By Dolly May for Enlivening Edge Magazine
Writing is a powerful tool, offering a way to be witnessed and accountable for what you truly believe in.
I feel passionate about writing! My passion is touched by other people’s good writing. The sense that I have something useful and important to say sometimes bursts my seams. Despite my enthusiasm I often hit a wall, and my inner critic, coupled with a long-established fear of looking stupid, often blocks my writing hand.
Being given the term ‘dyslexia’ at university was transformative! That moment was the beginning of my journey to becoming a writer.
I have an inherent love for language; I just always preferred to talk words rather than write them. This led me to training as a voice coach, and to devoting my professional life to helping people literally find their voice.
True writing, when you write from your deepest self, requires that you own your writing process. That you live within a way of writing that frees you up to your deepest ideas. Like anyone who has a passion, I want to tell people about it, discuss it, and I also want to write about it.
“We sense that something important happened at the writing workshop.” ~Edith
When I saw an announcement of EE’s Writing Mentor Edith Friesen’s London workshop for writing, something compelled me to go. I’d never taken a writing workshop before, and indeed the very thought had intimidated me for years. The combination of being much further along my writing journey, and my belief in the Enlivening Edge community, gave me the confidence to try this out.
Edith is a warm, generous, and intelligent woman who is passionate about helping people find their writing voice. If you want to write, then she believes that the world needs your writing. It’s as simple as that.
She so clearly adores writing and supporting others on their writing journey. Her strength as a facilitator is her structure. Over the course of the day she seamlessly led us on a very clear and structured journey, leading to every member of the group (approximately 15 people) writing something not only well-put-together, but also rich with their personality and values.
That such a thing could be achieved in just one day astounded me! I was left with the deep sense that I had truly met all these people through their writing.
Edith’s simple framework brings to life your unhindered writing voice and leaves you with a new confidence. She balances a four-quadrant framework with a sense-and-respond approach. This results in writing that comes from deep and connected places within yourself, while remaining sensitive to the reader, the context, and the text. We all could hear and feel the palpable flow of our writing, and a sense of joy and relief.
If you have felt any urge to write and express your ideas to a wider audience, to create cognitive dissonance and stimulate useful debate, then I encourage you to join Edith in her next course.
Near the end of the workshop, someone suggested that it be re-named the art of high impact writing, and that it be taken to other places in the world.
I realise that I have a duty to stand with other writers. To join forces and stimulate generative conversations. In a world that often struggles to find common ground or inspiring leaders, where fear presides over transformative risk-taking, the world needs your writing now more than ever!
Imagine if two out of every ten leaders who read your words were impacted to shift their mindsets and behaviours for the better. What if a body of writing, showing the way to a better world, reached a critical mass and dominated the airwaves? What if inspiration were louder than fear… Imagine that!
When your writing reaches that one organization or that one person who needs it, when they need it most, then transformation can happen.
I am writing to connect with Teal writers, thinkers, and doers everywhere. I am writing to support present and compassionate communication between people, whether enemies or allies.
Who do you want to write for?
By participating in a workshop with like-purposed writers, you become part of a deep-thinking and supportive writing community. Embedding yourself in such a fertile writing environment is food for the heart and soul. True writing is like engaging in a conversation that matters beyond yourself. It makes you think; it reassures you, and it is a pleasure to experience.
It is also a candle in the dark. Through deep-seated writing, we discover our allies in thought and action the world over. We also support the growth and transformation of our organizational and social ecosystems. A beautiful and powerful writing workshop like this one can light the way and help you get your writing out there.
Dolly May is a professional voice and communication coach committed to supporting people into whole-self speaking. Her passion and curiosity for her subject motivates her deeply to find new and interesting ways to help her clients via her company Working With Voice. She believes that the quality of how we communicate, whether face-to-face or online, determines how we feel, how we share and grow our ideas, and how we prepare for the future. Contact her at [email protected]
