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Conscious Writers Collective

@consciouswriters

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The online campus for writers 👇🏼
Learn from acclaimed authors. Write alongside peers.

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There is no flawless life. There will always be something we wish were different.

But when we live according to 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 to us and choose the story we want to live, we strengthen our self-respect and dignity by reclaiming our own authority.

We can then meet the life that follows without regret, not because every choice turns out perfectly, but because we take 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 for the life we are creating―with all its joy and pain.

#WordsInPassing
#liveauthentically #liveinalignment
#reclaimyourauthority

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Everyone loves giving writing advice. “Just write,” they say. “Read more,” they say. But what if it doesn’t work? And what does?

@mayacpopa, poet and founder of @consciouswriters, shares 3 things over a decade of teaching has taught her about how writers actually improve →

When I first started teaching creative writing, I ended the semester with the usual placid advice: if you want to write, read.

Today, after working with hundreds of writers as a teacher, editor, and founder of Conscious Writers Collective (CWC), I concede that I no longer think that advice is sufficient.

For writers pursuing MFAs and seeking publication, advising them to “read” feels lazy when I know a student’s “what now?” is collapsing two questions: How do I get better at this? How do I get published? Reading passively won’t bring about the transformation most are after.

You need to figure out what makes development possible for you. How will you keep writing and refining your writing after the one-off workshop, five years after the degree, or 30 years into your practice?

It matters how you read if the goal is to develop your craft. Trying something once is not the same as making that knowledge available to you as a kind of muscle memory when you need it. It takes slowing down to metabolize, then put into practice, what you are learning. We’ve talked about this at length in @consciouswriters Office Hours.

Our strength can become our limitation. A beginning writer’s weaknesses are easy to see and address. Growth often happens by default at first, and less so as time goes on.

It gets harder to improve. I often describe it as turning a screw: the more tightly it’s already wedged in, the greater the resistance. So writers cultivate a kind of shorthand of rhythms, gestures, and ways of making meaning that become their signature. But there’s little growth in repetition.

This is one reason @consciouswriters exposes writers to multiple instructor perspectives. The best literary community isn’t a room where everyone shares the same taste—that would risk becoming an aesthetic echo chamber. The goal is to learn to trust your own compass.

I was adamant about wanting to build a space where wr

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Just a few words that arose in silence.

Written down as quickly as I could at the very end of my annual meditation retreat, before they faded away with the passing of the conditions that brought them into being.

These words came through me, but they are:

Not me.
Not mine.
Not myself.

May all beings be happy.

#WordsInPassing
#meditation #inward

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A few things life has taught me across 33 years. Still learning.

Grateful to have grown alongside you. ♥

#WordsInPassing #33LessonsFor33Years

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When your actions consistently reflect what you believe, you begin to trust yourself.

When no one is watching, your actions reveal whether you are truly living by your values—and that 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 is the foundation of true confidence.

#WordsInPassing
#selftrust #integrity

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In our longing to belong, we often edit ourselves—our opinions, our values, our boundaries—until we become more acceptable to others, yet more estranged from ourselves.

True belonging begins long before we are accepted by someone else: with the quiet courage to stop abandoning ourselves and embrace who we are.

When we stop spending our energy trying to fit in, we create space to move through the world more honestly—and allow what genuinely resonates with us to find its way into our lives.

#WordsInPassing
#truebelonging #selfacceptance

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Inspiration is easy to find when you're surrounded by people who care about the same things you do. It's harder the next Wednesday, stuck in a draft that isn't working and find yourself reaching for the Fiesta Doritos. You’re not hungry. You’re frustrated.

My new post is a talk I gave at @hfu_mfa low-residency MFA this August: a pep talk, a (loving) scolding, and the two revision exercises I return to most.

Try one and post your before and after in the comments on Substack. I'll read and reply to each one.

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Some excerpts from my latest post on holding rejection lightly and remembering why we write in the first place. Even when your inbox is an existentially searing compilation of "no's."

Let me know what helps you, especially if it's a sugar and flour-based solution.

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👇 Learn more

This week, as I let myself ponder the page, a moment of reflection snuck its way in, and I began thinking about the different layers of #Identity.

The identity which we were assigned, and the one we’re still writing about.

As I explored this topic further, guess what came up...

Did you know:
Documented research on biracial identity depicts a plethora of people navigating an onslaught of pressure to choose one identity over another, rather than being allowed to embrace the full truth of both?

Do you know, or have you known, someone who lives with a biracial and mixed-heritage identity?

Here’s another question: have you witnessed someone being bullied because of their mixed identity...or were you one responsible for said bullying?

What thoughts or feelings does this bring up for you?

What would it look like to write about a part of your identity someone once asked you to choose between? What would full acceptance look like?

I write #poetry focused on real, impactful themes like childhood trauma, PTSD, social injustice, climate change, and albinism.

💪 I write poetry to reclaim my power.

❓ How do you reclaim yours?

🔗 Check the link in my bio.

👉 Like and follow for more!

#PoetryHeals #Identity #ReclaimYourPower

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👇Learn more

This week, as I slipped into myself, gazing upon an empty page, pondering the next poetic tale to write, I’ve been thinking a lot about #grief.

Not only the grief of losing someone, but rather, the grief of losing a belonging, a promise, a version of home, or even...myself.

So I allowed time and space for research...

Did you know:
In 1948, thousands of Caribbean immigrants arrived in the UK as legal British citizens. Decades later, many were wrongly detained, denied healthcare, or deported—their status erased by the very government that promised them the luxuries of said citizenship?

Do you know, or once knew someone who was impacted by this event?

What thoughts/feelings does this inspire in you?

What would it look like to write about something you’ve lost that no one else recognizes as a loss? What would you say to it?

I like writing #poetry, focused on real, impactful themes like childhood trauma, ptsd, social injustice, climate change, and albinism.

💪I write poetry to reclaim my power.

❓How do you reclaim yours?

🔗Check the link in my bio — grab my FREE chapbook ‘Those Ten Days: 20 Poems Portraying My Mother’s Final Days”” and learn how I faced grief...and loss.

👉Like and follow for more!

#PoetryHeals #ReclaimYourPower

@poetryfoundation

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Poem 25
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#poetrycommunity #poem #poetry #poetsofinstagram #writersofinstagram

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So good! @bethannfennelly Looking forward to watch yesterdays session @consciouswriters

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