“Write to express not impress.” ~ Parker Palmer
Writing Actually is a fun way to get out of your own way and write. It’s NOT about creating a finished or polished literary work—there’s no time for that! It IS about unleashing your writer to WRITE! It’s also about telling your inner censor, inner critic and inner editor to take a back seat. Finally, it’s about getting comfortable sharing what you’ve written. Getting over the vulnerability of sharing your words can be a leap in the dark…until you land! And then it’s fantastic, given the right environment. Being heard and listening to others in short bursts is motivating, grounding and connecting.
“I was surprised at how readily, thoughts and ideas and images and the language to communicate them arose from somewhere deep within me, without my having to do much except allow it to happen - that was the magical part.”
Charlotte J, visual artist
A little bit about fun:
Writing doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s mostly a question of getting comfortable in your writing skin and giving yourself permission to write AND have some fun.
The most fun I’ve had writing is writing in community. Whether it was at RMIT (Professional Writing & Editing), with Barbara Turner-Vasselago (Writing without a Parachute), with Lori Salzman (My Word) or most importantly, with the Welcome Swallows (my writing group), these were the places that filled my cup. Where I got to share my writing in real time, as well as listen to the offerings of others. There’s something raw and soulful about this kind of upfront and personal sharing. It’s very enlivening!
A little bit about me and writing:
Twenty five years ago I decided I was going to be a writer. It makes me smile remembering my earnest, existential angst-ridden self—I finally knew what I was going to ‘do’ with my life! I rushed out and enrolled at RMIT and wrote part-time for a year and then full time for another year, taking myself far too seriously. At the age of twenty seven I sadly hung up my writer’s cap; the solitary life wasn’t for me and besides, I thought I didn’t really have enough to say. So it was back to the broken record: ‘What am I going to DO with my life?!
Over the decades though (in between wearing countless career caps) I found I did have something to say and the writing found its way out and through me. Along with my biggest writing/co-publishing achievement of Barefoot Magazine. Interestingly, three books and many readers later, I still struggle to call myself a writer but that’s more to do with my dislike of labels than the act of writing. And perhaps a little to do with my romantic idea that a ‘real’ writer sits in a garret overlooking the sea.
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
~ Sylvia Plath
The antidote to self-doubt is a mixture of trust, kindness and fun.
Writing Actually nurtures all three of these qualities.
Details:
3 x 1.5hr - small group size
Online, via Zoom
Next group TBA
To book or register your interest for future classes please email me below