voice of innocence

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 reflection, 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. Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.

Read on for a few updates, details on our group journaling session this week, and a preview of our weekly exercise.

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a few of the books in my current rotation

Hi creatives,

Before I get into the weekly exercise, a few updates:

The Practice: Group Journaling Session #12

On Wednesday, February 7 from 12 pm -1:30 pm et on Zoom, we’ll be joined by Lindsey Van Wagner who will guide us through a visualization meditation and journaling exercise to call on our power and truth, helping us realize our limitlessness and access the untapped ability to do whatever our hearts and souls desire. This session is free for paid subscribers (see below for the link to register) and $15 to drop in.

Workshops for Self-discovery and Storytelling

This spring, I’m offering the first of four quarterly workshops on self-discovery and personal storytelling. These workshops will incorporate aspects of the generative and developmental techniques that I share in my workshops for organizations like The Writer’s Center, Scribophile, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and more. Participants will come away with idea generation and drafting techniques for writing about their lived experiences.

If I could go back to my early days as a new writer trying to find her lane, I would tell her to stop judging herself and just surrender to the process. I would remind her that her magic comes from her authenticity, not from perfect prose or viral popularity.

Developing a writing practice is all about reining in your ego and experimenting to figure out what works uniquely for you. In line with that, these workshops are an extension of my calling to change the perception many writers have that a successful writing life has to look a certain way and that it has to be this difficult, isolating, elusive thing.

If you get excited at the idea of writing but your inner critic takes over and you get stuck in your head about it, my workshops are opportunities to experience the difference that guidance and community can make. These two-hour sessions will be free to paid subscribers and open to all others for a fee. Our first one will be in March. In the poll below, please let me know which one you’d like me to schedule first.

The Inner Story Writing Circle

I want to celebrate and support members of the Inner Story Writing Circle by sharing some of their recent work below. The Inner Story Writing Circle is a membership group for people seeking creative guidance and community for the heart-centered work of writing about their lives. Through cowriting, accountability, and feedback sessions, storytelling and creative planning workshops, author visits and more, the writing circle makes it easy to get the support you need for your practice and tap into the collective energy of a soulful group of writers.

• A Melancholy Old Woman Dying a Miserable Death Alone — Kelly Macias

• The Song Called “Life” in the Key of Polyvagal Theory — Beth Anne Fisher

• The Uncertainty of Numbness — Catherine DeBranch

• Dear Black man, therapy is for you, too — Ashleigh Vaughn

• These Things I Carry — India Kia

• Repetition is Sacred — Carmen Harris

• Cheers to Doing Our Best — Delanea Davis

Okay. Now let’s get into this week’s Story Work exercise.

Photo by Nicola Perantoni on Unsplash

the voice of innocence

For the past few weeks we’ve enriched our writing practice by considering point of view in three ways:

point of view: we contain multitudes - setting the stage for how experimenting with point of view allows you to discover new truths, reveal blind spots and biases, and play with story meaning and impact.

how to talk to yourself - using the second person to write about a dream, fear, obsession, or characteristic that you are seeking to understand in a deeper way.

how view changes voice - experimenting with first, second, and third person as a way to discover different shades of your writing voice.

Point of view is not just about the first, second, and third person. Time and tense offers a myriad of ways to play with point of view, as well.