The Unwriting Café
The only writing circle where nobody writes and everything gets written.
Practicalities
- A shared space around unwriting and unmarketing
- Recurring Zoom sessions
- Facilitator: Youri Hermes
- Options: Casual Café, Craft Café, Client Café
- Fee: depending on your option
When the writer steps aside.
At The Unwriting Café, we don’t “do” the writing. We let it be done through us. This is unwriting: writing rooted in undoing.
As writers, we constantly interrupt ourselves. Is this good enough? Am I inspired? Will anyone care? The moment these kind of questions arrive, it becomes about us. The writer takes center stage.
But here, we don’t motivate the writer or push the writing forward. We leave space, and the writing moves on its own. When our attention shifts toward the writing itself, something transforms. It appears more naturally, more authentically, with less effort.
Why join The Unwriting Café?
Feel supported by peers who write alongside you
See how writing can flow even more joyfully
Enjoy gentle structure without any pressure
What outsiders expect...
- Teaching a "right way" to write
- Turning it into long discussions about writing
- Feeling pressured to share your writing
- Needing to perform or prove your writing
- Following a fixed structure or curriculum
What members experience:
- Celebrating the variety of writing that shows up
- Immersing yourself in the art of unwriting
- Noticing you've been writing all along
- Sensing how writing moves through all of us
- Seeing your writing evolve inside a community
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Visit your favorite café.
Casual Café – sharing space for unwriting
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Freeform Unwriting Space without input (Weekly)
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Open group Chat
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Receive Unwriting-by-Stepping-Aside Letter
Craft Café – enhancing
our skills
.
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Structured Unmarketing Gatherings (weekly)
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group chat on Skills
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Access to Unwriting Content Library & Assistant
Client Café – bringing
our work out
Includes Craft Café
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Focused Unmarketing Gatherings (Monthly)
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Business Group Chat
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access to Advanced Unmarketing Assistant
The Casual Café.
Each week, there is a 60-minute online space where you can write alongside others. People drift in and out, new faces appear regularly, and the open chat is there if you feel like connecting. This café is simply about unwriting in shared presence and letting the field do its graceful work.
The Craft Café.
Here the focus is on the craft of unwriting itself. You’re among peers who enjoy refining their voice, language, and way of working.
During the 90-minute weekly gatherings, Youri offers short inputs such as exercises, tools, and pointers related to unwriting and craft.
We all work with writing in one way or another, and right now, with AI everywhere, staying close to our own voice and being precise in what we express is no longer optional if we don’t want our words to drown in the AI vomit. Between sessions, the group chat and content library support ongoing exchange.
The Client Café.
A monthly space focused on using your writing in relation to your work with clients. We explore how you share your message on platforms like LinkedIn or Substack, how your writing can support your practice, and how clients find their way to you through what you put out.
We work with what’s alive in the group and learn from each other’s experiences across different marketing channels.
The six principles of unwriting.
Whichever café you join, you’re welcome in the shared space. The essence of unwriting runs through them all.
Unwriting has a clear foundation. A 333-page book outlines its six principles. The Unwriting Café is built on these principles. The book gives context to the Open Café and comes fully alive in the Member and Business Café. It’s available on Amazon.
Three writing approaches:
Two only feed the writer, one frees the book.
| Hustling approach | Spiritual approach | Direct approach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Systems, plans, discipline | Flow, trust, heart | Removing the writer |
| Intention | Make the book happen | Let the book manifest | Get out of the way |
| Result | Vague and unfocused | Vague and unfocused | Instant movement |
| Problem | Book never finished due to lack of discipline | Writer always waiting due to lack of clarity | Non-existent due to absence of author |
Three ways of writing:
Two feed the writer, one frees the writing.
Writing as a hustle
Writing in flow
Unwriting
Focus
Overly relying on systems, plans, techniques, discipline
Trying to write from the heart and cultivate flow
Erasing the self-oriented writer from the writing
Intention
Performing the writing, being the one in control
Letting the writing manifest, hoping inspiration strikes
Getting out of the way so you can listen to the writing
Result
Forced and frustrating
Vague and unfocused
Instant movement and authentic expression
Problem
Blocked and inauthentic from pushing too hard
Constantly waiting for clarity and permission
Non-existent due to absence of the writer
Stop trying to write. Let the unwriting happen, together.
A shared space where your writing is carried by the support of peers, and where your craft keeps evolving in community.
FAQ
What happens in the gatherings?
The Open Café runs for 1 hour. We begin with a brief round where everyone shares what they’ll focus on, then we write.
The Member Café runs for 1.5 hours and includes input:
- Opening (15 min) – Youri offers context about unwriting while people share what they want to explore. No formal introductions, just popcorn-style sharing as things arise.
- Writing (60 min) – We drop into unwriting itself: writing without the writer steering or correcting.
- Closing (15 min) – Space to share what moved. Struggles, shifts, insights beneath the surface. We don’t read out what we’ve written.
Do I have to be a writer or author?
Whether you’re working on a poem, social content, an article, or an essay, it comes down to the same thing: step aside as the writer, and you leave space for the writing to surface naturally.
P.S. For those focused on books: While non-fiction writers naturally gravitate here, fiction writers are just as welcome. The book isn’t strictly one or the other anyway. The “writer” is the actual fiction.
Who facilitates the sessions?
The café’s are facilitated by Youri Hermes, author of The Art of Unwriting. He has published four books, and guides writers in letting their books come into being.
How is the café different from the mentoring program?
The Open Café is casual and open. Simply a shared presence where writing moves together.
The Member and Business Cafés include input on unwriting and/or unmarketing from Youri and Katrijn, relevant for the whole group.
The Free Your Book program is a much deeper journey: guided 1:1 mentoring with full support and clear holding until your book is free.
What is the VAT policy for EU and non-EU customers?
- EU Consumers: The price of the training is subject to an additional 21% VAT.
- EU Businesses: If you provide a valid VAT number, the reverse charge mechanism applies, meaning no VAT is charged. This mechanism shifts the responsibility of accounting for VAT to the buyer, simplifying cross-border trade within the EU and avoiding the need for the seller to register for VAT in the buyer’s country.
- Non-EU Customers: The price of the training is VAT exempt as sales to customers outside the EU are not subject to EU VAT rules.
What if I can’t join the live moments regularly?
That’s fine. Even attending once a month makes it worthwhile.
The times of The Unwriting Café vary throughout the month to accommodate different time zones and schedules. For now, the open café takes place on Tuesdays (16.00 CEST) and the member café on Fridays (17.00 CEST).
Aside of that, there’s the group chat and resources, depending on the café you’re in. We have a vibrant community chat space that’s worth the membership on its own. Members check in and out weekly (if they feel like it), share materials and ideas, ask questions, and stay connected in between calls.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. You can cancel at any moment. Your access continues until the end of your current billing cycle.