Sonder
Studio
The writing village for seriously rebellious storytellers.
A rebellion for writers who keep almost finishing things.
Take messy action.
Bring the half-page you’re slightly embarrassed about and whatever block you’ve been staring at since March 2016.
We’ll provide the accountability you need to fall back in love with your creative process.
We’re an online, private community built by real human writers, for real human writers.
We’re the social escape far, far away from algorithms, ads, and AI slop.
What They’re
Writing
Bad news:
Your future bestseller doesn’t count yet.
Rude, we know. Stick with us a second.
The short story you wrote at university was brilliant enough to knock your professor’s socks off.
The novel you’re saving for when life calms down will probably send readers feral enough to make fan edits about your characters.
Neither of them is on your desk tonight, though.
All that lingers right now is the crippling dread of not being good enough, served with a spiralling perfectionism obsession and laced with a severe case of the “productive procrastinations”.
Thankfully, there is an antidote for your condition: Messy Action!
Some days messy action is an ugly first draft typed on your phone at lunch.
Other days it’s ten minutes in the Candlelight Hour co-writing room on a night when a full hour was never going to happen.
Sometimes it’s posting a rough scene in the Ink & Drop with a note that says “be gentle”.
Keep turning up like that, week after week, and the writing starts to feel like yours again.
Messy action doesn’t mean lazy, sloppy, or undetailed.
Inside the Studio, we take our writing seriously. We just rarely take ourselves seriously.
Somewhere in your house, there's a drawer of first chapters.
Okay, let’s see here:
A screenplay with no third act? Check.
Four versions of the same opening line? Yup.
A notebook bought in a fit of January optimism with eleven pages used?
Was wondering where that got to.
Most of us stop on an ordinary Tuesday because work drains our battery, the house is loud, the cursor keeps blinking, and tomorrow seems like a better plan.
In the end, every tomorrow turns into a year.
Studio Sonder exists for that Tuesday-turned-years-long hiatus.
Three times a week we open a writing room, pop the kettle on, and write together, cameras optional. Come in your dressing gown if you like.
The only rule is that you leave with more words than you arrived with.
“Sonder”
Everyone is living a story as vivid as your own.
John Koenig coined the word sonder in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
It describes the moment you realise that every stranger you pass is living a life as rich, messy and complicated as yours.
It’s the word that stole our founder Demi’s heart the moment she first saw it. A word so potent it whispered a prophecy revealing her true purpose, so she created it.
Every Rebel who walks through the Studio Sonder door is carrying a story only they can tell. Our job is to help each other tell our stories and be there to cheer when we do.
Why you’re a Rebel
A Creative Rebel doesn't wait for someone else to rewrite their story.
Literally. Metaphorically. Philosophically.
Writing a novel around a day job, a family and a brain that won't sit still is a small act of defiance. So we call our members Creative Rebels, half as a joke, but always fully meant.
They write their own sentences, odd bits and all, with no AI ghostwriter tidying them up.
They bring things into existence that never graced our universe before.
Their interpretation of our world might just change how someone else experiences it.
They are alchemists in the truest form.
Above all else, every word they write is a small act of defiance in a world where the war on creativity has long raged.
If that's you, pull up a chair by our Campfire ❤️🔥
Hey, Rebel.
I'm Demi.
I’m a writer. It took a PhD in creative writing for me to believe that finally.
I’ve also taught creative writing at university, built a six-figure copywriting agency from nothing, won a few screenwriting awards, and work as a Creative Strategist at Meta.
But writing to make sense of a world that doesn’t make sense is the page I forever return to.
For most of my life, I collected unfinished projects, half-baked storyworlds, and characters that kept haunting me.
Being diagnosed as ADHD and autistic later in life explained a lot: the half-written drafts, the bursts of brilliant ideas, and the sense of never quite fitting in anywhere.
What got me writing again was other writers. People who made it normal to turn up with something messy, and who noticed when I went missing.
So I built Studio Sonder for the younger version of me. The one who felt lost, unworthy, and took far too long to realise that being a creative alien is the role I was born for.
I’m writing my own fantasy novel in here too, alongside everyone else: 128,000 words in 68 days.
For writers and storytellers
who want to fall back in love
with their creative process.
Not cheat it.
Novels, poems, screenplays, memoirs, essays, song lyrics, Substack posts, the copy you write all day for other people while daydreaming about something that’s yours.
Every kind of writer (yes, the secret ones too). If you write it, you belong here.
And anyone still whispering, "I'm not sure I'm allowed to call myself a writer yet."
You are: That's the first thing we'll tell you.
And no, you don’t need to spend thousands on degrees, or be traditionally published to wear the writer badge with honour.
Signs you might be one of us:
❤️🔥 You’ve tried to sort out your writing routine on your own, and it’s gone quiet again → you’re ready for some company
❤️🔥 Your notes app is bursting with story ideas that never made it onto a page → you need somewhere to actually write them
❤️🔥 You want accountability without the drill-sergeant energy → you’d like structure that feels like friendship
❤️🔥 Competitive, judgemental creative spaces have burned you → you want to belong
Genre, background and credentials don't matter.
Showing up is the only requirement.
Every Rebel starts somewhere
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Your front door. Meet the Rebels, join the conversation and hop on our monthly live call.
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The heart of the village. Live co-writing every week, a monthly theme, a zine made by the whole community, and Rebels who notice when you show up.
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A small, capped group for Rebels taking a big step with a big project, with direction and feedback from Demi.
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Twelve months from blank page to edited manuscript, with live classes, a close-knit cohort and pods walking every step with you.
What we’re about
Creativity is real alchemy.
We help you use your powers.
Focus
Even when life has other plans & the world feels loud
Flow
To help you fall back in love with your creative process
Belong
Because creativity doesn’t have to be a solo expedition
Create
The stories only YOU can tell (that’s true alchemy)
What our Rebels are saying
What keeps Rebels coming back on a rainy Tuesday
Ask anyone who’s been around a while, and you’ll hear about something they finally finished, usually a chapter that had been gathering dust or a draft that finally got an ending.
They almost always mention each other:
The friend from the Candlelight Hour who messages to see how chapter twelve is going, or a Rebel Cafe thread about someone’s plot twist that gets completely out of hand.
Studio Scribbles
Demi’s notes on messy action, craft, and community, plus an honest confession or two from behind the scenes about building a creative business as a solo founder.
read the latest
Frequently Asked Questions
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In the Writers' Lounge.
It's free; it's where you'll meet the village, and you can move into the Studio whenever you're ready.
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Nope. Whether you're published or you've never shown your writing to another human, you're welcome.
Showing up is the only entry requirement.
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As much or as little as you've got.
Ten minutes in a co-writing room counts.
The rhythm is there to catch you when life gets busy.
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£25 per month, rolling monthly, with no minimum term or cancellation fee.
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If you'd like it, yes.
Members share pages, ask for feedback in the Studio, and give it back to others.
It's friendly and peer-to-peer, and always optional.
For structured direction, look at the Residency or the Year of the Novel.
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Then you’d be in good company, because most of us have done exactly that to a gym.
The village runs on people for that reason.
There are live writing rooms every week, and Rebels who’ll notice when you go quiet.
It’s surprisingly hard to ghost someone who’s been saving you a seat.
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Our twelve-month programme takes you from blank page to an edited manuscript, with live classes, a cohort and pods.
It returns in May/June 2027, with places offered first to writers who've spent time in the village.
Join the Lounge and drop Demi a DM to get on the waitlist.
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Yes.
No contracts, no hoops, no guilt trips.
Ready to get messy?
Leave the page blank, or let yourself ruin it.
Your first dose of messy action:
Start free in the Lounge and see how our village feels, or claim your desk in the Studio and join us at the next Writing Room ❤️🔥
