Writing Restoration: Excavation

Excavate: 1. to make a hole or channel by digging. 2. to remove earth carefully and systematically from an area in order to find buried remains.

One of the most difficult parts of restoration, recovery, healing---and probably the most crucial---is going within. Digging deep. Excavating the raw origins of our wounds. Without this part of the process, as painful as it is, we can't move through our difficult times and heal them.

credit: dahlia art

Globally and individually, we’ve experienced unprecedented personal stress and loss. On the restorative power of writing, Julia Cameron is quoted as saying "Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change." With this in mind, I felt inspired to create a writing circle based on writing as restoration.

Excavation will be the topic of the second session of my online Writing Circle for the International Women's Writing Guild for four Thursdays this October (7, 14, 21, 28), right after Meditation, and preceding Celebration and Gratitude. 

It's been my experience that in order to do this important inner excavation work, we must access a part of ourselves that's always been there, but that we're reluctant to call upon it: what Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes describes in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves, as the wild self. Our most primal nature is unfettered and uncensored. It's my feeling that it's only in this deep place that we can find our authenticity as writers and in our writing itself.

Whether we're releasing into a journal entry, writing a cathartic memoir or poem, or crafting a novel that will be a balm for the wounds of the many, we need to access that part of ourselves that, as Estes describes herself as well: the "disguised criatura, creature... I swagger-staggered on high heels, and I wore a dress and hat to church. But my fabulous tail often fell below my hemline, and my ears twitched until my hat pitched, at the very least, down over my eyes, and sometimes clear across the room."

And in her Mother Night audio course, she goes on to say that accessing this wild self as creatives "strengthens you and excites your soul.. [and takes you] straight into the heart of what excites [you]." I might also add, straight to the heart of what heals you.

There's still room in the Writing Circle, but not for long! I'll be doing a giveaway of Estes' book during the second session, and the Guild is including a 3-month trial membership with registration! Learn more and register here.

Meanwhile, if I can help you in your journey to the wild writer spirit and the soul of the stories you have to tell, visit me here, and check out my current projects and upcoming podcast launch as well. 

I’m a writer of magical realism, a mentor to women writers of all ages, and a story magic archaeologist. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing, and I live in Los Angeles with my husband and our two Imp Muses (cats) Stanley and Sofia. Join my mailing list for a free guide on story magic!

www.writeranne.net ⁎ anne@writeranne.net ⁎ Twitter @wildwriteranne ⁎ Facebook Wild Woman Writer

Writing Restoration: Meditation

Globally and individually, we’ve experienced unprecedented personal stress and loss. On the restorative power of writing, Julia Cameron is quoted as saying "Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change." With this in mind, I felt inspired to create a writing circle based on writing as restoration.

In my upcoming event for the International Women's Writing Guild (IWWG) starting on October 7, I will explore writing restoration as meditation, celebration, excavation, and gratitude.

The first of these subtopics, writing as meditation, has long been part of my writing practice. It all started when I read Natalie Goldberg's book Writing Down the Bones. In it she writes: "In 1974 I began to do sitting meditation. From 1978 to 1984 I studied Zen formally with Dainin Katagiri Roshi (Roshi is a title for a Zen master) at the Minnesota Zen Center in Minneapolis. Whenever I went to see him and asked him a question about Buddhism, I had trouble understanding the answer until he said, 'You know, like in writing when you . . .' When he referred to writing, I understood. About three years ago he said to me, 'Why do you come to sit meditation? Why don’t you make writing your practice? If you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace.'"

When we write as a way to meditate (and vice-versa) we are forging a connection to our inner writer, or writer's spirit if you will. It has been my experience that this connection alone allows the kind of freedom and authenticity to write what's most important to us, the stories we simply must tell--the stories of our soul.

In my workshop, these "stories" may be anything from conversations in a journal; poems; the birth of a new character; memoir; the snippet of a new novel or screenplay---the possibilities are infinite! The important thing to focus on is the connection to our writer's spirit and the acceptance of the writer within. In other words, process before outcome. 

I once read that Hemingway would spend entire afternoons in cafes writing, but the first several hours were spent freewriting before he even began to work on any specific story or novel. When I engage in writing as meditation, I lead myself down into what I refer to as "the zone," which is highly meditative, but hardly quiet---on the contrary, it's teeming with light and color and ideas. I rarely have the kind of time to spend on this process that Hemingway enjoyed, but I often start out my writing practice with a few minutes of freewriting or journal writing such as Julia Cameron's morning pages in The Artist's Way. 

Some days I may be writing under deadline or so pressed for time that we can't afford the luxury of morning pages or anything else---I've got ten minutes to jot down the next few sentences of a novel, or the next few lines of a poem I'm working on. In those cases, if I can pull those few minutes into that mental space of listening and intention, I can still connect with my writer's spirit, and make those few minutes a writing meditation. 

I hope you'll join my writing circle next month. Space is limited, so don't wait too long! Even if you can't make the live sessions, you'll have access to the recordings as a registrant. The fee includes a trial membership to the IWWG. And those who attend sessions live will be eligible for drawings for free gifts, including copies of Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, a Writing Down the Bones writing prompt deck, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, and Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run With the Wolves.

In the meantime, if you'd like help connecting to your writer's spirit, establishing a writing practice, or working through a specific project, learn more here.

I’m a writer of magical realism, a mentor to women writers of all ages, and a story magic archaeologist. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing, and I live in Los Angeles with my husband and our two Imp Muses (cats) Stanley and Sofia. Join my mailing list for a free guide on story magic!

www.writeranne.net ⁎ anne@writeranne.net ⁎ Twitter @wildwriteranne ⁎ Facebook Wild Woman Writer