So much of our potential lies hidden in the parts we’ve buried. When we have the courage to face those parts of ourselves, we get to see how much bigger we are. We are, in fact, big enough to contain a whole story. We can hold all of it! The triumphs and failures, temptations and false starts, wins and losses, turning points and resolutions. All of these ups and downs combined add up to a… [Read More]
Should you read your own book reviews?
After you bravely pass through the bramble-covered gates of submissions and rejections, you will sail through the ocean of publication. That journey is different for everyone: forest-lined shores, sandy beaches, candy-coloured villages built on cliffs. Once you’re back on land, a new path emerges. You will meet the rocky peaks and sunken valleys of book reviews. What could possibly engage a writer’s shadow more than reading their own book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads? I… [Read More]
What to do if nothing is happening in your story: face the shadow.
Writers are always invited to shadow work, whether they expect it or not. That’s because writing a good story always seems to bring us there! Whether we take the time to integrate that work into our consciousness is a bigger question. Meeting our shadow is incredibly difficult, because it means looking directly at the most vulnerable parts of ourselves, the aspects of ourselves that are steeped in shame. Psychologists call these the disowned parts of… [Read More]
Does any of this matter? What is the point of writing?
“People find me because something is collapsing within or around them.” Carmen Spagnola writes. “…their relationship, self-identity, ecosystem, or something else. They find me because that’s where I am: in the collapse place, holding ground.” This is such a beautiful articulation of her gift, and what she offers the world. Carmen Spagnola’s work is a cross pollination of attachment, polyvagal theory, somatics, trauma recovery, and mysticism. I’ve known Carmen for a very long time — our… [Read More]
Boost your resilience: start a rejection collection!
I have had the joy of cultivating several collections in my life: stickers, vintage suitcases, pencils, manual typewriters, rocks and crystals, single-estate chocolate bars. I still collect stamps. (It’s a tiny, lightweight art gallery!) Anything can be fun to collect, if you twist your perspective to suit. What if you started collecting rejection letters? You’ve heard me talk about tracking your submissions since forever. Tracking is another kind of collecting. You can track in this… [Read More]
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