It’s getting late and we just finished our second evening together in our Carmel writing retreat. We meant to stop at dinnertime tonight, but kept going because the juju was so juicy.
Exhausted, I just asked a few of the ladies (who were still around picking at the delish catered lunch/dinner leftovers with me—and, as Jody said, “Giving birth to little gluten babies,”) to answer this question:
“I’m way too tired to make any more sense until the morning. Any idea what I should tell my peeps about this retreat?”
“Tell them that the brainstorming was fast and furious,” said Jody Lewis, who was with us last month as well. Jody lives in Ojai, California and has three gorgeous girls and a hunky husband. I’m not entirely sure how she’s got it so wired that she can keep running off like this, but I think it’s something about having a man who knows how to keep the kids relatively safe and fed in her absence. Well, that, or she just grins, trusts, and bails anyway. Ha!
“You know how when something’s staring you in the face, but you don’t quite get it?” she continued? “Or, it’s completely invisible to you? The beauty of our groups is that in seeing each other and listening between the lines, we find and unlock the gems that are there and offer them up to that person. I think there are two keys to unlocking your voice and your story in a combination of play and depth. The women help you see what’s too close to see. And added to that, we have the safety of being free to let it all fly. It’s only in receiving feedback in this way that we’re able to see and accept those gifts, which makes our voice freer, more confident, and more authentic.”
“Yeah, like the title you all helped me find!” said Sarah from Santa Barbara. We all nodded our heads. That was FUN! Sarah has a page-turner of a book. We hang on her every word. The subject matter is heavy, for sure—but her voice is funny and wise and spiritual and suspenseful, so we’ll follow her anywhere. Trouble is, we all poo-pooed her woo-woo title. It was a snoozer and we couldn’t let her step out with it. We had to protect our new sister in words! I knew it had to be something catchy and twisted and memorable—something like Running with Scissors or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Since her work resembles those off-the-charts bestsellers, she just couldn’t call it something light and cosmic. Yuck-o.
It was easy. Helping Sarah nail down a winning book title took all of about 5 minutes! We just asked her to tell us more about her topic, and boom, it was right there, under her nose. In the midst of outlining a common comedic situation in her area of expertise, she uttered the PERFECT sound bite and we all jumped on it at the same time—laughing and squealing. Within minutes, Jody had pulled up Amazon.com to find out that NO ONE in all of Amazon’s 2,000,000+ titles had EVER written a book with this name. Then she did a global search and found that the domain name was still unclaimed. Within a few more minutes, Sarah had registered the domain for her book, ready and waiting for her when she needs it to promote her title (or show publishers when she goes to sell it… another smart way to let them know that she’s thinking with her marketing hat, which they love).
That’s the magic of sisterhood and synchronicity! From woo-woo to woo hoo, offered Jody, between biscotti bites.
I’ll close with a few more thoughts from Jody and Sarah.
“In the group masterminding/brainstorming, when we throw something out there that feels silly or off topic or unrelated, it often holds the key,” said Jody.
“It’s the fact that we’re all writing something we really care about that fosters respect for each other,” says Sarah, “as if we’re all in the trenches together.”
“Yes,” says Jody. “We’re all being authentic and can’t help but share a truth that will be impactful for the other person. We can’t help but want to give feedback. There’s a sacred container created here, and when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to be seen and receive feedback, that’s magic.”
Lucky me. I love my job!
Yours,
Lindazzzzzzzzz
