shadrick as an encouragement to others to express themselves. Regular writing prompts based on Tanya's astonishing book The Cure for Sleep”
“We loved Tanya's book and she was a guest on our show. She's an insightful and thoughtful writer”
“A brilliantly welcoming writing community contributing work in response to thoughtful prompts by author Tanya Shadrick.”
by Lulah Ellender“Profound insights into making life more meaningful.”
The Cure For Sleep community is an 'Encouragement'. It is a safe space to test out your words and emotions as a writer, knowing there is heartfelt, generous, helping-hand mentoring from Tanya, of course, but also from the wonderful collection of talented writers whose words illuminate the themes. At the heart of it all is Tanya Shadrick, writer of astonishing words, a human key to unlock your emotions through exposure to hers. There's a warmth in every thread of comments, heart too, humanness aplenty. It is remarkable to find it all in one place in an online community. It is a space to treasure. Inside it, your words will be treasured. You can entrust them to this space, safe in that knowledge.
Hope this is the right place to post about "Faith" Tanya, if not apologies:
When it comes to faith, I believe in “Me”. Not always admittedly. Sometimes I don’t think I’ll ever achieve anything. This is usually because I’m not in control of my own decisions. The Local Authority, the Department for work and pensions, Westminster City Council Adult Social Services all have a massive influence over my day to day living and often invariably do things that are not in my interest - which is ironic, as that is their sole raison d’etre.
But a constant belief in my ability to take on any challenge, overcome any obstacle and win at any war of attrition has served me well over the years.
Take this morning as a classic example, I’m training to race in the world famous Peter Pan Swimming Race in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. I’ve been training and acclimatising to the temperatures since May of this year. It’s been a lifetime ambition, at least from first seeing it on the news as a child growing up in South Wales.
I woke up to hear the sound of torrential rain pounding down outside my sofa-surf location in Essex, I could have easily said sod it and quit then. That decision was made even easier when I picked up my towel and discovered it still drenched from its wash last night. When the Elizabeth Line shut down at Farringdon and added another 30 minutes to my journey, I could’ve turned back - I didn’t.
I was going to be late, but too late? Who knew, so I kept going.
Thankfully, I made the last race, got into the water and finished so close to my competitors that I’m not sure if I made the top three or not.
I didn’t care though, I believed in myself, raced, and that’s all that mattered.