Anyone who wants to bring more reflection, healing and integration into the start of the new year.

Anyone who is longing to write more, or give some time to a writing project, or change your relationship with writing to a more flowing and easeful one.

Anyone who is longing for warm community and connection. 

1. What defines us as writers is simply that we write — frequently or rarely. We are writers in that we endeavor to put our experiences, questions, sentiments, into words on the page. 

2. Creativity exists naturally in all of us — but in most of us, it gets blocked. We often need support unblocking and unlocking our words. 

3. Creative recovery is a thing. I’ve been through my own, and am always reaching for more of that recovery. Creative recovery can happen for us — boldly and ferociously.

4. Writing heals. As we translate lived experience into words, we make meaning out of it. We become the authors of our experience, the creators of it in some sense, in its second life on the page. 

5. For women, every act of articulation is an act of empowerment, because we are in the midst of an exodus from generations of being silenced. 

6. The writing work that lands most strongly in the world is born of authenticity and courage — not from polishing, perfecting, or trying to guess what readers want.

7. To unleash the flow of words, we have to write for ourselves and ourselves alone. Impact on the world or accolades may come, but only if we’ve learned to write for ourselves first. 

8. Editing and craft are merely good assistants to the more important qualities of authenticity and courage.

9. If writing feels stilted, clunky, frustrating, futile, that’s okay. We just need to dip beneath the surface in you to the place where the words are ever flowing. The flow is always tappable, and community, prompts, and structure — both in how and what we write — can help us tap the spring. 

10. Most importantly: your story and life experience, your ideas and inquiries are enough to make for plenty to say. That’s so hard to see in ourselves sometimes, but I can promise you, it’s true.

We will gather on Zoom each day of the retreat at 9:30 am Pacific.

We’ll have daily teachings about writing, creativity, and personal growth. 

I’ll share writing prompts that help get the juices flowing (no more writer’s block feelings or “what should I write?” stuckness!). 

We’ll have dedicated writing time together, during which you can write on a question or prompt from me OR turn to your own current writing project in this supported space. 

After a renewing break, we’ll reconvene for a second block of writing time. We’ll then have another short break followed by an optional Q&A and Coaching session (3:30 – 4:30 pm Pacific) on Tuesday and Wednesday. We will talk about your questions and dilemmas about writing, and coach around stuck areas. We’ll talk about composing, editing, strengthening voice, writing for ourselves and writing for our work, creativity recovery, working with the inner critic when we write – and much more.