Happy Friday!
I want to invite you to join me for a FREE Masterclass: The Four Steps to Reclaim Your Story and Revitalize Your Writing!
In this class, I teach my unique integrated method of writing that brings together close readings, writing, meditation, and yoga so that you can write from a truly integrated place and access your full experiences and power. This seems all the more important in these times.
I'll be offering the class online live three times:
- Tuesday, May 6 at 7pm ET/ 4pm PT/ 12pm England
- Wednesday, May 7 at 3pm ET/ 12pm PT/ 8pm England
- Thursday, May 8th at 12pm ET/ 9am PT/ 5pm England
Do try to come live because it's a richer experience live, and there will be some opportunities only for people who are there live. But if you can't make any of these times, sign up for Thursday's class to receive a recording.
This is my most robust free teaching, and I offer something like this only once a year. I'll be teaching you to:
- Avoid the three common mistakes most writers make
- Use four essential steps to revitalize your writing and come to greater clarity
- Unite mind and body
- Harness the power of yoga and meditation to access your full voice and story
- See the structure of your work (and life) better
- Tap into your full creative range— the challenging and the joyous parts
- Bring your writing to the next level
There will be time for questions and answers at the end, so come with questions about the writing life. The class will last 75-90 minutes, depending on the number of questions I get at the end.
Even if you've been to a similar class before, I think you'll get something new from this one.
The class is for writers of any level and genre, and I'd love to see you there! Join For Free.
This is an uncertain, worrisome period. But one thing I know for certain is that in every single thing we do, understanding our story, bringing together mind and body, and nurturing our creativity will make us more resilient, more fulfilled, and ultimately more able to use our voices and help others--not to mention, of course, that our writing itself benefits from being integrated in ourselves.
I studied English in college and graduate school because literature was the one place people seemed to express the deep, true, often unsaid experiences of what it means to be alive as an individual. I had silenced stories that I wanted to express, and the world itself— this complex, beautiful, difficult world--seemed to be calling to me to pay attention, to give voice to it, and to notice and celebrate the beauty.
When I read literature, I felt more attuned to the largeness of the world and the value of what it means to be a person—a unique individual despite the larger forces that might want to quell our individual voices.
But the more advanced my studies became, the less attention was given to what had drawn me to literature in the first place. Things became academic, analytical, dried out.
So I started to turn from literary scholarship to creative writing. But creative writing classes, too, often become analytical and impersonal. The end product—producing "good work"—comes to overshadow the initial desire to capture the essence, wonder, and transformations. And in our desire for "good writing," we narrow ourselves and our writing. We start to pay attention too much attention to the surface at the expense of the deeper meanings.
My goal is to approach writing from the whole person experience—as a sacred act. And I believe that when we do this, not only is our experience more enjoyable, but our writing itself becomes richer and more alive. It deepens into what its true purpose is: to call us into what makes each of us unique, to give value and meaning to our struggles, and to praise the wonder that it is to be alive.
I'll hope to see you in the Free Masterclass.
Please invite friends and family to join us! Whether you are just beginning to write or you are a published writer, if you have a story in your that could use a little extra attention, I think you'll love this class.
Here is what participants have said about a similar class:
“I’ve done your 15-minute meditation recordings and have found them transformational, but this class gave me new insights into what it is I really want to say in my writing!”
"I can't wait to get back to work on my novel. This class gave me new inspiration."
"I see my way forward with the book of poems I'm writing. The answer is in my body."
“I’ve done your 15-minute meditation recordings and have found them transformational, but this class gave me new insights into what it is I really want to say in my writing!”
with love,
Nadia
PS: If you're in the Boston area, I'd love to see you at my poetry reading at Porter Square Books on Thursday, May 8th at 7pm. And then come out for a drink after! RSVP for free and see more here.
PPS: If you haven't already gotten it, I'm also sharing a PDF with some ideas about how to use your voice politically in these times. Email me at nadia@nadiacolburn.com if you'd like me to send it to you. I very much believe that our personal work and our public work, our creative work and our work as activists go hand in hand.