Welcome to your writing life in a new year and a new decade! Kay and I decided that we wanted to inspire you to break out past the voices that get in the way of your creative flow—and for most of us that is our inner critic. We will combine a discussion with some hands on writing to help you build a new relationship with your writing self from the ground up.

As writers, we tend to be hard on ourselves. We’re never writing enough, disciplined enough, submitting enough, scheduling enough quality time for writing.

Enough of worrying, critiquing, and feeling inadequate. Enough procrastinating as a result of the negative voices. Let’s try self-compassion instead—a voice that is supportive and kind, the voice that you would use with a friend who needed support—right?

In this conversation, Kay Adams, longtime friend of NAMW, will discuss the role of self-compassion as a resource in the writer’s toolkit.

We’ll talk about:

• What is self-compassion, anyway?
• Three elements of self-compassion
• What self-compassion is NOT
• How to befriend the Inner Critic (or at least not let it drag you down)
• PLUS writing processes to help you define your own self-compassionate writing journey!

Bring a notebook and pen (or clean screen and keyboard)!

We look forward to seeing you at this kickstart-the-year-and-decade seminar!