How Writing Changes in a Group
Posted on 04. May, 2010 by joanna in Writing
I got an email the other day asking whether a few days away would really make a difference to the writing experience.
The short answer was ‘yes’ but the longer answer got me thinking harder about how and why writing retreats change things.
I think it’s to do with the way writing changes when you’re in a group.
We tend to think of writing as a solitary activity.
Part of the benefit of a writing retreat is that you get the time and the space to write, on your own, without distraction.
But that’s only part of the story. The other bit is the way your writing changes when you’re writing (reading, thinking, testing, learning, experimenting) with others too.
You find that your words change with:
Permission: Other people can give you permission, even quietly and subconsciously, to stretch beyond your normal comfort zones. This is particularly true with people you didn’t know before. Old labels and ways of thinking about yourself get left behind.
Encouragement: Other people encourage you. Give you courage. There’s also an odd thing, that as you encourage others (as you undoubtedly will) that voice of support encourages you too.
Feedback: You learn from the feedback you get from others. When it comes with good intention it helps to strengthen your writing.
Experiments: You get ideas from other people: new things to try, new approaches to experiment with, new voices to write in. It’s an invitation to stretch and experiment.
Stories: You get ideas and inspiration from other people’s stories (the one’s they’re writing, or the one’s they’re living.) That can help to wake you up or see things from a different perspective, to notice new angles. At some level this helps you see the ways all our stories are inter-connected, which gives you more confidence to tell them.
Humour: The sharing of words leads to laughter, and countless moments of shared humour. (I’m not quite sure why this is: anyone?) It can help to lighten you up, and lighten up your writing.
Recognition: Although writing is often done alone, it is written to be read. You feed off and grow through the act of sharing those words, and seeing other people’s recognition of one small part of who you are, and how things have been.
Energy: Writing with other people changes the dynamic. It can give you more energy, it can add more energy to your writing, to the way your words dance on the page.
I’m not sure I’ve found the right words to describe how this works, and I’d love to hear about your own experiences. How have you found that writing changes in a group?
~~~
The next writing retreat I’m running is the Tell Your Story Women’s Writing Retreat, June 14 – 18, in Fife (on the East Coast of Scotland, near St Andrews). Just a couple of places left: book quickly if you want to be there 
The Untold Story
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by joanna in News, Stories, Writing
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you ~ Maya Angelou
I love that quote. It talks to me not just of the stories we want to write, but also the stories we want to tell, through our actions, our choices, the work that we do, the way that we live our lives.
Sometimes I think we get hung up on a too literal interpretation of ‘story’.
I know I’ve stumbled over that in the past, felt like less than a writer because I didn’t have fiction waiting to be written, characters whispering storylines to me, plotlines unfolding. Maybe I haven’t found the source yet but whenever I’ve looked, wherever I looked, those kind of stories simply weren’t there.
That’s not to say there aren’t other things I want to write and to share though: there are. Things that will keep on nudging me to find the time, to find the space, to find the words, until they are told.
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov
There are words I need to find, sometime, for the journey I’ve been on from my former working life as a busy stressed out civil servant to the way I chose to live now, creating the space for words, poems, photography, stories to unfold and blossom, not just in me but in others too.
Stories I might tell, sometime, about my female life, about motherhood and daughterhood and some of the joys and sorrows that have gone inbetween.
I know I need to keep on looking for the words to express the relationship I have with the natural world. I know my best, most truthful writing comes from that place. I need to keep doing more of it, and find the courage to put it centre stage.
I guess they all connect, somehow… though I haven’t yet worked out what kind of narrative might hold them all together, and for now I’m not going to try. Will just enjoy letting the pieces unfold, and start to tell themselves.
I’m learning there are many different aspects of our lives that are telling, and wish to be told. It might not have form, might be missing the characters and plotlines, might not have a beginning, middle and end – yet can still be a story that needs to be told.
What untold stories are you bearing inside you? What will be the trigger for starting to tell them?
~~~
The Tell Your Story Women’s Writing Retreat takes place at Cambo House, on the east coast of Fife, Scotland, June 14 – 18 2010. Follow the link to find out more.
Beachcombing for Life
Posted on 15. Feb, 2010 by joanna in News, Stories, Writing
I got a chance to visit Cambo House the other weekend, including a riverside walk to see the snowdrops, and a meander along the shore.
Looking at the photos I took that afternoon got me thinking about how beachcombing – walking slowly, looking for patterns, looking for colour, looking for meaning in discarded objects – is a bit like the work we do to find the stories that run through our lives…
Patterns, shapes, lines, markers in the sand…
Shape and form… meaning, maybe even art… from objects in our lives
The way our lives are multi-layered (multi-storied even)
New life emerging from our stories…
How about you – what do you think you might find if you took the time to go beachcombing?
~~~
Tell Your Story: Women’s Writing Retreat takes place at Cambo House in June (14 – 18). Follow the link to find out how to book your place.
An Island of Time
Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by joanna in News, Writing
Sometimes, in all the
Rush and
Hurry of our lives
We need so much
Just now and then
To find an island.
Kenneth C Steven
Island of Hoy
New Year, New Start for Your Writing
Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by joanna in News, Writing
There’s something so exciting about a new year isn’t there?
All that sense of possibility stretching ahead of us like a path in deep midwinter snow…
I know that some of you are starting to think about new writing projects you want to make happen this year, about getting back to pieces of writing that have been languishing in a cupboard for too, too long now, or about bringing that writer part of your soul out of hiding.
Out into the light.
It’s exciting to hear about those plans, and to learn how you’re going to use the opportunity of a writing space retreat to make them happen. Please keep on sharing those hopes, dreams and plans with me!
The calendar of writing retreats in Scotland, is now out – you can find all the details of dates, venues and prices here: Calendar of retreats for 2010.
Here’s to all the new writing that will tumble and fall onto the page this year.
Happy new year everyone
Grab Yourself Some Writing Space this Christmas
Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by joanna in News, Writing
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
The perfect time to grab yourself a little bit of writing space…
Even if it sounds like a far-off dream in these last frenzied days before Christmas, here are some ways you could squeeze out or maybe just plain grab yourself a little must-have writing space over the holidays:
1. Go for a walk. Even 15 minutes will do. Walk, wander, wonder, notice, pay attention… breathe. Trust that a word, a phrase, the beginnings of an idea will follow.
2. Carry a notebook wherever you go. You can always jot down writing ideas when you’re supposed to be doing other things.
3. Write down your writing goals, dreams, hopes and wild ideas for 2010. Then you can play with them in your mind and work on ways to start to make them happen instead of getting stressed with other things.
4. Think like a writer. Watch out for dialogue, incidents, events from the sublime to the ridiculous that you can absorb into your writing later.
5. Capture the moments. Writing it down helps to give you space and perspective. Take ten minutes to capture some of what’s going on round about you:
The points of detail.
The emotions you’re feeling inside, not just the good ones but the awkward, the sad and the ugly.
The things you want to remember, to capture, to turn into treasure with the power of your words.
The quality of the moment – this moment, right now, when not a creature was stirring… not even a mouse 
~~~
I hope you do manage to grab yourself a bit of wonderful writing space this Christmas. It does help!
Thanks for all your support in getting the Writing Space up and running. I hope to see you at a Writing Space event or writing retreat sometime in 2010
The Writing Space Philosophy
Posted on 07. Dec, 2009 by joanna in News, Writing
A poem to illuminate the Writing Space philosophy, first shared at Confident Writing.
An ABC of Confident Writing
A is for audacity, for attention, and remembering to focus it
B is for belief that your words count
C is for clarity, and courage, and confidence
D is for go on, I dare you
E is for essence, the bones of your writing
F is for fear and walking on past it
G is for gratitude and what happens when you write it
H is for heart and the hero’s journey
I is for intention: the fuel of the fire
J is for the journey your writing will take you on
K is for kindness, the core of confidence,
L is for lists and the words that flow from using them
M is for your muse, and remembering to thank her
N is for now, no better time to write
O is for ownership, fully present in your words
P is for power and for purpose, for what writing makes possible
Q is for questions that open up change
R is for rhythm, the flow of your words, it’s for rules and regulations, and knowing when to break them
S is for simplicity and singing your song
T is for trusting in the power of your words
U is for unstoppable, what happens once you start
V is for voice, and knowing how to find it
W is for words, the currency of stories
X is for extra, what you add to the page
Y is for yes, and the courage to say it
Z is for zest, for zing and pizzazz, it’s for zip, and zap, and zigzagging lines, it’s for zinging and zooming and zany old poems
It’s for endings, and last lines, and knowing when to stop.
~~~
I’m including the audio version too, so you get a chance to hear my voice before you meet me
The Reason that Commands You to Write
Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by joanna in News, Writing
Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
~Rainer Maria Rilke