flamingseed

I HAVE BEEN WRITING since I could pick up a pen. I was a shy and unbounded kid. Early on, I discovered that writing was the best way for me to connect with the deepest part of myself--the part I would now call my soul.

I SEE "THE SOUL" AS THE PLACE IN EACH OF US where humanness meets the divine—the personal meets the universal. When writing comes from the soul, it doesn’t matter whether someone is skilled as a writer—or original or grammatical or poetic. If the writing is soulful, it stirs me, moves me, makes me want to live with depth—makes me appreciate being human. However much I admire virtuosity, beautifully crafted pieces without soul as the source just don’t do much for me.

I FACILITATE WRITING FROM THE SOUL CIRCLES, where writers gather in an atmosphere of openness and non-judgment to freewrite together from soul-inviting prompts. We are all shy in an atmosphere of critique, and so the point of these circles is to create an atmosphere of acceptance and deep play, and to receive each other deeply through our writing. The point isn’t to create finished pieces, but to be generative—to open the channels and get us writing for the fun of it. I personally find the resulting freewrites to be rich sources of material that I later mine for poems, essays and stories. In fact, my first piece for the Huffington Post was seeded by a freewrite from one of these groups. The circles are also great fun and can be deeply healing. How often have we been received without fear of critique and evaluation? What a relief.

ONLINE ISN'T QUITE THE SAME AS AN IN-PERSON GROUP, but this forum will keep us connected and writing together as a community. Here on WritersCafe, and also on the Writing from the Soul facebook page, I’ll be posting weekly prompts for all of us to freewrite on. In response, we can post either our full freewrites or excerpts from them—the next best thing to being able to read them aloud to each other. We can also share finished writing and find other writers we feel particularly in tune with to exchange work for feedback.

IF YOU'D LIKE SUPPORT FOR YOUR LIFE AS A WRITER, I coach writers in bringing their work to the next level, and have supported numerous authors as they wrote their books. I also do editorial work, consult on self-publishing, and am a professional book designer. You can learn more about me and my services at flamingseed.com.


LET'S DISCOVER TOGETHER how to use the capabilities of this site to communicate as a community. Please know that I am always open to feedback, suggestions, ideas and inspirations.

Thanks for joining me for some deep play!

-flamingseed