Hi Fire Writers! ✍️Join me this morning for Right Now I Am at 11 AM EST! This workshop is also free and open to the wider community outside of Skool if you want to invite a friend! They can sign up with this link right here :) 👋I'm thrilled to welcome the wonderful @Shey Khandro to our Writing Fire community. So happy you're here with us, Shey! 💗 This morning I published a piece on Substack called A Cure for the Poison. I wonder if you can relate?? _______________________________________________ After a few months of experimentation, starting next week, we will begin to have a more consistent workshop schedule! 👄 Every Monday: Skip the Small Talk with Valley from 1 - 2 PM EST. Join Valley in a safe and sacred circle to skip the small talk, dig deep, get real, write the truth, and show up as we truly are. ⚔️ Every Wednesday a different theme from Surrender Your Weapons with Valley from 2 - 3:30 PM EST. (No class 10/21!) ⏰ Every Friday: Right Now I Am with Valley from 10 - 11 AM EST. Right Now I Am is a snapshot of the present moment, a holy dumping ground, how we show up as ourselves right here and right now. Come as you are; every emotion we have is fuel for the fire. Thanks for showing up, y'all! Can't wait to write with you again. VJ💘 (some of my fave pics of the week including the fog rising off the river this morning, the rainbow staircase at Shelf Life Books RVA, and Cosmo reclaiming his roots as a wolf! 🐺🤣)

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

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.