Writing With Your Whole Self: Exploring the Power of Embodied Narratives
Writing is never just about words on a page. It’s about what the body remembers, what the heart carries, and what the spirit longs to release. Too often, traditional writing workshops strip creativity down to a purely intellectual exercise. But storytelling is bigger than that—it lives in the breath, in the posture, in the silences, and in the places we’ve tucked away memory. That’s where Embodied Narratives comes in.
What Does It Mean to Write with Your Whole Self?
Writing with your whole self means bringing all of you—your body, your ancestry, your emotions, and your imagination—into the creative process. Instead of approaching storytelling as a technical craft alone, this practice invites you to notice how movement, memory, and lived experience are woven together in the act of creation.
Your story doesn’t just live in your mind; it lives in your gestures, your tone, your breath. By grounding writing in the body, you open space for deeper truths to emerge—truths that might have been hidden beneath layers of silence, fear, or self-editing.
The Embodied Narratives Approach
Our Embodied Narratives program was created as an alternative to traditional MFA-style workshops. Instead of harsh critique or detached analysis, we practice an anti-racist, decolonized model of community storytelling. Here, writing is not just an intellectual exercise—it is an act of presence, healing, and reclamation.
Writers come together in intentional community, supporting one another as they take risks on the page. Feedback isn’t about “fixing” a piece but about honoring its voice and helping the writer discover what is asking to be born.
Introducing Seedlings: Affectionately Called “Embers”
As an expansion of the Embodied Narratives program, Embodied Narratives – Seedlings—lovingly known as Embers—offers a 13-week space to generate new material and deepen your practice. Led by Anya Pearson and Lex Macnab, this workshop meets weekly on Wednesday nights and begins with intentional introductions and co-working.
From there, the structure blooms: each week, two participants bring in seven pages of fresh writing, sparking conversations, reflections, and encouragement. Across four rounds, you’ll accumulate pages upon pages of new work—fanning the flame of your creative spirit.
The goal is simple yet profound: write as much as you can in the company of others who are also committed to the process.
Why This Matters
When you write with your whole self, you stop holding back. You stop censoring the parts of your story that feel too vulnerable, too political, too messy. You give yourself permission to be both writer and witness, both body and voice.
In Embodied Narratives and Seedlings (Embers), you’ll find:
A community that honors the body as a site of story.
A practice that values truth over perfection.
A rhythm of accountability that keeps the fire burning.
A chance to generate more material than you thought possible.
A Final Word
Writing is not just about the page—it’s about how we show up to ourselves and to one another. In Embodied Narratives, you are invited to write with your whole self. In Seedlings (Embers), you are invited to keep writing, keep tending the fire, and keep discovering the stories waiting to emerge.
Because your story isn’t just something you tell. It’s something you live.
