Welcome! I’m so happy that you’re here.
The Mindful Writer is all about making a difference with our words.
Our world is divided and the words we write, and speak, can help bring us together again. Everything I share here is about living and writing more mindfully and really digging deep into what we’re writing and why.
I truly believe that if we start to bring more stories filled with compassion, empathy and togetherness into the universe, then we can change our world.
People say I’m a dreamer but I have learned a lot about the connections between us all, and everything in the universe, in the past decade, and our thoughts and words have real power. More than we realise.
I write the Mindful Writer to help you find a deeper connection to yourself, your writing craft, and everything and everyone we share this amazing experience of being alive with. And for me to do the same, and make sense of all the things that happen to me. To connect with people walking the same path who want to slow down in a world that’s always speeding up. In 2024, inspired by the writing I have been doing here and the people I’ve been connecting with, I launched a new creative venture. Find out more here.
The time for us to change the stories we tell ourselves about what being human is all about, is now. It’s not about war and hatred, violence and murder, it’s about love.
Join me to start spreading peace and love with your words.
All subscribers have access to:
Personal essays about my ongoing journey of mindfulness and how this transformed my writing, and everything else about my life.
Ideas on how to deepen our connection to our writing to create stories that resonate with us as we write them and with the readers they reach.
Recommendations on something to read, watch or listen to that can help us live and write more mindfully.
Paid subscribers have all of the same plus:
A Mindful Writing ebook: lots of ideas and writing prompts for mindfully connecting to your writing.
Monthly Mindful Writing Marathons: 2-hour Zoom sessions where we write, read, write, read and don’t give feedback. Great for freeing our inner voices. More info here.
Access to private chat threads: gratitude prompts, mindful writing prompts and more.
A huge thank you: so much gratitude for your support of my work here!
Founding members have all of the above plus:
30-minute Zoom session: meet with me one-to-one to look at ways you can mindfully develop your craft.
Popular Posts
These are my most read, liked and commented upon posts to give you an idea of what you can expect:
Who am I?
I’m Amanda Saint, a writer, editor, teacher and publisher from the UK who moves around a lot. I am houseless but not homeless as home is inside me and my happy, loving marriage. For the past eleven years, my husband and I have been travelling, housesitting and doing work for accommodation exchanges. In the fifteen years before that we moved around all the time and the longest we have ever lived in one house is two years.
I have written two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019), and a novella-in-flash, Pressure Drop (2024). I’ve had many short stories published, placed and listed in competitions, including the Mslexia Flash Prize, Fish Flash Prize and Flash500. You can read some of them here.
I’ve had some stories selected for the Top in Fiction Substack too.
I’m currently working on a whole host of short stories that are at various stages of development, and my third novel (or maybe it’s a novella or a long short story, I’m not sure yet!).
At my creative venture, Retreat West, which I started in 2012, I run an online community for writers, design and teach online courses and workshops, and provide editorial services. I also published books from 2018 until 2023 and brought 24 of them to the world in that time. In 2020 Retreat West was named Most Innovative Publisher at the Saboteur Awards (shortlisted 2019) and many of the books I published won awards too.
In 2022, I founded an online literary journal, WestWord.
I have been practicing mindfulness for almost a decade and it changed my life and my writing. I also have a daily Qigong practice, which I have been committed to for several years now and read a chapter of the Tao Te Ching everyday. I love mountains and beaches, birds and forests and lakes, and spend as much time outdoors as I can.
All of these things inform what I write in these posts and in my stories. I hope you enjoy my work. If you’d like to become a more mindful writer it would be great to have you along.
My other offerings
There are lots of opportunities to work more closely with me to develop your writing craft.
What writers say about working with me
“Before I started working with Amanda, my writing came in starts and stops—mostly stops as I rarely finished what I started. I’d been writing for corporate interests for so long that my work felt stale and uninspired, and I derived little joy from writing it or reading it.
When I joined Amanda’s Storytelling with the Tao course, I learned fearlessness and to let go of outcomes. To write for the sake of writing. Before long, I was finishing stories—stories I loved to read! I’m currently taking her Year of Mindful Writing course; it has been a year of revelations and synchronicities during which I’ve created the best work of my life. (I’m taking the second unit next year.)
By creating a safe space to explore both strength and vulnerability, Amanda taught me to tap my deepest emotions and most profound life experiences to create meaningful, impactful work. And the effects aren’t limited to my stories. Deeper writing has kindled a deeper engagement with the world around me, and a sense of profound happiness with myself and my work, so much so that the people in my life notice the difference.
Amanda isn’t just a writing teacher; she is a mentor and a guide. I unequivocally recommend her courses and coaching if you seek to improve your writing, connect more deeply with yourself and the creative force, and find renewed joy in life and in your writing.”
— Loretta Finan
“I wholeheartedly urge anyone who is interested in understanding, improving and refining their writing to work with Amanda. Not only does she give valuable advice about the nuts-and-bolts of storytelling, she digs so much deeper into what your story is about, exposing what is missing but also revealing hidden layers to be explored, helping you craft stories with depth which are meaningful and memorable.”
— Sally Curtis
“You are putting good stuff out in to the world, Amanda. Thank you.”
— Jeanne Malgrem
