The Conduit Writing Sessions

The Conduit

silent creative writing sessions

“Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.” —Henry David Thoreau

Write while the heat is in you… many of us are hungry for a space to release creatively that which we have been holding inside. Stories that haunt us in our dreams. Characters that feel like family who whisper sometimes in loud, dominating voices that they have a story they need us to get down on the page. If I am being honest this quote is exactly the reason why I have decided to share my creative space in silence with you. There is a story that I must write and it can no longer be postponed.

One of the things I know to be true is that we writers often struggle making time to write and often have a difficult time honoring and establishing rituals that might work for us. Many of us have abandoned our stories. Many of us have abandoned writing. Many of us have abandoned our dreams.

“And I cried… for all of the women who stretched their bodies for civilizations only to find ruins.”  —Sonia Sanchez

This is why we write, isn’t it? To explore the ruins! To answer life’s questions! To create the world we live in or would like to live in!

During an interview Toni Morrison was asked about her morning writing rituals to which she responded, “At first, I thought I didn’t have a ritual, but then I remembered that I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come. I realized that for me this ritual comprises my preparation to enter a space that I can only call nonsecular . . .  She continued, “Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make contact, where they become the conduit, or where they engage in this mysterious process. For me, light is the signal in the transition. It’s not being in the light, it’s being there before it arrives.

“Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact…”

I am thinking about what it means to approach that place where I can expect to make contact—the place where I am open to the surprises my story wants to reveal to me. Making contact allows me to enter a space of enthusiasm, awe and wonder. That place where I can surrender to the page and allow myself to flow and get lost in the words. Being a conduit to me means that I am allowing myself to be a vessel for the story that is aching to be born. The Conduit knows its purpose. The Conduit provides a way. The conduit is obedient. The Conduit sits down to WRITE THE FCKING STORY.

“It’s not being in the light, it’s being there before it arrives.”

So what are THE CONDUIT silent writing sessions?

These are 5AM morning sessions all about us being there before the light arrives.  Our 5AM writing sessions are a deliberate and intentional practice. This is not time for paying bills or making to do lists. These silent writing sessions are for us to show up ready to be the conduit and prepared for the work that wants be birthed.

During these silent sessions we will use the pomodoro method a time management technique:

1.  Choose a single task you will focus on and write it down.  At the top of each session we will share our writing goal.

2.  A timer is set to 25 minutes. (Focused/intentional writing)

3.  Work on the task until the timer rings and put a checkmark on your paper.

4.  Take a short 5 minute break.

5.  Work for another 25 minutes. (Focused/intentional writing)

6.  After 3-4 work periods of 25 minutes, take a longer 20-30 minute break.

By the end of our time together we will have completed 4 pomodoros of writing.

“If you are expecting someone to come to tea but you’re not going to be there, they may not come, and if I were them, I wouldn’t come. So, [writing a book is] about receptivity and being home when your guest is expected, or even when you hope that they will come.” -- Alice Walker

The Conduit sessions start tomorrow, Wednesday, April 13th @ 5AM - 7AM until May 13th through June 13th, 2022. You can register at any time. These silent sessions will be what you make of them. No one is holding your hand. The story will be there whether you show up or not. The muse is always awaiting your return.

See you there.

Love,

Alicia