Dear Transcending readers –
I hope you are travelling well. I just wanted to remind you (or let you know) that I have transferred all of this Transcending blog over to my new site Quiet Writing.
There are many new posts over there on all things transcending, transition, resilience, intuition, writing and creativity. So if you haven’t already visited to sign up for Quiet Writing – now is the perfect time as I have just released my new free ebook: 36 Books that Shaped my Story: Reading as Creative Influence.
I’ve included the full post for you here below as well but would love to see you over at Quiet Writing and to engage with you there. There is a rich community building and interacting and new opportunities, including inspirational resources, Life Coaching and guest blog posting, coming on line all the time.
This will be my last communication from here and I’ll be shifting Transcending over to private mode by the end of September. So I hope you will come and join me at Quiet Writing if you’ve joined up more recently or haven’t made the leap as yet!
Thanks so much for supporting Transcending over the years and recently – but it’s time to move on after a year of publishing at Quiet Writing. You can read the Welcome to Quiet Writing message I sent out about a year ago if you missed it at that time.
With gratitude and I hope to see you very soon over at Quiet Writing,
Terri
My free ebook ’36 Books that Shaped my Story: Reading as Creative Influence’ celebrates the books we love as our creative legacy and the clues they give as to what is emerging in our story.
The story of ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’
I’m so excited to be launching my ’36 Books’ ebook and sharing the story with you!
When I started working out what to include as a special gift and free ebook here, I wanted something that summed up the heart of Quiet Writing. I wanted to create something that sparked creativity, that shared generously and that provided a springboard for others for their own reflections on their lives and creativity.
And I kept coming back to books – sharing books that made a difference to me, sharing how they influenced me and shaped my life, reflecting on how this can be a source of growth.
Words are at the heart of Quiet Writing – the words we read, the words we write, the words we say to ourselves or another person such as a trusted friend or coach as we form our vision and process our journey. The words we listen to as we read, as we engage with another fully and the words we want to write.
And story is the shape the words make – the narrative we weave through the body of work that we create through career, our creative endeavours and our passions. This story is unique – no one has read the same books as you in the same way; no one has the same life experiences as you; and you are the only one to combine your passions and experiences in the way that you do.
Gathering special books around us
I’ve always gathered special books around me as a sort of altar, a source of strength, a connection to influence, like a wise chorus of silent voices surrounding me. So when I read Sage Cohen’s piece, ‘Honor you lineage’ in her book, Fierce on the Page, it rang special bells of resonance. In her beautiful piece, Sage explains:
I have always been magnetically drawn to the books I need as teachers. Recently I cleared a shelf and, with great reverence, placed on it the books I most love – the ones that have shaped me in the way that water shapes stones, almost imperceptibly over time.
She invites us to gather the books we most love around us and to sit with them and appreciate how they have influenced our vision and sense of direction, especially in our writing life.
And importantly, she flags that in the light and strength of these books and words, the heart of what we want to write is lingering:
I wonder if that’s really all our writing asks of us: to know what we love, to listen, and to give ourselves over to what presents itself.
So that’s what I did – I gathered the special books that have shaped me over time and spent time with each of them, honouring what they have brought to me. And it became a fascinating and deep exercise. Choosing them, remembering what they have given me, unpacking and unravelling it a little more, organising it into a continuum and seeing how it fitted in the context of my life – was an insightful joy. And I learnt so much about myself and the recurring themes in my life.
It became a deep excavation and navigation of what I love and how it drives me.
And that is the heart of Quiet Writing – it’s about gathering the threads of our lives, finding the connecting pieces and weaving them together.
I communicate this heart and this spirit, through writing and life coaching, the twin hearts of Quiet Writing, so we can work with it in a supportive way to shine. For when we find those connecting pieces, those values, those desires, those long held passions and values, they can help us negotiate the next phase more successfully and work out what we really want to do and feel.
What to expect in ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’
So what can you expect in ’36 Books that Shaped my Story: Reading as Creative Influence’? It starts with a personal essay about the rationale and process and draws the threads of the experiment and experience together into key themes.
The second part then tracks through each of the 36 books individually and shows how they appeared in the context of my life and the legacy and influence they have provided. There are also suggestions as to why you might want to read each book.
Taken overall, the book shows how the books you love can be:
- a source of writing inspiration
- a narrative for your life
- a timeline for reflection
- prompts for memoir
- a way of gathering evidence about your body of work over time
- a way of understanding what you really love
- a way of noticing the key themes of your life, and
- the key to the influences that are your guiding light.
I think will find it a valuable read about the value of books and reading as creative influence and as a way of finding clues to help you enrich your quiet writing life.
How to get your copy of ’36 Books’
So if you already a Quiet Writing subscriber, the link will already be with you in your inbox via the ‘Beach Notes’ monthly message I have sent out.
If you are not already a subscriber, make sure you sign up to connect and receive ‘36 Books’. Just sign up to the right or bottom on Quiet Writing and the ebook will be with you in no time.
You will also receive my regular ‘Beach Notes’ newsletter full of inspiration about books, writing, story, narrative, voice, personality and all things quiet writing to inspire you. You will also be the first to know about Quiet Writing life coaching, guest posting and e-course opportunities when they are available.
I hope you enjoy ’36 Books’. It’s an opportunity for us to reflect on and share our thoughts on reading, books, creativity, influence, story, narrative and writing. These are all fabulous inspirations central to Quiet Writing and the community here.
I can’t wait to hear your feedback – happy reading and reflection!
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy:
How to read for more creativity, pleasure and productivity
Being ‘Fierce on the Page’ – a book review
On the art and love of reading
How to craft a successful life on your own terms
Transcending 