You are invited to
the Wild at Heart and Weird on Top
Story-Writing Jam Sessions.
Why?
We women in midlife with creative minds — we’ve spent too much of our time worrying that we’re not good enough. That we’re a mess. That we don’t have anything powerful to add to the world.
That’s not true.
The world needs our divergent thinking, our creativity, and our compassion.
Your stories matter.
I want to help you to rewrite your stories.
Writing your stories without judgment of yourself is a radical act.
Radical.
When you write your stories, without judgment, you can you build a new awareness of yourself in the world.
And with this awareness, you can — with the passage of time — start to change how you treat yourself.
You can start to let go of that weighted cloak of shame.
It takes enormous feminine strength to allow ourselves to live our lives without that shame.
You can develop that strength, one piece of writing at a time.
And it's much easier in a community of other women writing, women who will get you.
Join in on our LIVE ONLINE WRITING session,
WHICH HAPPENS EVERY SATURDAY FROM 11 a.m. TO 12:30 P.M., PACIFIC
Here's how it works.
We need community — the women we know we can count on seeing, in a regular routine, deepening our connections every week — more than ever now.
That’s why I have created the Wild at Heart and Weird on Top Story-Writing Jam Sessions.
And here’s why I’d love to see you here.
Every Saturday, we gather online at 11 a.m., Pacific, to 12:30 p.m.. Whether there are 3 of us or 33, we meet together. We trade stories. And then I give us a writing prompt.
You do not have to be good.
I help us to ground, mindfully.
And then we breathe and wait for an image to arise.
Go. Start writing.
Write down whatever tangible image arose in your mind. And, for the next 15 minutes, without stopping, we write the story of where that image came from.
We trust our bodies.
We trust the words that emerge from our pens.
Afterwards, we read these pieces of writing out loud to each other. (Not required, of course, but encouraged.) And we listen, openly, kindly.
Each of us says something we loved.
We feel safe and seen.
We always feel lighter.
And then we say our goodbyes until the next Saturday.
That’s it.
As Sherry, who has begun writing with us, said:
“A habit is forming. I wrote again this morning. I’m playing with showing not telling, feeling not intellectualizing. Transformation not information. It is like a warm hug I’m giving myself.”
Who doesn’t need a warm hug right now?
And, it’s free. Every single week. No strings attached.
(I’ll pass around the proverbial plate for donations, if you should feel like giving one, but no requirement for that.)
Come. Be part of this. It will help.
I can guarantee you that — this will help.
It's always free.
I'm Shauna James Ahern.
I’m a 5-books-published writer, James-Beard award-winning author, and a deeply experienced writing teacher.
I've been writing stories as long as I could hold a pen. I keep my eyes open for glimmers of joy. And every day I move my pen forward, capturing the beautiful mess of being alive.
I'm a mess. And I'm alive.
At 55, I was formally diagnosed with ADHD. (I had been diagnosed with complex PTSD a few years before. That combination is something else.)
That diagnosis — and finding the right medication — helped me to quiet my mind. I began to realize that every story I had told myself about not being good enough was simply that — a story.
Since I'm a writer, I began writing my stories every day, the way I had after having a TIA in 2015. (That work led to my memoir, ENOUGH.)
Over time, by writing my stories without judgment, I built a grounded awareness.
I could SEE how so much of what I felt about myself — I'm a mess; I can't do this; I'm not good enough — was directly a result of my ADHD.
I no longer blame myself for the way my brain is built.
I want to give you the same liberating awareness.
In order to create anything good, we need to create a routine.
(Did you know that creativity is the antidote to anxiety?)
Those of us with ADHD (or other neurospicy minds)? Our minds cannot make habits. It doesn't happen. Honestly, we’ll never remember to write our stories without a reminder on the phone.
Or, we need a standing weekly routine to write with other women like us. Like you.
If you want to create a solid writing routine that can change your life, then come to the Wild at Heart and Weird on Top Story-Writing Jam Sessions.
We meet every Saturday, at 11 a.m. Pacific to 12:30 p.m., online.
Each week at that time, we meet to listen to each other’s stories, write together (but you do not have to be good), and hold space for each other, openly.
We’re building a supportive environment where we can be honest and vulnerable about the stories we’ve been telling ourselves.