A Journey Through Compassionate Literature
What if reading beautiful stories could show you how to develop authentic voice, emotional truth, and compassionate storytelling? What if gathering with other mindful writers around carefully chosen literature could become one of the most nourishing parts of your creative practice?
The Mindful Story Circle is an invitation into something deeper than a typical book club or writing workshop. This is about communion - with beautiful words, with each other, and with the wisdom that emerges when we approach literature as a healing practice.
📖 A Beautiful Short Story
Shared with you on the first of the month
✍️ Craft Deep-Dive
Exploration of how the author creates authentic voice, emotional truth, and compassionate storytelling - techniques you can apply to your own writing
🤔 Mindful Writing Invitation
A gentle prompt designed to help you discover your own authentic voice through the themes we're exploring
🌐 Community Space
Access to a dedicated space on the Mindful Writer Wet Ink site where the craft content will be shared and where you can chat and share thoughts, inspirations and ideas as the months unfold, as well as swap work for feedback with other writers
💫 Live Zoom Circle
90-minute gathering on the last Sunday of each month at 3pm UK time, where we share discoveries and insights (except December and we'll meet on the first Sunday of January instead, honouring the Christmas and New Year holidays)
You want to use writing as a tool for healing and connection
You're drawn to stories that nourish the soul as well as challenge the mind
You believe literature can teach us about compassion and authentic expression
You're seeking genuine community with other mindful writers
You want to develop your craft in service of truth rather than just technique
You're ready to approach your creative work with presence and purpose
Each month you'll get a story reading, craft discussion content and writing prompts and a 90-minutes Zoom workshop filled with discussion and some writing time. We're having December off for Christmas!
We'll explore "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li - a tender story about the space between languages and generations, showing us how authentic characters voice emerges through vulnerability and the courage to bridge differences.
"Virgins" by Danielle Evans teaches us how to write difficult emotions with compassion, exploring how we can transform our wounds into wisdom through storytelling that helps to heal us, our readers, and ripples out to heal our communities.
Through "Anything Helps" by Jess Walter, we'll explore the ways we can write beyond judgement and division, using empathy to create genuine understanding between characters no matter how different they may be on the surface.
"What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" by Nathan Englander will show us how profound meaning emerges from everyday happenings, routines and conversations, transforming ordinary moments into something luminous.
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie demonstrates how our stories can become tools for healing, transformation and redemption, so we can use our writing as a practice of self-discovery and compassion for ourselves and others.
Looking at Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," we'll be examining how physical objects can carry emotional weight, memory and hopes, and how we can approach difficult experiences with compassion and curiosity.
Course tutor
Amanda Saint is the founder of The Mindful Writer and an author and writing coach dedicated to helping writers find their voice and keep the love of writing alive, while using their stories to create positive human connection.
With many years experience in the publishing industry, she believes that writing is a journey of self-discovery, and she helps people to embrace their creativity through courses, workshops and 1-1 coaching. Amanda's approach combines mindfulness with creative writing, providing a supportive community where every writer can thrive.
Amanda is the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019) and a novella-in-flash, Pressure Drop (2024). Her short stories, flash and micro fictions have been widely published in journals and anthologies, and placed and listed in many international prizes, including the Mslexia Flash Fiction Prize and the Fish Flash Fiction Prize. A Best Small Fictions 2023 nominee, in 2024 she had four stories selected for Top in Fiction. She writes life and memoir pieces on her Substack, and publishes the literary journal, WestWord.