A Year of Mindful Writing
Applications are closed and will re-open for the January 2025 start date in the Autumn.
This year-long writing course is an opportunity to work with me in an intimate group to develop your writing practice in meaningful ways and deepen the connection you feel to your craft, the world we live in, and all of the people and creatures we share it with.
“Amanda's Mindful Writing Course has encouraged me to find joy and connection with my writing in ways I haven't experienced before. The small group dynamic is brilliant for sharing and receiving thoughtful and constructive feedback for our writing. The course is perfectly paced with exercises, readings and workshops.”
— Fiona Dignan
How can you join?
Spaces are by application only and are limited to six writers. This course is being offered on a dana basis. Dana is a Buddhist concept meaning generosity and mutual support. If accepted for the course you can pay what you feel it is worth.
When offering dana, please consider how much you value my knowledge, time and input creating the fortnightly craft content, facilitating the workshops, providing feedback, and bringing you support and inspiration in the forum.
“Sometimes my stories can’t breathe under the weight of word counts, deadlines and publisher preferences from content to style. This course was an opportunity to switch focus for an entire year, to think about my stories, about what I want to say and why. Amanda motivates you to develop a kind of courage that takes you deep inside yourself — to the place where your characters and their stories live and breathe.”
— Loretta Finan
A suggested minimum dana offering is £40 a month. However, if you cannot afford that much please don’t let that stop you from applying as if your application is approved, I will accept whatever you offer. If you can afford more and believe the course is worth more, then you can offer more. You can pay a lump sum for the entire year in one go, or you can set up a monthly payment. The choice is yours.
“I signed up for Amanda’s Year of Mindful Writing after becoming disillusioned with my focus on competition and publication success. I wanted a different approach and sensed I would find it in this course, which has exceeded my expectations. Not only am I getting new insights and tools, but I have found a wonderful group of fellow writers who inspire and support me.”
— Anna Mahoney
How does it work?
It’s a mix of craft, reading and workshopping:
Once a fortnight, I share craft development ideas, readings, mindful writing exercises and prompts.
Once a month we meet on Zoom for a 2.5 hour workshop to share work for feedback and dig deep into the craft of writing and the meaning of the work you’re creating.
These workshops will be arranged as we go along at a time that suits everyone each month. Please note that they will take place in UK time and will never start before 10am or later than 4pm so if you are in a different time zone, please consider whether the timings will work for you.
You do not have to create new work for all of the exercises and prompts and can use them to develop work you already have in progress. But you can of course use them to write new drafts too. You can write fiction, memoir or creative non-fiction, or a mix of all.
We will have a private forum space online where the content will be shared and where we can chat with each other outside of the workshops.
“The Year of Mindful Writing is helping me go more deeply, more authentically, into my writing. Our little ‘mindful writing’ community is supportive and inspiring, thanks to the deep feeling of trust Amanda nurtures through her insight, honesty and encouragement. Great materials provided too!”
— Fran Turner
Why work with me?
As an indie publisher at my creative venture, Retreat West, which I started in 2012, from 2018-2023 I published 24 books. These were novels, memoirs, short fiction collections and anthologies. Retreat West Books won the 2020 Most Innovative Publisher Prize at the Saboteur Awards (shortlisted 2019) and many of the books I published were commended, listed and won awards too. In 2022, I launched the literary magazine, WestWord.
I have been designing and teaching online creative writing courses, and live workshops, for many years and I’ve worked as an editor on hundreds of manuscripts. I’m passionate about helping writers get to the heart of their characters to create memorable narrators that really come alive for the reader. I also help writers who hate plotting to create story outlines that still allow them the freedom to discover as they write.
I’m also a writer myself and the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016), and Remember Tomorrow (2019), and a novella-in-flash, Pressure Drop (2024). My short stories have been widely published in journals and anthologies, listed and placed in many international prizes and were nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023. I’ve almost finished a flash fiction collection, and I’m now working on my third novel. I write The Tao of Storytelling too.
So I bring experience of both sides of the publishing world to you and your words, as well as many years of experience and a real passion for writing stories of all kinds.
Things to bring with you to the course:
A willingness to work hard, read widely, and give and take constructive feedback
An open mind and a sense of humour
A commitment to developing your writing craft for the writing’s sake
The motivation to experiment and try different things to take your writing in new directions
A commitment to attending all of the live workshops and helping your course mates to develop alongside you