Pinned
May 27 •
Welcome to Writing Fire! 🔥
Hello, brave writer. I'm so happy you've found your way here. Writing Fire was born from a deep belief that writing is far more than a creative practice — it is a transformational one. Writing helps us hear ourselves. It helps us tell the truth. It helps us remember who we are. It helps us make meaning from the wild, beautiful, heartbreaking, astonishing experience of being alive. For many years, I have gathered people in circles — online, in classrooms, in living rooms, around retreat tables, beside rivers, and around literal fire — to write, reflect, witness one another, and transform. This community is an extension of that sacred circle. A place for writers, seekers, storytellers, recovering perfectionists, deep feelers, creative explorers, and anyone longing for a truer relationship with their own voice. You do not need to call yourself a writer to belong here. You do not need to be polished. You do not need to be productive. You do not need to know what your "big project" is. You only need willingness, curiosity, and courage. Some people will come here to work on memoir. Some to process change. Some to reconnect with creativity. Some to listen for what their deeper self has been trying to say. Some to experience the alchemical transformation of turning pain into art. All of that belongs. A few things matter deeply here: 🔥 We practice strength-based witnessing and feedback. 🔥 We honor confidentiality and emotional safety. 🔥 We value truth over performance. 🔥 We encourage brave honesty, while honoring intuition, boundaries, and self-care. 🔥 We believe creativity can be both playful and profound. This is not a place to be perfect. This is a place to be real. If you've just arrived, here's how to begin 🌿 1. Watch this quick 'How To' video from Lauren She'll walk you through the space and show you how to find your way around. https://www.loom.com/share/8778b4b1c6d145e481c12b3f88cbdd92 2. Read the Community Agreements This helps us create a space that feels warm, brave, supportive, and creatively alive. 👉 Community Agreements
Pinned
May 19 •
Writing Fire Community Agreements
Welcome to the fire! This is a space for truth-telling, creative courage, sacred witnessing, and human transformation through writing. We gather not to perform perfection—but to practice presence, spellcasting, storytelling, creativity, catharsis and authentic expression.. These agreements help protect the warmth, trust, and integrity of this community . 1. Come as you are. You do not need to be polished, articulate, wise, healed, or “ready.” Messy is welcome. Tender is welcome. Joy is welcome. Confusion is welcome. We honor the truth of where you are right now. Every emotion you have is fuel for the writing fire. 2. Offer strength-based feedback. When responding to someone’s writing, begin with what is alive, strong, vivid, moving, honest, surprising, beautiful, or resonant. Examples: - What stayed with me... - I felt... - I saw... - I was curious about... - This line landed in my body... We are not here to fix each other. We are here to witness, reflect, and encourage. Unless explicit editorial feedback is requested, assume the offering is meant to be received—not improved. 3. Speak from your own experience. Use language like: “I felt…” “I related to…” “This reminded me…” Rather than: “You should…” “What you need to do is…” No diagnosing. No debating someone’s emotional truth. No unsolicited advice. We practice deep listening, honoring and receiving. 4. Respect sacred confidentiality. Stories shared here stay here, so that we all feel safe Please respect the sacred confidentiality of the stories shared here.. You are welcome to share your own stories widely, but please honor and respect the confidentiality of others. 5. Participate at your own rhythm and pace. You do not need to keep up. Visit. Read. Write privately. Share occasionally. Come close when called. This is a living fire, not a pressure cooker of comparison or expectation. 6. Protect the sacred from promotion. Please do not use this community primarily to sell, recruit, market, or redirect members elsewhere unless explicitly invited.
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18h •
What's in a name?
Hi friends-- Our own names are some of the most magic words we'll ever utter. What does your name mean to you?? I'm excited to share that my new name is officially Valley Jane! Here's a piece I wrote in celebration: As of July 6, 2026, by the power vested in the circuit court of Henrico County and the Commonwealth of Virginia, my new name is officially…. Valley Jane. Farewell to the final 4— Cecelia Yane-Smith Haggard — each of which made me, formed me, transformed me, and now with the blessing of bureaucracy, are dissolved back into the ether from which they came. Valley Jane — my first two names—feel light and nimble, without mouth fulls of syllables, contracting hyphens, alphabets of ancestors scrambling around getting their tentacles into everything. I loved having 6 names! Each one with its own beautiful story. But even the most beautiful stories change. The sensation of excising 4 names is not unlike the sensation of chopping off a few extra feet of dead hair or losing a few extra tons of dead weight, or shaving off a couple of centuries of densely packed time. There is a lightness, a joy, a relief—and also a grief— that comes with this death knell, this felling of the past, this changing of the guard, this end of an old life composted into the earth, making room for something fresh and new. I feel a power and a magic in Valley Jane—the first two names given to me by my mother. Valley for the Shenandoah where I was conceived and Jane, the name my mother felt signified every woman. So here I am again, and at last: Valley Jane! And of course, it’s time to make the official announcement that Cosmo has a new name, too! Introducing Prince COSMO JANE, Emotional Support Dragon to the Queen! _________________________________________________________________________________________ What does your name mean to you????
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3d •
What would you love to see in this community?
Hi Friends! Your voice matters! While some exciting magical classes are taking root behind the scenes and about to bloom open in our community, I want to know what's important to you?? What would you like to see/experience/feel/be/here? What inspires you? Open mics, free-writing circles, two-way prayer, character creation, accountability, quiet presence writing time?? There are so many fun things we can do, I'd love to know what sings to you!!
5d •
Welcome to the Halfway House for Writers
Good morning, friends! I wanted to share the welcome poem from my first book, The Halfway House for Writers. I included this poem in my book, but I wrote it for myself-- to name and assuage the fear, dread, pressure, anxiety and horror I felt about writing--the one thing in the world I most passionately wanted to do! Can you relate? What would you add? Are you ready to start the exquisite lifetime journey of trusting yourself?? Welcome to the Halfway House You know everything you need to know. You have everything you need to have. Nothing has been wasted: none of your writing and none of your time. Even lost years and lost manuscripts were necessary to bring you where you are now. All that’s lost can be salvaged. You bring with you the most sacred and the most profane. You bring wisdom and humor and a broken, healing heart. You bring your living body and your limitless soul and enough stories, thoughts and dreams to fill a thousand books. There is no hurry, there is no pressure, there is no wrong way to do this. There is no rule book, there is no map save for what’s inside of you. You know now which voices to trust and which to lay gently aside. There is nothing you have to prove or solve or figure out. There is no timeline or deadline. You can trust the words that come. You can trust yourself. You were brought here for this. You were led to this. This is why you are here. Welcome home. (Here are 3 friends I've found over the last few days at the river....they want to welcome you, too!)
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