facts, feelings & healing
april writing prompts and weekly story work exercise
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly Story Work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
Hi everyone,
Okay so today we have our story work exercise for paid subscribers, but it’s also the first of the month so I’m sharing the April writing prompts for everyone, too. Read on for updates and a preview of the weekly exercise.
Writing to Heal
On Saturday we had our first quarterly two-hour workshop for paid subscribers. In case you missed it, you can access the video and writing guide here. I taught my approach to the expressive writing method, a well-researched practice that leads to creative expansion and healing narratives for adversity, trauma, grief, and loss. If you have a hard time accessing memories and deep emotions for writing, this technique will support you in exploring complicated experiences in an emotionally safe way.
This week’s story work exercise provides an introduction to what we covered in the workshop.
Keep in mind that we do this work for creative purposes, and this is not a replacement for therapy. I encourage writers to do this work in tandem with professional mental health therapy as needed.
April Writing Prompts and Free Workshop
Each month I provide #writingthelayers prompts that are meant to spark an idea or train of thought that gets you writing. When you read the prompt, what memories, images, feelings, or thoughts come to mind? Using these prompts as writing triggers, you can explore your voice and creative impulses in a playful, no stress way.
You are also invited to join us for my free monthly workshop on Friday, April 5 at 7 pm et where we'll be freewriting from these prompts. New faces are always welcome, and sharing is optional.
Okay, let’s get into our weekly exercise.
Facts and Feelings
Our current theme is the five senses, which we are exploring as a way to practice mindful writing, a creative practice that nurtures attention and well-being. When it comes to storytelling, by focusing on the five senses, we also bring our words to life in vivid ways for ourselves and our readers.
It just so happens that sensory writing plays a key part in writing to heal.
In the Writing to Heal workshop on Saturday, we talked about the difference between writing to vent and writing to heal. You know how sometimes you can turn to journaling to feel better and you end up feeling worse? Some of the workshop participants described it as spiraling, going around and around, getting stuck in negative emotions and thought patterns.
The expressive writing method is one technique we can use to create the necessary shift in perspective that leads to a healing narrative and all the benefits that come with it, like reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression, strengthening the immune system, lowering blood pressure, and improving overall well-being.