The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
It’s about listening. It’s about opening. And it’s about accessing what lives below the surface so that the ink spills beauty, insights, stories, and truth.
Beth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
Writing is both sacred and ordinary if ordinary means part of our day-to-day life, and something that anyone can do without any particular training, or money or experience. Yet when we make it sacred in the simplest of ways, by giving it our full attention, we send ourselves an important message about its place in our lives.
Beth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
be enough for now? When we do this we realize that everything we need is already here. We do not need any kind of external validation or material success in order to write, or keep writing. When we focus on writing as a sacred act, we stop trying to control what happens. A writing life stops being something we dream about and becomes something we a
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I wrote what wanted to be written, putting it on the page without judgment. I learned that editing was a separate process that I could engage with once I had done the deep work and surfaced the truth of what needed to be said. I abandoned all attempts to force my idea too soon, instead giving it time to be floaty and undefined for a while before ge
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Any time I ask my children if they want to play something or have a dance party they always say yes. We have journaling club every Monday after school. We cut stuff out of magazines, stamp with our fingers, draw maps and houses, write about our dreams. We are not trying to achieve anything; we are just enjoying time together creating, with snacks.
Beth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
When embarking on a great project, start where you are with something small. JAPANESE PROVERB
Beth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
Writing can be medicine for our modern ills. It can be a tool to help us excavate our lives and begin to understand ourselves and others. It can help us grapple with desire, navigate change, cope with stress, celebrate, offer thanks, grieve, heal, and inspire others. Writing can be a means of escape, or a way to arrive fully in this moment, appreci
... See moreBeth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
I let go of my own desire, relinquishing any specific ambitions for the book, and I simply focused on the practice of writing instead. I started to treat that practice as sacred. I brought ritual to my work and opened up to not knowing what would happen next. I entertained the paradox that our writing matters immensely, and not at all. In doing so
... See moreBeth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
When embarking on a great project, start where you are with something small. JAPANESE PROVERB
Beth Kempton • The Way of the Fearless Writer: Mindful Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life
But you will never be alone with your heart as your compass and writing as your guide. Fewer fears will arise, you will fear less often, and the intensity of your fear will reduce with practice and experience. If your path opens up new fears, you will know to return to your heart and deal with them too.