Coming Home to Your Writing

 

photo by PhotoReith at Pixabay

We've been talking this week about the energy of renewal and harnessing it in our writing practice.

As my husband and I finished editing the audio sessions for my upcoming release today, hearing it all got me pumped. It's going to be great!

This workshop experience creates a space in which you can not only cultivate the seeds of a new story (or replant one you started long ago), but it's also a space in which you can strengthen your writing practice to support your goals for working on the project beyond the workshop and into the summer.

I want to share a quick story about how one writer friend of mine did just that. She picked up the original remnant of a novel she'd started after she'd fleshed out another version based on poor feedback. She told me that returning to the 10,000 words of her original novel felt overwhelming and impossibly heavy. Her situation is very much tied to a creative wound, which is another subject I'll be talking about in a free event coming up later this year.

Others of you have told me that what blocks you in this same situation are distractions, the weight of personal trauma, inertia, and too many life obligations. These blocks can all be traced back to the same source: a faulty connection to our writing practice, to our art.

I said to my friend that returning to the original 10,000 words of her novel—in other words, the story her heart wanted to tell—would feel like coming home. She sat with this idea, and a few weeks later she told me "I'm ready to write!" Her eyes sparkled, and she was plugged into her sense of renewal. She was ready to re-grow the seed of her novel into a beautiful new tree. She's ready to write this summer.

That's what the Writing As Renewal experience is all about—creating that space to bring a new story to life (or to reincarnate an old one) and setting you up to grow it big and strong.

Tomorrow, the door to that energy of renewal will be open! Not only will you have the portability of audio lessons, but they're evergreen, which means you'll have permanent access to the materials to follow at your own pace and return to as often as you'd like.

Word to the wise: you'll want to get in on the ground floor before special pricing and bonuses disappear on May 24th.

In the meantime, keep well, keep writing, and stay tuned!

Roadblocks to Renewal

So here we are at the tail end of spring, and the brink of summer--a season of activity. And for writers, what's better than a summer spent writing? Recently I've talked with you about the energy of renewal that spring brings and harnessing that in your writing practice. It's such a perfect time to cultivate the seeds of fresh stories, or to give new life to those you've buried or set aside.

photo by Positive Images on Pixabay

I've heard from some of you about how challenging it can be to engage in this way. One of you writes, "What's most challenging for me with my writing project(s) is continuing or picking up my work through the bumps and interruptions in my life. I suppose I'm not swimming alone in a revolving flux of idiosyncratic secondary characters and distracting self-defeating jargon." That is so powerful! Not only is this an accurate portrayal of how life tries to besiege our writing practice, sometimes on a daily basis, but this writer nails it by calling out how we're not alone in this predicament. This distraction can also present as the feeling of not having enough time, or even a general malaise and lack of motivation, as another writer friend of mine is struggling with. It can also present as the tremendous weight of grief or other trauma that we're enduring as part of life.

I actually want to design some kind of live virtual writer's gathering specifically around grief and trauma later this year, so stay tuned for that.

But for now, let's hone in on working through these and any road blocks. At the crux of these roadblocks is really one thing—our inner connection to our work, and to our process and practice. When that connection is strong, nothing gets in the way for very long. When we re-enliven this connection, we'll take the time to write, even if it's only five minutes at the end of an exhausting day. Our excitement to do our chases away the malaise of boredom and inertia. We'll even be able to write as we wade through the deep waters of grief and trauma, because as the first writer who shared her thoughts with me so wisely put it, "that's where all the Spirit Guides like to hang out." So true, my wise and wild woman writer friend!

The good news is that anyone can access this connection at anytime—right now, today even! It really just starts by taking a few minutes to listen to your writer's spirit, and then writing what your soul tells you to write.

In my Writing As Renewal experience, we'll move gently into this space of access and renewal and build on it, bringing these stories of our heart to life!

I'll share one more post with you before I launch this experience on May 21, in which I'll give just a few examples of how others have vanquished these road blocks to writing and plugged into that connection to their writer's spirit and those stories waiting to blossom and grow.

As always, I'd love to hear how you're resonating with your sense of renewal. You can leave a comment here, or reach me by email at anne@writeranne.net, or give me a shout out on social media.

I also invite you to join my mailing list to receive a FREE guide on story magic!

Talk to you soon!

Your Summer of Writing!

We're officially two months into spring—folks are freshening up their homes, dusting off their patio furniture, and preparing for a summer of fun activities.

Some people are really into gardening too, either planting new seeds, or anticipating the return of the perennials that have been dormant all winter.

Your writing practice is a lot like a garden. In order for it to flourish, the soil needs to be turned and enriched. And even if you're trying to revive those perennials—those stories that have lain dormant for too long—you still have to prepare the soil and be ready to nurture new seeds and old bulbs alike.

The Writing As Renewal experience can help you do just that—feed and renew the soil of your writing practice by connecting you with your writer's spirit and discovering the stories your hearts wants to tell. Beyond that, nurturing those stories to full germination as you prepare for a summer of writing.

I've talked to several writers, some of them good friends who are going through this process now. And it always boils down to one thing—the writer's connection to their practice, their art.

Over the next few days, I'll share more about how exciting it can be to give birth to a new story, or to excavate a long-buried story your heart wants to tell. I'll also talk about some of the roadblocks to this work and how you can eliminate them.

I'm still putting the finishing touches on this experience before it launches on May 21, so now's your chance to share what's most challenging for you about starting a new writing project (or dusting off one that you've set aside), and what's the biggest hindrance to maintaining a fulfilling writing practice. Drop a comment here, hit me up on social media, or email me: anne@writeranne.net.

Meanwhile, join my mailing list for a free guide on story magic!

Talk to you soon!

Primal Creativity

What a concept!

The first time I heard this term, it shot straight to the core of my heart space like a shooting star. My friend Sharla June spoke of it at a gathering of my women’s group as a state we return to when we’re able to shut out distractions and mental noise.

Yes! and what that looks like for me, specifically, is a zone I drill down to, where I’m free to create whatever I want, to write the stories my heart needs to tell. I’m surrounded by light and color. It’s an atmosphere teeming with ideas and possibilities.

Primal creativity is different for everyone. What does it look like for you? How do you plug into it? How do you get there? I’m here to help you answer those questions. Reach out today to see if we’d make a good team.

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