Write Where You Are Community Writing Circles
My signature Write Where You Are community writing circles offer guidance and support for your writing and your life. This spiritual and creative experience is profound, intimate, and transformational. You will connect deeply with yourself and others. These circles include a wide range of writers, from beginners to pros, working across genres. We all learn from each other. Writing Circle members receive coaching from me while they write novels, memoirs, poetry, short stories, articles, blogs, essays, plays, and more. I am an experienced, skillful facilitator who knows how to create and maintain a safe, sacred space in which magical things unfold! This group will inspire you to write what wants to be expressed through you. Our circles take place via Zoom. Students from all over the English-speaking world participate. All you need is a computer with internet connection. Participants write and read in every meeting. It’s celebratory, productive, and inspirational!
REMAINING 2024 WRITING CIRCLES:
SUMMER 2024 SESSION MONDAY CIRCLE 8 Mondays, July 22 - Sept. 16 [No class August 19] 1:00 - 3:30 p.m. PT / 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. ET WEDNESDAY CIRCLE 8 Wednesdays, July 24 - September 18 [No class August 14] 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. PT / 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. ET FALL 2024 SESSION CIRCLE #1 8 Mondays, October 7 - November 25 1:00 - 3:30 p.m. PT / 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. ET CIRCLE #2 8 Mondays, October 7 - November 25 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. PT / 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. ET CIRCLE #3 8 Wednesdays, Oct. 9 - Dec. 4 [No class Nov. 27] 4:00 - 6:30 p.m. PT / 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. ET $499 for each session. Make up classes available. Please note: Enrollment is contingent upon Bella’s approval and writing circle availability. New Students: After registration and payment, you will be taken to a final page to complete a New Student Application. |
“Bella’s class is like a Bunsen burner cooking up all kinds of stuff in my imagination!” —Vik Sheldon, Artist Bella’s class is a writer’s oasis, for both beginners and seasoned writers alike. She provides an environment that supports, encourages, and challenges the creative process in all of us. A great class for those who want to connect with their inner storyteller and get it down on paper. Highly, highly recommended!” —David Cordova, High School History Teacher 
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More About My Writing Circles
Writing Circle participants are wise, accomplished women and men from diverse backgrounds, with various degrees of writing experience. Some have never written before; others have authored books, written for television, film and more. Everybody learns from each other. 8 participants max in each circle. Personal transformation, growth and healing are part of this experience.
My writing circles are not genre-specific, because no matter what you’re writing—poems, essays, fiction, memoir, blog posts, articles, blogs, or performance art—the process is the same. The structure/container takes on a different shape depending on the project, but the creative process does not. While most people gravitate toward a genre that feels right for them, several of my students write more than one genre.
My focus is on process rather than product. Engaging in the creative process honestly, and with integrity, automatically generates product. Product is excrement of process. I guide people as they work from the inside out, and provide an expansive yet intimate setting.
On-site writing circles have been on hold since the beginning of the pandemic. They took place for over a decade at my San Fernando Valley home, aka “ The Tree House.” Many students said my on-site class felt like a retreat, and part of this has to do with the surroundings, which include floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of mountains and sky, comfortable seating around a coffee table covered with inspirational books and journals, flowers, and candles. In the wintertime, flames flickered in the fireplace. We look forward to resuming in-person classes as soon as it's safe to do so.
Zoom writing circles have taken the place of in-person circles. This venue, as you may now realize, is surprisingly intimate, and we've all grown accustomed to being together on Zoom since the start of the pandemic. We’ve discovered many perks, not the least of which is being able to include writers from around the world. Participants have joined us from all over the United States, and from Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, and England. All you need is a computer with internet connection.
Writing circles begin with a guided meditation, which helps students come into the present moment. I invite students to connect with their breath, drop down into their bodies, and enter a receptive state.
After the meditation, we write for thirty minutes. I provide a variety of juicy prompts gleaned from the work of my favorite poets. The only rule here is to write as fast as you can without thinking. This bypasses the inner critic. No matter what people are working on, the prompts give whatever is percolating underneath the surface a chance to come forward in fresh, unexpected ways.
Participants read after they write—either what they’ve written during the timed session, something they’ve brought from home, or both. I try to hold my comments until the end so I don’t influence student discussion—unless I am bursting at the seams with enthusiasm, which sometimes happens.
It’s important to set the right tone for sharing work. This is not finished material. I don’t offer false praise, but celebrate what’s there, and reveal opportunities for discovery and growth. I ask, “ Where is the energy in this piece? Are there seeds that, if watered, might sprout? Are kernels ready to pop?” I also look for transformation lines, which are charged sentences that, if mined, have power to deepen the writing and heal the heart.
In the feedback portion of the session I celebrate courage, honesty, vulnerability, and the willingness to go deep. Then I look for threads to pull whatever timid or reluctant stories might need unraveling.
My job is to facilitate self-expression. I pull the goodies out of writing circle participants, helping them mine their inner gold. I know where and how to dig! This is a live, intuitive, creative, and spiritual process that often leads to people finding their voice on the page—and also in their lives. It’s humbling and inspiring to bear witness to a person expressing something painful or deep, some truth that’s been hidden, shamed, or forgotten. I am deeply in love with this work.
Out-of-circle assignments are optional and individualized to meet each writer’s needs. I meet students where they are—each person is in their own place—and then usher them to the next level. Incrementally, over time, writing circle participants experience growth as writers and human beings.
My writing circles are not genre-specific, because no matter what you’re writing—poems, essays, fiction, memoir, blog posts, articles, blogs, or performance art—the process is the same. The structure/container takes on a different shape depending on the project, but the creative process does not. While most people gravitate toward a genre that feels right for them, several of my students write more than one genre.
My focus is on process rather than product. Engaging in the creative process honestly, and with integrity, automatically generates product. Product is excrement of process. I guide people as they work from the inside out, and provide an expansive yet intimate setting.
On-site writing circles have been on hold since the beginning of the pandemic. They took place for over a decade at my San Fernando Valley home, aka “ The Tree House.” Many students said my on-site class felt like a retreat, and part of this has to do with the surroundings, which include floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of mountains and sky, comfortable seating around a coffee table covered with inspirational books and journals, flowers, and candles. In the wintertime, flames flickered in the fireplace. We look forward to resuming in-person classes as soon as it's safe to do so.
Zoom writing circles have taken the place of in-person circles. This venue, as you may now realize, is surprisingly intimate, and we've all grown accustomed to being together on Zoom since the start of the pandemic. We’ve discovered many perks, not the least of which is being able to include writers from around the world. Participants have joined us from all over the United States, and from Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, and England. All you need is a computer with internet connection.
Writing circles begin with a guided meditation, which helps students come into the present moment. I invite students to connect with their breath, drop down into their bodies, and enter a receptive state.
After the meditation, we write for thirty minutes. I provide a variety of juicy prompts gleaned from the work of my favorite poets. The only rule here is to write as fast as you can without thinking. This bypasses the inner critic. No matter what people are working on, the prompts give whatever is percolating underneath the surface a chance to come forward in fresh, unexpected ways.
Participants read after they write—either what they’ve written during the timed session, something they’ve brought from home, or both. I try to hold my comments until the end so I don’t influence student discussion—unless I am bursting at the seams with enthusiasm, which sometimes happens.
It’s important to set the right tone for sharing work. This is not finished material. I don’t offer false praise, but celebrate what’s there, and reveal opportunities for discovery and growth. I ask, “ Where is the energy in this piece? Are there seeds that, if watered, might sprout? Are kernels ready to pop?” I also look for transformation lines, which are charged sentences that, if mined, have power to deepen the writing and heal the heart.
In the feedback portion of the session I celebrate courage, honesty, vulnerability, and the willingness to go deep. Then I look for threads to pull whatever timid or reluctant stories might need unraveling.
My job is to facilitate self-expression. I pull the goodies out of writing circle participants, helping them mine their inner gold. I know where and how to dig! This is a live, intuitive, creative, and spiritual process that often leads to people finding their voice on the page—and also in their lives. It’s humbling and inspiring to bear witness to a person expressing something painful or deep, some truth that’s been hidden, shamed, or forgotten. I am deeply in love with this work.
Out-of-circle assignments are optional and individualized to meet each writer’s needs. I meet students where they are—each person is in their own place—and then usher them to the next level. Incrementally, over time, writing circle participants experience growth as writers and human beings.
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” —Leonardo da Vinci