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