Write Your Heart Out

Calling all writers!  Writers write, so let’s do it together.

This is an 8 week class designed to equip writers with the tools necessary to begin and sustain a regular meditation and writing practice.  As a group, we will support one another through the practice of meditation to develop intuition and courage, so that you can write what yearns to be written and to develop the craft of writing, and eventually we can share it with the world. The meditation tools include; guided meditations, breathing, grounding and centering exercises, chakra awareness and energetic development.

The writing tools include; timed, unedited free‐writes that will be based on the themes explored in the guided meditations, identifying and integrating the inner critic, giving and receiving feedback on writing shared in the group and exploring elements of writing craft. After four weeks, we will each choose one of our writings and focus on rewriting it, so that by week eight, we will each have a finished piece to take away and the right to call ourselves a writer!

Class meets every Thursday from 9:15am to 11:15am at my home.  Please bring a yoga mat and meditation pillow on which to sit.  Bring your laptop or tablet and/or a journal and pen– really, just bring whatever on which you want to write.  We’ll be working on the floor in our meditation room or at the dining table.  Also, bring something yummy that you want to share to eat so that we can fuel our creative fire with FOOD!  There is no charge to attend this group, but we do ask that you come fully committed to honoring the writing process and supporting one another in this sacred group.  Please register for the class and you will be emailed the location information:

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=11600761&appointmentType=919226

Guidelines and Program Outline:

Objective: At the end of eight weeks, have a completed, presentable piece of writing that has been carefully edited.

Welcome to Write Your Heart Out! Developing Your Craft Using Meditation As Your Guide. Here are some guidelines to help us be productive during our time together.

  • Our meeting time is officially 9:15. Please just let yourself in and put down your stuff. Make yourself a cup of tea and we can visit and chat a little for a few minutes before we get started. Meditation practice begins at 9:30 sharp.
  • We meditate for 15 to 20 minutes in the meditation room. If you are arriving late, please come in quietly, put down your stuff and join us. I wrote and presented the first meditation. Gina has volunteered to write and present the meditation for week two. I need writers and presenters for each week. When you come to the next session, we will plan the meditation schedule.
  • After the meditation has ended, without talking to one another, we get our notebooks or computers and we write for 20 minutes. The idea is to write from wherever you are after the meditation. You can write a flowing free-style piece, you can write something that feels like a diary entry. You can write a story. You can write a recipe. You can write a song. You can write an operations manual. It doesn’t matter what you write or in what form it comes, just write whatever is coming out of you.
  • After the 20 minutes of writing are done, we each read our piece of writing out loud to the group. After we read, we are given Affirmative Feedback. Affirmative Feedback is not praise, nor is it criticism. It is simply an expression of how we as listeners feel after hearing the piece. It is not a critique of someone’s writing style, nor is it a time to give suggestions about what you think needs to be improved. It is our job as a listener to communicate how the writing we’ve just heard makes us feel in that moment and maybe what we want to hear more of. It is the writer’s job to receive the Affirmative Feedback in the way that they want. Please understand that for the writer and for the listener, the feedback it 100% subjective. Both writer and listener are encouraged to remember that what is given in the Affirmative Feedback is actually a projection of an opinion and not a judgment.
  • The piece of writing is taken home and rewritten over the course of the week. The writer can use the information received during the Affirmative Feedback as a guideline or not. The writer can rewrite the whole composition or focus on a section that they find inspiring. This is your project and your creativity. Do what you want! Each week, bring your printed version of your rewritten piece to the group and we will read all the printed and critique after we have finished the meditation and writing portion.
  • In week seven, each writer brings their favorite three re-written pieces to the group. The pieces must be printed out. We will spend one hour reading one another’s work. Using Affirmative Feedback and editing, the readers will tell us which one of each writer’s pieces is their favorite and why. From the Affirmative Feedback that will be given, the writer will then choose the one piece that they want to ‘finish’ and present as their completed composition. Then each writer will do another re-write of that piece (or if they feel like it is perfect, they will just proofread it.) This piece will be presented in week eight.

If you miss the first week, don’t worry. I have a recording of the meditation we did. You can listen to it and then just write for 20 minutes. Then you’d be caught up with everyone!

 

Here I am! Eccomi qui!

Florence, Italy

Copyright

COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY CRYSTAL LYNN BELL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Excerpts may be used, with FULL CREDIT given to my website and me as writer. Unauthorized use of Full Article copy or duplication of any material on this website without express and written permission from its author and owner is strictly prohibited. Thank you.