Episode 83: How to Tap Into A Deeper Writing Practice with our Embodied Writing Experience

The answer to your worries about showing up to a blank page and not knowing what to write. Elizabeth Wilson and Stephanie Oswald talk about their newsletter offering of the Embodied Writing Experience. A writing retreat in your inbox every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It’s your opportunity to tap into a deeper writing practice with prompts, exercises and ideas for how you can connect at a deeper level with yourself. When you’re writing a memoir, you’re tapping into experiences and emotions that can rock you at the core. When you have tools, such as connecting with your chakras that we dig into in this episode, you’re able to navigate the stories in your life with a greater connection to yourself.

Stephanie Oswald talks about the current email series focused on the chakras and memoir writing. The most recent email was the throat chakra which leads the conversation into talking about the incredible connections happening in the Memoir Master Plan Cohort. Elizabeth Wilson leads the cohort and emphasizes the huge benefits of the chakra series for getting out of your head and into the heart of your writing. 

If you've been looking for ideas and inspiration to kick start your writing, especially when you feel you're stuck in writer's block, you're invited to join the Embodied Writing Experience so you don't have to get lost going down the Google/AI rabbit hole. You'll get already curated prompts and ideas to move your writing forward.

You're invited to join us for our Virtual Writing Retreat October 11 and 12 on Zoom! 

You’re invited to connect with us by joining our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. Whether you’re working on a memoir, a novel, or journaling for yourself, this is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

Join our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. Whether you’re working on a memoir, a novel, or journaling for yourself, this is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.

Get on the waitlist for the Memoir Master Plan cohort here.

If you prefer video versions of the podcast, you can find all of them on our YouTube channel.

Transcript

Elizabeth: 1:00

Welcome back listeners to another episode of The Inspired Writer Collective. Today we're gonna be talking about the Embodied Writer experience, and this is probably a new phrase you've heard us say since the launch of this fall season. That's because during our downtime in the summer, Stephanie and I put our minds together to figure out what we really. Think is valuable to put out in the our newsletter space, um, how we want to show up in your inbox. And we experienced the value of hosting a virtual writer's retreat back in July, and we just thought, you know what? Being able to give our listeners a. Retreat like experience in their inbox. Each week is where we really wanna be, and we both write from a place of feeling the emotions in our bodies and trying to translate them onto the page That makes. Genres like memoir, very engaging. It brings something a deeper dynamic to fiction writing. And so today we want to go a little bit deeper to explain what we mean when we talk about embodied writing, and invite you to join us and invite you to join this email list so that you can experience this with us. So I'm gonna kick it over to Stephanie. How are you doing, Stephanie?

Stephanie: 2:29

Good. Good. How are you, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth: 2:32

Good. Got a new bookshelf here with, um, some of my favorite reads. My memoir references my journals on top, so, um, trying to add a little bit more dynamic to the background here.

Stephanie: 2:46

Oh, I love it. I love that style of bookshelf that you have behind you there. That's so cool. And it definitely does add, to everything. I have a not so interesting background behind me today, but that's okay. It makes it easier, fewer interruptions from others around in the house today, so that, is helpful. But yeah, I'm so excited that we're talking about the embodied writing experience today because. we were thinking about what we can offer you listeners and our community that really will bring so much added value to your journey as a writer. We didn't just want to have something. Oh yeah, this is our newsletter and we just update you on stuff. This is truly an experience. In your inbox that gives you something that you can take, even if it's not right in that moment, you can save it for later. But we really wanted to take what, as Elizabeth said, what we experienced during our virtual and in-person retreat that we had in July. Bring it to the inbox because we know there are probably many of you who are like, oh, we really wanted to join. But of course it was 4th of July weekend. But schedule-wise, that was what worked for us. So we just went with it. Um, and we did have some wonderful participants who, shared that, you know, they might not have otherwise committed to their writing, so that was really exciting for us to hear. And we thought, well, what can we bring? To everyone, and this is what came up and it's really the idea is that. an opportunity for you to explore prompts or activities that we suggest that really can spark your creativity, you to get into a writing practice that helps you feel more grounded. In yourself and to write the stories that are really deeply personal.'cause we know, um, that it can be really hard to go to those places sometimes that are deep within us. But this is an opportunity for you to do it in your own space, on your own time. And it's really about. When you really feel at the core, you're really able to bring more to your story, whether it's memoir, whether it's a novel, but when you can really find the space yourself, just is so powerful.

Elizabeth: 5:28

And it's also that invitation to like get out of your head, right? We as writers at times, really struggle to get past. Um, all of that critique and thinking brain and just get into our bodies to tap into the memories and the feelings around those memories. The visceral shifts that we felt at the time, whether it was like tingling in your fingers or your pounding heartbeat or, uh, a chill up your back. Right? And so this is to help us like get out of our heads a little bit. So that we can write those first drafts that capture all of that beautiful essence. Not thinking about those future drafts, not thinking about the edits, not thinking about, you know, what your reader is going to take away from this at that moment. But really just getting those words onto the page in their essence, in their, all of their raw, vulnerable beauty. Um, so that you have a beautiful palette and template to work from later on in the editing process.

Stephanie: 6:33

Well, and also as writers, I mean, we're always looking for the opportunities of, oh, you know, I'd love to be part of a retreat. I'd love to be

Elizabeth: 6:40

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: 6:41

you know, a community, and this is one way to be part of our community. And learn about what we're bringing to you and to experience that retreat, like, material that you might not find just by a simple Google search or you get lost going down the rabbit hole that way and this way, I mean, you don't even have to think about it. It comes to your inbox on Thursdays and. In our emails on Mondays and Tuesdays, which also connect very closely with the Embodied Writer experience. And you'll have choices. And it's a great way to allow yourself to have the time to write. And one of the series that I've been doing for our Thursday emails has been about the chakras and the chakras. Weren't something that I've always focused on through my whole life. I mean, I've heard about it, but it wasn't really until I started a yoga practice in 2019 this idea of the chakras, which are, if you're not familiar with them, are energy centers in your body that trace up your spine and you can visualize them as spinning wheels of energy. And it's, each of them is related to a particular aspect of ourselves. so I started thinking, you know. is definitely one way that you can really embody every aspect of yourself is through grounding in the chakras, because it's a very tangible idea to think about, like, okay, there's this energy center and it's. starts at the root when you're sitting on the ground, the base of your spine, you're rooted down and that's where you start. each one is associated with a color. The root is red. And so as you sit in that energy, you can visualize the color in that space and. brings you to a point of allowing for groundedness at that space for you as a writer. And so in that email, you know, I gave some prompts and a few of them were, you know, you think, am I to tell this story? And you know, what will people think? you just allow yourself to. Sit with those questions you can journal them, you can think them, whatever, you know, works for you. But as the, as the weeks went on, I, you know, moved up the sort of, I guess you could say the different energy spaces and offered, uh, different ideas and each, email's a little bit different. Some have prompts, some have reflection points. Um, some, some are some activities to like fill your day as like, here's an idea for a one day, you know, retreat to dive into a particular chakra. so it's been well received by our community. This idea of really thinking about getting into the body and, and the chakras are one way where it allows you to do that.

Elizabeth: 10:27

I've loved them. You've done such a great job in crafting these experiences, and the really cool thing is. Well, I've been receiving them weekly as you know, someone who gets these emails and I don't always know what you're gonna put out, but it's cool to see the synergy between my Tuesday memoir emails and your Thursday emails, especially as you got to the heart. And we were talking about core message, and that's a big aspect of our memoir, master plan program. But even when you're talking about the root, the the concept of like, why do I wanna tell this story? Why am I the person who can provide this perspective? That's where we all start as memoir writers, is feeling that conviction and that groundedness in our own story, in our own lived experience, and recognizing the value in that and cultivating that desire to share it, because there's so many aspects of it that. You, you hear those little voices in your head, those seed of doubt of like, oh, this would make you look very egotistical to think that you have some value to impart here, or no one, your experience isn't different enough from anyone else's. Um, but it is, and it's uniquely yours, your set of perspectives. And so the way that you help us, not just. Go into our bodies, but take some of the things that I'm sharing on Tuesdays related to memoir writing specifically, and help us. Feel that throughout our bodies. It's such a great series, and we're not even all the way through. You've still got a couple of more chakra centers to talk through, and once that's all completed, we'll have that as a full series. Um, DIY download that you can do and. You can either mark off a week or and do one chakra per day. You could mark off like a weekend and do like the full series, whatever it is. That's the kind of thing we are trying to build out for you guys. Um, so that you can, you don't have to wait, you know, for our quarterly offering of our free virtual writers retreats, which the next one's coming up in October, um, you don't have to wait for those. You can create that at any point. That you need it. And in this busy world with all of these different inputs, it's so nice to be able to quiet ourselves down to remember that we have the choice. Of consuming or creating. And this is an avenue to help you switch those channels from a need to consume. Maybe that's out of fear, that's out of uncertainty and these shifting, changing times. Um, maybe it's just uncertainty and just the value of your own story or how to get started, but what you've built out, Stephanie, with these Thursday emails in this. Particularly the chakra series right now is an avenue for all of us to go back to that essence and to be able to sit quietly and have some practices, have some things to think about, have some even activities as far as like your body positioning or breathing exercises to really feel that energy and cultivate a space for creativity to come through.

Stephanie: 13:50

Well, and I've been having so much fun writing the series because I feel like it's even brought for me this new recharge in my energy around my own writing. And I know I shared with you that recently I had this inspiration for a new idea for a book and it connects to one that I'm already working on and I was able to just sit down and write a whole outline, which. I feel like has been driven by this work around the chakras and allowing myself to really sit down because even as I'm writing these I'm really sort of going through them in a very brief way. I'm reading it, I'm thinking about it. And I mean, that's the embodiment part is, is really just soaking it in and thinking about it. Even for my own writing, you know, in fiction I've talked about this and the interesting thing, as you've mentioned about the heart chakra and coming back to the core and even, you know, your solar plexus and this. Sacral chakra, I mean all of those sort of centers of our body where, you know, that idea of, going with your gut and that core message piece. What was so interesting for me, especially with the start of the memoir, master plan cohort, is that while I'm not writing memoir, was able to really land on what is the core message of my fiction writing Like, like that, even though. I'm, you know, not in the, you know, in the cohort other than as a supportive coach. Um, all of those pieces are just and they, and it is that aspect of soaking it in and feeling it in my, you know, in my body and like, well, how does this idea feel? And it was just so cool to land on, oh, well, this is my core message and I really feel like there's this influence of all of these pieces along the way. Like, and that's the cool thing, I mean, with this series, and as you said, you know, complimenting it with what you share on Tuesday in your emails. And so listener there'll be a link to join with the embodied writing experience, but you also have choices with our list and you can choose to also get, you know, Monday where you won't miss an update about the podcast and, you know, behind the scenes, information there. Or Tuesday when. Elizabeth shares incredible insights on memoir writing from all of her deep reading in memoir, her own memoir journey, the, you know, what she's experiencing right now with a cohort. The cohort that is in session. so, you know, these are all things that you don't wanna miss and why you wanna be on our list.

Elizabeth: 16:52

Absolutely. You know, Stephanie talking about the way that the like feeds off of each other. You just released the throat chakra one recently and it was just so timely because it was a great reminder for me as the leader of this group. To remember to use my own voice, but also find ways to cultivate space for each of these women to find their voices and to use their voices and make sure that everyone is heard and everyone feels supported, and all of that is throat chakra activation. That's so important for anyone that has a message that they want to share with the world, because at some point you're gonna have to talk about it, right? It's not just enough to like feel it and to write it down. Like at some point there, there comes a part of, of sharing it and receiving feedback, receiving guidance, what we're, whatever that looks like at whatever stage you're at. But sharing your story is one of the 12 main reasons why people write memoir in the first place is because they want to feel seen. They want to feel known, like the the, the deep. Sense of peace. It gives you to, to know that someone else can read your story and you will finally feel known and understood in some aspect of your life is huge and a big motivator behind why people write memoir. It's interesting because there, there are at least two women out of the three that are in the group right now that came to memoir writing. Because of their own healing journey, like they started to write down their stories because they were seeking healing. It didn't start as a sharing, it started as like a, I feel like something is off. You can feel that in your body. You can feel it in your gut. And and then they started exploring their stories and they started to notice these patterns and these cycles. And that's the beauty. I think the biggest takeaway from writing memoir is the personal development that you're encouraged to go through just as a person, whether you ever share that story or not. Being able to notice those patterns and notice those cycles and then decide, is this a cycle that feels healthy to me? Is this something that it is just helpful to know about myself that I go through these cycles? Or is it a pattern that I am ready to shift out of? Is it something that was handed down to me that I'm ready to, you know, go a different way on? And how, what does that look like? Well, now I see what all the precursors are because I can see this pattern repeating in my life, and this time I'm gonna do something different and I'm just gonna see what that ends up looking like. And so it's, it's so encouraging and this. This is just what we, we hope for the writers in our community, whether that's you listeners, or whether that's the women that have opted into the master plan cohort or those that attend with us virtually with our writers retreats and other offerings. Is that we just want to create a space where you know your story is valued, where you feel seen and known, and where if you are wanting to share your story more broadly. Then you feel supported in that. And I think that's so beautiful, Stephanie, the way that you've taken that core message concept, because I've said for a long time that this isn't just for memoir, it is essential for memoir, but it also adds so much depth to any. Any narrative, even if you're taking from your lived experience and fictionalizing it and playing with it and trying a different ending than what you lived, or you know, a different environment than where, how you grew up, because you wanna play with those aspects. That core message piece is what your reader's gonna resonate with because it's that core message that is going to reach through the pages and. Tickle something in their own experience, right? It's going to stimulate something that, that they've, you know, maybe haven't fully explored. And you're gonna be guiding them through your narrative memoir or fiction and showing them away, not necessarily the way, but a way. And sometimes just being presented with possibilities, um, can really lead to some beautiful things. And that's what you're doing in your Thursday emails. There's no sense of, oh, you have to do all of these exercises, or you need to go through this series of prompts. Pick and choose what works for you, or identify which chakra you're feeling kind of stuck on, and go and explore why that might be through these writing prompts.

Stephanie: 21:50

Well, and what I love what you said at, at the beginning about the chakra and you know, using your voice because one. I love, uh, as part of your memoir, master plan cohort is, is watching. Being part of the energy of the women in the group seeing how masterfully you forth their comfort level at voicing their, their lived experience. Their women in the group who have felt like their voice hasn't mattered, and, and it's so cool to see. Even in just the very beginning of your cohort that, that they're feeling that they can. Speak what their experience is, and they're feeling that comfort and you're allowing the space for that. And it's so beautiful to see that. And, and that's also part of this whole embodied writing experience. Yes, you can get this in your inbox on, on Thursdays, or you can get more from us on Mondays and Tuesdays if that's your preference, but also. If you're a memoir writer or you're feeling like, oh, you know, nobody's gonna going to want to listen to my story because it doesn't matter, that's not true at all. I mean, we want you to know that we're here to hold space for your experience to allow you to explore how you can bring your story to others because the human experience. Is very universal. When you start to talk about your experience, you begin to realize that other people in your journey in some way. They might not have had the same experience, but there's this sharing and there's this connection that happens and we found that so powerfully. Just in starting this podcast, and we had no idea when we started that all of a sudden we were going to, going to be building these connections with incredible, know, people and women who are, who are just bold and brave about sharing their stories. And that's what this writing experience is about, it's, it's not just about cultivating the creativity, but allowing for that shared collective experience that brings you community and of course community as you know, listener, if you've been listening for a while, like we are really, I mean, we are all about the power of community here. And so that is also what is so incredible about the memoir master plan. Cohort and if, and if you miss this round, make sure to get, you know, on our list for, so you don't miss out on when the next, when the doors open again for it. Because trust me, if you have a story you wanna share, you don't wanna miss the opportunity.

Elizabeth: 24:55

Oh, thank you Stephanie for saying that. Yeah, it's, it's such an honor to be able to create that space and it's why I intentionally keep the group women only and very, very, very small. So yeah, the offerings are usually not open for long because there's limited space, because I think the small group is the best avenue for cultivating that. Um. And I, I just feel always so honored in the ability to hold that space for these women because I think that's one of the key pieces that's lacking in so many of the other either DIY programs or a mass group programs for any sort of writing, whether it's fiction or even memoir, is you, these stories are so personal and so big and so tender that. I think there, it's been in my experience when I've tried other avenues and when I was seeking guidance for myself and my own writing process, that there just was not enough. Um, care given to the way that these emotions come up to the vulnerability that's required to really share your story and get any sort of feedback or guidance on it. It's. Terrifying. Right. And because I know this and because I saw a, a void of this, a lack in so many other of the programs that are out there, that's why I've created the memoir master plan cohort. And I, I'm so lucky to get to work with these women and have them share their stories because, I mean, it, it helps me feel. Seen and validated. I mean, the, just the way like the, the four of us were sitting in this first week's meeting and found like a ver a very pronounced common thread between all of our stories, like. It, it's so cool the way that that organically works out with each iteration of the groups. And it's different every time, even though we have some people who return group after group because that's one of the perks of the program. Pay once, come back as many times as you need to to get your story written. Um, but it's so cool how each group has its own kind of combined. Recipe and signature dish, right? Everyone's adding their own ingredients to the pot, and then it all brews together and creates this beautiful elixir that we all get to enjoy and, and pull from, um, for our creativity. So yeah, it's been a real honor to be able to hold that space for everyone.

Stephanie: 27:34

Well, and I think that that's one of the beautiful aspects of being part of a writing community. And that's part of our idea behind creating this retreat like experience is that yes, we have busy lives and we have a lot going on, but when you can create some time and space for yourself, even if it's at your kitchen table or on the couch in the evenings or wherever it might be. Um, this embodied writing experience is for you and for you to, as Elizabeth mentioned earlier take from it what you need and set aside other pieces and it's. again, our way of building that connected community of creativity. And so listener, we invite you to join us on our list and be a part of this community that we're building around, memoir, sharing your story. Whatever way you're showing up to write, we're here to hold space for you. The links are in. The description and the details and we look forward to having you be a part of our community and hopefully get on our list for a next round of the memoir master plan cohort because it's a beautiful space for you to share your story.

Elizabeth: 29:01

That's also how we send out the links for the quarterly virtual writer's retreat, and when you initially sign up, we'll automatically add you to all of these categories, but you can always click the preferences tab at the bottom of your email to opt in or out of whatever thing. Is not for you or that you want to be involved in. So it's definitely up to your preference and how involved you wanna be, but um, and we're also very open to your feedback to hearing what your needs are and what you're seeking. Um, and we're ultimately just trying to do this for you guys because this is something that's helped us and we believe that is something that can help you as well. All.