I'm setting myself up. Again. Typically this reference is negative -- we are setting ourselves up for disappointment, rejection and failure.

Yup.

I'm at the place in my life where rejections and failures are benchmarks for future successes. Something is going to happen; I'm going to end up somewhere. I'm going to get a yes or a no. And all rejections have led to the remarkable life I find myself in now. 

With my writing clients I remind them to write forward till the projects done. Spend a little time on re-writing what you wrote the day before then have most of your writing be new material. Keep getting the stories down. There will be a lot of messes and misses. Good. 

Just so in life. Keep living forward. Where contemplation is fundamental to a fulfilling life, too much reflection on the past keeps you in the past. Review the present in leu of the past while living forward. 

Set yourself up for as many failures as possible. Join in. Jump in. Eleven books later, this signing up before I feel ready, or smart enough, or good enough has worked well for me. Send out the query letter. Finish the darn book. Call her. Apply for that job. Take the long shot. Attend the meeting. Speak your truth. Write and post that blog. Sing outside the shower.  Declutter your creative spaces.

Set yourself up. 

So, I'm setting myself up with 5 days of writing on my novel. I'm going to spend the entire time focused on writing forward and finishing this final draft. (Final draft is a bit of an oxymoron, don't you think?) I'm headed to Pepin Wisconsin, next week. I'm staying at an airbnb out in the country, surrounded by restored prairie. I'm hoping the villain in my book shows up. I expect to get to the end of my book. How's that for a set up?
​
​See you on the other side. 


 Mind•Body•Word: 3 Days of Yoga & Writing at Holy Wisdom Monastery YOGA & Writing Retreat this August, 2019. August 27, 28, and 29.   Explore True Self on the mat and page with yoga teacher (and blogger) Molly Chanson and writing sherpa and counselor, Julie Tallard Johnson Three days of attending to mind, body and word in a beautiful, natural setting. Includes meals, writing prompts, retreat time, time to write, yoga for any level, inspiration. $150.00  To register contact: Molly Chanson at  molly@soulma.com. 773-259-1202 

Book Release!! The Red Thread: Touching Reality in our Everyday Lives will be released in April, 2020 by Shanti Arts.  I offer ways to touch reality through simple practices like Hosting The Edge, the Inner Labyrinth, and other simple tools to discover your truest self and greatest potentials. ​This book is based on the teachings and my conversations with Parker J Palmer. 

I have room for a few in my writing circles. One opening in my Tuesday morning Mount Horeb circle. 

I was in my late twenties. Still wore highheels. Newly to Minneapolis with my first Social Work job. I took on a volunteer-training position at one of the local hospitals that specialized in sexual addiction. Within the first week I found myself in a group where a girl of 10 years was to confront her father on his sexual abuse. He was in jail for this crime. They released him to attend this group. He sat next to me, a tall white man with dark edges that matched his dark hair and eyes.  Even in my highheels he loomed over me. The hospital social worker started the process by speaking for the girl, and confronted the father. He denied it. I wasn't given any particular role but knew what I had to do. While the other professionals (at least 4 of them) continued to confront the perpetrator,  and he continued to deny it, I spoke up.

I looked at the young girl and said," I need you to know something." I waited for her to look back at me. She did. The room thickened with silence. "I want  you to know that I believe you." 

She kept her eyes on me the rest of the time. 

For me, that's all that mattered that day, that she knew she was believed. 

In my work with writers, many write stories of past trauma and transgressions, some for the first time, some as the result of years of recovery and healing. Everyone of them at some time or another worries that the reader won't believe them. 

"Who will believe that this much happened to one person?" someone recently asked in one of my circles. 

Here is my response to each and everyone of you: First, believe and trust yourself. Do the healing work that attends to the pain and abuses (either as you write your trauma stories or/and before). Then, as you write, your job is to make your stories believable to your readers. Of course they are true. Tragically true, but true. Fathers abuse their daughters. Mothers too. Alcoholism destroys families. Children witness horrific events. Some lives are strewn with loss, abuse and trauma. Typically the perpetrators deny their transgressions. Yes, there will be those who want us to shut up.

​Not sharing our stories of course makes it easier for these true stories to be denied. 

Your work is to make your abuse story believable to readers. Not a small task by any measure. That's the job of all writers. That is done the same way we make all our meaningful experiences meaningful to our future readers. We write. We read. We write some more. We study others' writing. We join in safe writing circles. We write some more. All my work with writers is about helping with this daunting but worthwhile endeavor -- to take hold of your reader like that 10 year old did of me in the above story.

This makes us all brave.

​You can do this. And must. Without your courage to share and confront through the written word, the world will be a less beautiful and safe place.

We need your stories. 

I believe you.

Your readers will too. 


"Just a minute," said a voice...
by Mary Oliver

"Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds. 
So I stood still
in the day's exquisite early morning light.
and so I didn't crush with my great feet
any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by
where I was passing by
on my way to the blueberry fields,
and maybe it was the toad
and maybe it was the June beetle
and maybe it was the pink and tender worm
who does his work without limbs or eyes
and does it so well
or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail
and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,
or maybe, like Blake's wondrous meeting, it was
the elves, carrying one of their own
on a rose petal coffin away, away
into the deep grasses, After awhile
the quaintest voice said, "Thank you." And then there was silence
For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

Mount Horeb Morning Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 1:00pm through Sept., 2019. This circle will be a
​smaller circle of 6.  FULL 

Madison Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 1st Tuesday 6-9pm.  join us.

Prairie du Sac Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins September, 2019)
595 Water Street, Prairie du Sac Meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday 6 till 9pm. 
 I invite you to join.  

Cliché’s are dead metaphors. They are overused and therefor don't offer up anything authentic or original. They are everywhere of course, in life and in our writing. 

Cliché’s may be keeping you in a trap – the starving artist; no one will believe you; writing is a waste of time; I’m too old and it’s too late; family secrets should remain so.  – all these can hinder your creative flow. Identify  one from your life. One of my clichés was accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. For me this meant: don’t speak up about the dark truth, don’t be so sensitive, and, let the shadow aspects stay in the dark.  This cliché alone gave me a lot of writing material!
 
Search and destroy clichés in your perceptions and writing. Beyond cliché lines, what perceptions, beliefs and story lines do you hold that are also cliché? Facts can be cliché, rules and formulas – but our truth, and our experiences, which are the narratives of our truths bloom with authenticity and originality.  So, take the meaning of a cliché (which is also cliché) and challenge it – question it.  Write about at least two clichéd beliefs, assumptions or formulas that have shown up in your life and/or writing -- especially around your chosen subject and theme. 

Clichés  deprive us of genuine details. And our stories are often in the detail.

Can we have our cake and eat it too?
What does it mean “to not look back?”
Do we really marry our mothers?
What does it mean to be ugly?
Why shouldn’t we bite off more than we can chew?
What does it mean to be the center of attention? (Is this a good thing?) 
What does it mean to be told to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative? 
 
What clichés both structurally (in sentences) and in theme show up in your writing project? How can you liven these up? Which ones seem to come up a lot for you? What’s a live metaphor or detail that could tell us more? Be willing to search and destroy all clichés. To write metaphors we can start with finding our clichés and transforming them into something alive. 

Want to buy this Writing Sherpa a cup of coffee? Here's how: Click here: A Cuppa Java for Julie.

OPENINGS IN MY FALL CIRCLES

Mount Horeb Morning Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 1:00pm through Sept., 2019. This circle will be a
​smaller circle of 6.   join us.

Madison Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 1st Tuesday 6-9pm.  join us.

Prairie du Sac Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins OCTOBER, 2019)
595 Water Street, Prairie du Sac Meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday 6 till 9pm. 
 I invite you to join.  

 "It’s never too late for a happy childhood." –A popular bumper sticker
​
We are always writing from the past. Everything but this very moment is memory. In fiction and nonfiction alike we create stories from what we remember.  Just so with life, we live off our past . . . everything we thought, chose, did and ignored got us to here.  Pretty powerful really, when you think about it. 

Think about it.

"Everything," as John Muir said, "is connected to everything else."  For the writer we want to make sure that our narrative and all the dramas and events connect. In memoir we can't just report what happened. We have to have many entry points and narratives to help the reader stay with our story. We have to show them the connections (not tell them). We have to trust ourselves as we listen in on our past.  

Many nonfiction writers ask about what Voice and perspective to use: the one from the past or the one writing the story in the present?  My answer is: both!
​
You have two voices and perspectives when writing memoir or autobiographical pieces -- the one who had the experience and the one I refer to as the Wisdom Keeper. The one having the experience is written from what you knew or didn't know then, what you experienced then. The past voice will be almost all show and no tell . . .  though,  you will have thoughts to share as your past self.  The Wisdom Keeper Voice gets to slip in that wisdom from the present -- something you know now that you didn't know then (likely a hell of a lot!). The Wisdom Keeper Voice holds the hand of the reader, they feel you there as they read. They know you are likely going to make it through most your troubles but the reader doesn't know how. You don't point out to the reader these two distinct voices, you simply hold them in your consciousness as you write. You know when you are writing from the past; and, you know when you are writing using the wisdom accumulated from all your experiences. The reader will hear the difference. Sometimes you will refer to this present day wisdom, but don't hit the reader over the head with this.

In fiction, your characters may have these two perspectives as well, and as the writer you will distinguish these for the reader. 

A good practice is to contemplate the present scene of your life or the life of a fictional character in lieu of the past. What did it take to get here?

​ Go ahead,  take a look.  I have a hold of your hand.

​
​Our subtle body exists deep underneath our physical form and our ego mind. It holds secrets and wisdom, pain and truth. This emotional and soulful part of us is our True Self. To explore it through our yoga practice, we quiet our thoughts, lead with our heart, and observe the sensations. 
But then what? I’ve draped my body over my leg in Pigeon Pose, when tears emerge and start falling from my eyes. I allow, and I try to make sense of it after class. But how, and what does it mean?

It’s a process, but with practice, listening to your body through yoga and interpreting the subtle aspects gets easier and more intuitive. After a while, your awareness of the subtle body spills into your daily life and even into your dreams. You receive messages all around you. You learn to trust yourself. You learn to stay, rather than run. You learn to accept your emotions and your pain. You learn that you don’t need to hide. You learn that you actually CAN. 

Digging deep during your yoga practice takes strength, bravery, and compassion. Twisting out grief and opening Chakras requires endurance and forgiveness. Getting your thoughts out, by writing them down, is yet another form of listening to your body. And a great next step to exploring your true self through yoga. Writing validates and gives voice to your experience and your sensations. It’s a great tool to open, and make sense of it all.
 
I started writing around the time I felt my marriage coming apart. I had no idea what was happening, or what would soon unfold, but I’m so glad I listened to my body’s call to write. The page is a space to heal, a space to explore, a nonjudgmental space to “speak” your truth. 
Writing and yoga go so well together because they both grant access to the same hidden space in our body, but they unearth the blocks through very different processes. While yoga brings us to awareness, an up-close and personal look at reality, writing illuminates that awareness, and creates a tangible word on the page that articulates how we feel. Voicing our emotions, writing them down, heals. It’s like opening our throat chakra in Fish Pose or confiding in a friend over coffee.

Any pain you are holding, any struggle you are facing, any new venture you are embarking, all can be explored and understood through writing.

But I’m not a writer!?

When you write, you do not need to be an expert. Like a yoga practice, it does not matter if you are flexible or seasoned. It does not matter if you write eloquently - you benefit from the PRACTICE regardless. 

The myth of the artist and the writer prevents those who feel they are not “creative” enough to write. Writing is merely a form of self-expression which means it’s inside of all of us. It’s a way to create an impact with our voice - whether that impact is professional or personal. If your writing impacts you and your awareness of Self, that is enough, and your practice is worthwhile.

I’m so impressed with where my yoga and writing practices have taken me - through my divorce, through my addiction, through my anxiety and depression, through my loneliness, my confusion, my triumphs, my motherhood, and my womanhood. Man or woman, writing and yoga can do the same for you.

I’m joining forces with my amazing writing sherpa, Julie Tallard Johnson, a transpersonal counselor, teacher, and author of 11 books, to offer our first retreat, Mind, Body, Word: 3 Days of Yoga and Writing in beautiful Madison, WI. With daily yoga, meditation, writing prompts, and personal time for reflection, we’ll explore the subtle body and hidden self and allow our intuitive and creative spirit to access our soul. Come open and leave inspired and renewed. I’m excited to share all I learn from my teacher training, as well as my 25 years of yoga experience, in order to guide you through whatever it is your body needs. 

Here is more info on the retreat and the link to sign up: Mind•Body•Word: 3 Day Yoga & Writing Retreat. 

In the meantime, continue on, dear Yogi, and consider keeping a journal next to your mat - you’ll be surprised at what comes up.

when I walked down the road
taking only You,
until the noise became less—and the light more true, then
the river began to flow again
under my skin.
—Rebecca Cecchini 

"Even the most devastating experiences can be doorways to contemplation.” Parker J. Palmer

I am finishing up the final touches to my Red Thread manuscript before I send it on to the publisher. The book is peppered with verses and poems by Rebecca Cecchini and quotes from Parker J Palmer. These offerings are like sutras, and provide gaps in my narrative and teachings to allow the reader to take pause and contemplate. 

Pausing and contemplating. Sounds good, yes? 

“The kind of truth that matters does not make itself known to those who shout for it to come out and then try to batter down the door. The truth that matters must trust us before we can have a relationship with it.” –Parker J. Palmer, The Promise of Paradox 

When we pause and contemplate in our writing and life our words and life speak to us.  Our life experience answers all the questions we have about who we are, what we want and what's working and not working. Is our life flowing forward?  How does this relationship or job feel in our body? What am I giving my time to? Where is my joy? What am I grieving? Is this the story I want to be writing? Are we pounding on closed doors? 

“As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up. All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that just closed, turn around-which puts the door behind us-and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.” (Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak)

Take time today, every day ideally, to pause and to check in with yourself. Your life and writing needs no forcing or pounding. . . as life naturally moves forward. Be still and know.

​Listen to your life. 

It is not we who are to be tested in the trials that await,
but those principles on which we stand. In this knowing should be our comfort and peace.
blind in a way are all our travels and trusting.
don't try to keep your heart from breaking. That is as it should be.
but trust the metal of love more than anything else as your beam, and when you fall, fall
full-knowing into the strong arms of compassion. even those
you can't see.  —Rebecca Cecchini 

Mind•Body•Word: 3 Days of Yoga & Writing at Holy Wisdom Monastery 
YOGA & Writing Retreat this August  27, 28, and 29: Includes all meals and classes. 
Explore True Self on the mat and page with yoga teacher (and blogger) Molly Chanson and writing sherpa and counselor, Julie Tallard Johnson. Three days of attending to mind, body and word in a beautiful, natural setting.  To register contact: Molly Chanson at  molly@soulma.com. 773-259-1202 

From Journal to Reader 
4 Evenings of Turning Your Ideas, Experiences & Journals into Blogs, Articles, Essays, or Books
​Create something meaningful for readers from your JOURNALS and NOTES. Or learn how to USE YOUR JOURNALS and notes to make a great written piece. From Journal to Reader: 4 Evenings of Turning Your Ideas and Journals into Blogs, Articles, Essays, or Book for Readers. 4 Thursday nights, two in June and two in July at Healing Services on the River in Prairie du Sac. June 13th and 27th; July 11th and 25th.  5:30 pm till 9:00. Room for 10. Register soon, as this will fill up. Your investment is $220.00, includes personal attention and consultation and critique of 10 pages. You will leave with a solid template and path to sharing your ideas with the world.  Contact me at julie@julietallardjohnson.com.  

“How would we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be, 
Let the more loving one be me.”  W.H. Auden, taken from, The More Loving One
 
 




Being appreciated and recognized as a writer is lovely.  – Acceptance and recognition is something that we want but rejections, being edited and rebuffed are part of the writer's life.  However,  when we do get an acceptance from a publisher or editor,  we often forget all the rejections it took to get there. I could wall paper my home with the rejections I received on my first  manuscript. I landed Doubleday with that book. I had rejections from agents and publishers for my latest manuscript (my 11th book), until I received a contract from Shanti Arts. A perfect publisher for this book and its message.

I see that all my acceptances (even in personal relationships) are built on upon a multitude of rejections. 

So, viva la rejections. This literally translates into LIVE THE REJECTIONS. 

Then, after the acceptances, comes the editing, which becomes another dance of letting go on what we thought our piece would look like. The editor will reject some of your sentences, and challenge your ideas and how you present them on the page. Excellent! These mini rejets are again what will lead to something beautifully written.

So viva the mini rejections!

I submitted a feature article to the local paper, not having all the skills for this particular genre of writing. The editor accepted my article but I had to work on the craft of writing for a paper. So, his mini rejets made for a better article.  

"Love the piece more than yourself,"  Matt Geiger, executive editor of the local paper said to me (as he challenged some of my writing!). Such great advice to all of us writers: make the piece more important than feeding your ego. Have our focus be on making something beautiful, or at least something of interest to our readers.  
 
In this weeks consultation with the I Ching I received: "Concern yourself not with the form things take but with there content." An invitation to cut through my bravado and concerns about appearances . Instead, I can focus on what makes this piece genuine and meaningful to me, and hopefully, to my readers. 

Create something meaningful for readers from your JOURNALS and NOTES. Or learn how to USE YOUR JOURNALS and notes to make a great written piece. From Journal to Reader: 4 Evenings of Turning Your Ideas and Journals into Blogs, Articles, Essays, or Book for Readers. 4 Thursday nights, two  in June and two in July at Healing Services on the River in Prairie du Sac. June 14th and 28th; July 11th and 25th.  5:30 pm till 9:00. Room for 10. Register soon, as this will fill up fast. Your investment is $220.00, includes personal attention and consultation and critique of 10 pages. You will leave with a solid template and path to sharing your ideas with the world.  Contact me at julie@julietallardjohnson.com.  

“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.”  Neil Gaiman
 
Join up with other writers, agents, authors, writing mentors and coaches at UW, Continuing Studies 30th Writers’ Institute. April 4-7th, on the beautiful (and historical) Madison campus. 
 
Jane Friedman  and Jennie Nash are the Keynote Speakers. (Jane alone would be worth the admission.) But the benefits, connections and resources only start here! Explore a plethora of  possible avenues to writing success with a personalized pathway to publication.  
 
I will be offering advanced manuscript critiques (a few slots left).  And, I will be one of the coaches for this year’s PATHWAY TO PUBLICATION mentorship program. If 2020 is your year to complete your manuscript or to get published, this is the program for you.  Take advantage of this EXCLUSIVE publishing opportunity for attendees of the 2019 Writers’ Institute. 

Okay, hope to see you there. 
 
"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten."  Neil Gaiman