The Visceral Self

Join us for a 12-week journey of embodied writing to wake up your prose (and your life) in new and unexpected ways. We are excited to write with you!

Apr 02, 2024

Nothing, not one single thing, has awakened and enlivened my writing (and my life) more than embodied writing.

This simple but dedicated practice has changed everything for me. Embodied writing was my doorway to truth, yes, but also to the ability to craft prose that evokes sensation and emotion for readers. Kafka said the purpose of art is to be the axe that breaks open the frozen sea inside us. Embodied writing taught me how to understand and experience that. Not coincidentally, embodied writing was also the portal to my work being published and noticed in the outside world.

Most importantly, though, embodied practices helped me to bring forth the creatively fulfilling life I longed for, both on and off the page.

I invite you to join us for Writing in the Dark’s 12-week embodied writing intensive for paid members, starting tomorrow, April 3. This intensive is for all genres and levels of experience, including complete beginners. We would love to write with you.

Upgrade to Paid or Founding

If you are curious about embodied writing, here are some posts I’ve shared recently to give a sense of how I approach writing through the body, which begins with the senses:

And below is a full description of how this intensive works (essentially, 12 Wednesday posts delivered straight to your inbox, with clear, structured exercises and a bustling interactive exploration of our experience in the comments section, where I will be present to guide, encourage, clarify, and shepherd this creative adventure).

If you still have questions after the description below, you can email jeannine@writinginthedark.org and I will answer whatever I can. I always love to hear from you.

I just realized that your teaching is like that: raw, disobedient, feral and also meditative and open. This is such a great space from which to teach. Made me fall in love with what's happening here. ~Laure Jouteau, WITD member

What is Embodied Writing?

For me, bodily awareness has held the key to releasing and writing stored stories.

Our bodies remember. Our cells hold records of the past, awareness of the present, and imaginings of the future. These embodied sensations form the basis of writing that electrifies the primal exchange we continually experience with the world.

This is a visceral phenomenon. Visceral means “relating to the viscera,” or your internal organs. It also means “relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.” And research—especially that of James Pennebaker at University of Texas at Austin—shows that writing heals us, literally (meaning on a physical level).

Writing through the body can also help us access greater openness and art. During The Visceral Self intensive, we will journey slowly and intentionally through the seven chakras as we deeply explore:

Embodied literary readings to inspire us.
Paired yin yoga poses and breathing exercises to increase physical awareness (poses offered focus on honoring the body and are appropriate for all levels with variations available as desired).
Short guided meditations to prepare you to write.
Powerful structured writing exercises designed to unlock your awareness of the stories held within.

We will follow visceral writing techniques wherever they lead us, including the Big Ones: sex, birth, illness, trauma, pain, recovery, etc., as writing through the body offers the opportunity for creating clarity, cohesion, and beauty from disparate memories that course beneath the surface of our daily experience.

By weaving this strong, intentional container, the Visceral Self will help participants access stories that are sometimes more difficult to tell, as well as the ordinary sensations that, when precisely observed, can awaken our prose in ways no other process can.

What’s Included in The Visceral Self Writing Intensive

Paid members of the Writing in the Dark community receive:

Twelve weekly Visceral Self posts starting April 3, with literary readings, paired yin yoga poses, written meditations, and structured writing exercises.
Access to our bustling comments section where, each week, participants share questions, insights, and snippets of work in progress, and where Jeannine and Billie actively participate.

Founding members also receive:

Specially recorded Voice Memo meditations related to the readings and writing exercises.
Live Salons on Zoom including guided candlelight meditations and a celebratory gathering when the intensive is over.

All participants will gain:

Valuable embodied craft principles and specific tools to apply long after the the intensive is over.
A collection of new work in progress (scenes, fragments, poems, flash) that you can continue to develop on your own.
An archive of embodied readings, paired yin yoga poses, meditations, and writing exercises that you can repeat as desired.
A deeper understanding of the ways in which embodied writing techniques enliven our prose, and tools for engaging the body in your writing practice.

See Past Intensives Here

Visceral Self: Writing Through the Body dates to note for founding members (you can manage/upgrade your membership here). For all paid members, we’ll also be hosting impromptu silent group writes on Zoom (times tbd week of ). We’re excited to write with you!

🗓️ 🕯️Wednesday April 3, 8 - 8:30 PM Central Time, Live Candlelight Yoga Nidra Meditation on Zoom for Founding Members (Zoom link emailed an hour ahead)

🗓️ 🕯️Wednesday May 1, 8 PM CT, Live Candlelight Yoga Nidra Meditation on Zoom (Zoom link emailed an hour ahead)

🗓️ 🕯️Wednesday June 12, 8 PM CT, Candlelight Yoga Nidra Meditation on Zoom (Zoom link emailed an hour ahead)

🗓️ 🕯️Friday June 21, 1 PM CT, Celebratory Live Solstice Salon on Zoom (Zoom link emailed an hour ahead)

Some Things People Have Said About Writing in the Dark Intensives

I have learned much from you in the last year, through your weekly posts and seasonal intensives. The depth and quality of your content is unmatched on Substack (IMHO). That, plus the network of subscribers you have garnered is why I look forward to Wednesdays! (And Mondays for Lit Salon and Thursdays for the new Threads!) I have been involved in workshops that cost more but provide less. Thanks for all you are producing and the community you have created in an effort to bring the out our best writing selves.
As always, there's more to these exercises than I first anticipate.
I’m thoroughly enjoying this challenge and truly appreciate all the ways you’re helping each of us become more thoughtful and evocative writers.
It's actually been super helpful to work through the exercises in quick succession, like a little writing course... But so much more inspiring and thoughtful and generous and fun than any I've taken before. THANK YOU Jeannine, you are brilliant.
These assignments are like magic.
Your post gave me a giant AHA moment. You’ve unlocked my understanding of tension and storytelling in memoir.
This post was wonderful. Love the first quote especially. I had a couple of deeper realizations with this exercise.
Reading all the comments on my writing today, so full of enthusiasm and encouragement, really made my day! One of the things I will treasure most about this challenge is learning to trust myself and others with my writing.

Upgrade to Paid or Founding Now

What to Expect From The Visceral Self:

You can expect, if you work every exercise, to complete the intensive with up to 12 original, interesting, and intriguing scene/fragments that you can either work into a complete story or expand or revise into separate pieces or use as scenes in some other work in progress. And you can expect these scenes/fragments to differ greatly from anything you might have written otherwise.
You can expect structured prompts and meditations and a yin yoga pose via email every Wednesday, so that you have a full week to complete each exercise before the next one arrives.
You can expect every exercise to invite you to engage your body and to revel in language and expand your understanding of how embodied writing techniques supercharge our prose.
You can expect to be encouraged to participate each week—which is a very lively experience—or work at your own pace, or start the intensive later or repeat it, or whatever works best for you, because all of the posts will be tagged and permanently archived in order.
You can expect (to the point above) to be encouraged to embrace zero-waste writing, where everything interesting can become something more than itself now or later.
You can expect to be invited and encouraged to record your experiences as part of the process—and you can, if you share your thoughts in the chat or comments, expect to find me and Billie Oh there, participating in the conversation.
You can expect each exercise to be accompanied by a detailed craft writing and resources.
You can expect the exercises to be clear, doable, and scaffolded over the 12 weeks in a way that allows you, if you like, to “arranges the bits” toward an interesting suggestion of wholeness.
You can expect to amass not just a collection of scenes/fragments, but also an array of highly usable craft tools you can apply forever.
You can expect to be introduced to several specific, potent literary approaches to deepen and illuminate your relationship with language.
You can expect to make discoveries about yourself and your life.
You can expect to be introduced to some less familiar readings as well as some crowd favorites.
You can expect exercises that are specific and directive and clear, but also a bit feral and unpredictable. You can expect (as always in WITD) exercises that honor the truth of living in bodies that breathe and move and laugh and cry, while also living in a world that breathes and moves and laughs and cries, while also having unruly minds that are constantly escaping to the past and the future even when what we most need is to attend to this exact moment in order to live lives that are, as Mary Oliver said, “particular and real.”
You can expect to be imperfect, and for that to be perfectly okay.
You can expect to come out of this challenge with new ideas about what writing can be, and how it can feel.
You can expect with new ideas of who you are, who you are becoming, and what is possible for you as a writer.

I’m sure there’s more—but I know from our recent Essay and Story Challenges that these thing evolve and change along the way. For now, anyway, these are the main points, and I’m happy to answer questions if you have them! Share thoughts into the comments or respond via email to this post. I can’t wait to start writing with all of you in April—hearing your voices, celebrating this thing we do, this thing called language.

Love,
Jeannine

P.S. Who Are Your Guides?

This original Visceral Self curriculum was created by Jeannine Ouellette and her collaborator (and youngest child)Billie Oh — you can read/listen to Billie’s most recent Real World Meditation here. Jeannine & Billie are both 200-hour RYT certified.

Jeannine is the author of the The Part That Burns, 2019 Annie Dillard Award Winner for creative nonfiction, 2018 Narrative Story Contest Finalist, 2017 Masters Review Emerging Writer Awardee, 2016 Proximity Essay Contest winner, 2015 Curt Johnson Fiction Awards honoree, two-time Pushcart nominee, published author of several educational books, founder of Elephant Rock, and, most of all, passionate teacher of writing. In addition to teaching through Elephant Rock, Jeannine serves as a writing mentor for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Writer-to-Writer Program and teaches writing through the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop, and teaches Writing for Public Health and narrative health forums at the University of Minnesota. Jeannine is also a 200-hour RYT certified teacher.

Billie has been practicing yoga for twelve years and is a 200-hour RYT certified teacher. The heart of their teaching philosophy is to honor the body. They believe in the power of asana (shapes) to bring the mind, body, and spirit into alignment. Their teaching is rooted in functional yoga, emphasizing bodily sensation rather than aesthetic appearances. They are passionate about expanding accessibility and approachability in yoga spaces. Billie's movement and meditation practice translates on the page in fragmented and experimental literary works that explore the intersection of brain, body, and identity. Their writing has appeared in a variety of magazines and literary journals including Calyx, where their essay, “Bent: Daughterhood Recalled Through Skin and Bone,” was first-runner up for the 2019 Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing.