How Embodied Writing differs from mainstream writing courses

(Hint: I won’t tell you to save the cat… for the hundredth time)

Embodied Writing values depth over speed 

Traditional courses are about moving forward – and doing it in the fastest way possible. 

But now that NanoWriMo has died (RIP), perhaps it’s time to ask: What would happen if instead of trying to finish my book in a month, I focused on going deep instead?

Embodied writing is about getting out of the shallows and finding your swim stride in the greater depths of your psyche. 

It’s about letting the currents of creativity take you to unknown new places. Places that excite you, even scare you a little – because that’s where growth happens.

It’s about honouring your writing project as an organic, cyclical and seasonal thing, instead of trying to run yourself ragged, finishing it at any cost to your writing – and yourself. 

Non-linear methods allow you to find the richest, freshest material

Traditional resources are all about a linear, logical, head-based approach to writing. Teachings revolve around how to plot your story before you begin writing, how to divide your screenplay into so many beats, or how to insert the most salesy buzzwords in your copywriting. 

This approach can make your writing sound… a little clichéd. 

Writing from the body allows us to find the richest stuff. The boldest, most real thing.

The Embodied Writing way uses non-linear movement, coaching and writing methods to contact parts of yourself – and your writing – that may have been hidden even from yourself.

You’ll find your writing gets more daring and experimental. You’ll find it connects better with readers, because it came from that very human part of you.

And there’s not much richer than that.

Embodied writing is about getting out of the shallows and finding your swim stride in the greater depths of your psyche. 

Writing from a place of pleasure allows you to have FUN!

The paint-by-numbers approach isn’t a great way to write for a lot of creative people.

It leaves writing feeling rather like a maths equation. I don’t know about you, but I was the kid scribbling poetry in the back of maths class!

Embodied Writing teaches you how to source writing from a place of pleasure. It gives you permission to be playful, to experiment, to get messy and silly.

It allows you to fall in love with the writing process again.

And that makes it more likely that you’ll find your way back to writing, again and again. Now that’s what I call a sustainable writing practice. 

Embodied Writing allows us to explore our rich inner world of feelings  

Traditional writing approaches focus on writing as a brain-based activity. 

But many of my clients are drawn to writing as a way to explore their inner world of feelings. As a way of making sense of what’s happened to them.

They intuitively know that writing is cathartic, a form of therapy. But they’ve only ever been shown how to write from the head, not the heart. 

As someone who has been through innumerable grief myself, I can hand-on-heart say that writing is one of the best forms of therapy. It’s the thing that’s saved me again and again, the thing that’s there for me when nothing else helps.

That’s because Embodied Writing allows us to honour, observe and welcome our feelings. To move with, as and through them.

And in doing so, we’re bringing parts of ourselves on board that will not only make us better, stronger writers, but more complete, aware humans too. 

Embodied writing brings the writer into the writing process

Most writing courses separate the writer from their writing – in fact, the writer as a person doesn’t get much attention at all.

Yet writing doesn’t happen by itself – it emerges through this magical, messy portal called a human being (unless it’s AI generated but, let’s face it, that’s based on writing by people too).

And human beings get stuck. We get overwhelmed and petrified and we torture ourselves about whether our writing is good enough, original enough, non-controversial enough…

As the kids say these days, ‘we live in a society’. And the scariest thing, from an evolutionary point of view, is being kicked out of the tribe, forced to fend for ourselves.

Truth is, when you separate the writing from the writer, often no writing happens at all. 

I want you to embody your writing, and your role as a writer, so that when your words are ready, so are you.

Embodied Writing teaches us things like:

• How to harness the power of the nervous system to do your best writing
• How to bring ourselves out of writer’s block and ingrained procrastination patterns, again and again
• How to create a sustainable writing practice that will grow with you 
• How to be a productive writer as a real person with tons of demands on your time 
• How to embody the courage to actually share your story

And there’s nothing more empowering as a writer than finding the write tools for your toolbox .

Ready to break up with what’s keeping you back and find your writing stride again? Book a one-hour Find Your Flow session with me – and fall in love with writing again!