The Right Mindset to Write

A 60-minute masterclass with Greta Solomon, author of Heart, Sass & Soul and Just Write It!

Wednesday 10 March, 2021 at 12pm GMT on Zoom (there is also a replay if you can’t make it live)

Price: Donation (i.e. pay what you like)

I will never forget it. Aged 23, I'd been given the opportunity to join the start-up team at a new national women's magazine. It would be my second journalism job and I was having a trial day at their plush London offices. All was going well until the editor asked me to write a sample feature.

She gave me a couple of hours and I froze. I kept writing and crossing out and couldn't decide on the headline, the standfirst, the angle, or anything in fact. I couldn't get a feature out. And it wasn't as though I 'couldn't' write a feature, as that was what I had done for a living for the past 18 months as the deputy editor of a niche women's title.

But in the moment, my mindset and behaviour blocks kicked in. I will never forget the look on her face as I handed in a paragraph. I can laugh about it now but at the time I was mortified! And though I'd later get another feature writing job in the same building, at another top magazine, I saw that my creativity wasn't something I had a handle on.

It didn't so much as ebb and flow but dry out altogether and felt forced and stifled. Fear meant that I wrote best at the very last minute, which wasn't optimal on a weekly magazine. And shame kicked-in. I clearly had good journalism skills. I connected well with interviewees from celebrities to the cleaner next door and wrote from the heart. But I felt completely inadequate – that I was an imposter in heels and a fancy handbag, pretending to be something I wasn't.

20 years later, I am still a professional writer. But I am also the author of two traditionally published books on writing skills, a writing teacher, and a journal healer. I have learnt a thing or two about how to reliably tap into the creative current. And my work is all about teaching people how to use journaling, writing and creative self-expression to wake up, connect to inner wisdom, and heal the tender, violated parts of their inner worlds.

This masterclass is for all writers. You may be a professional writer or journalist, or someone who's just starting out. Maybe you write novels, or poems, or songs, or memoir, or narrative non-fiction and want to try something new. Or maybe you want to write better marketing and sales copy for your business.

In this masterclass, you’ll get an introduction into:

• The ways in which other people have shamed you and your writing

• The communication pyramid and how to navigate it

• Strategies for overcoming psychological blocks

• Writing personalities and how they help / hamper you

This class will give you a comprehensive introduction to the key elements of an optimal writer’s mindset and you’ll begin to see the patterns that hold you back. This knowledge is transformative as it puts the power back in your pen.

I have taught these tools and techniques (and many more) to everyone from multi-billion pound companies, journalists, and copywriters, to business owners and bloggers. They work. And if you want to go deeper, I will also share details of my online course: Writing for Creative Self-Expression.

Greta Solomon is a writer, author, writing teacher, and journal healer. Through her books and courses, she guides people to use journaling, writing and creative self-expression to wake up, connect to inner wisdom, and heal the tender, violated parts of their inner worlds.

A former overachiever with a Head Girl badge and straight A grades to her name, Greta has spent her life shaking off the ‘good girl’ mask so that she can be true to herself. She is an ICF associate certified life coach, a Berklee-alumni lyricist, and a City & Guilds trained lifelong learning teacher. She has clocked up thousands of coaching and tutoring hours with her clients.

Greta has a degree in psychology from University of Warwick, and a former career as a women’s magazine journalist. In total, she has over 13 years of experience in training individuals and multi-million pound companies in writing skills, delivering workshops and talks in Norway, Holland and across the UK. Greta was also a visiting business writing lecturer at University of London, City.

Greta still writes for newspapers and magazines, most recently for Red, Kindred Spirit and Forbes. She is the author of Just Write It! How to Develop Top-Class University Writing Skills (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013) and Heart, Sass & Soul: Journal Your Way to Inspiration and Happiness (Mango, 2019), which was shortlisted for best book in the 2020 Creative Impact Awards. She is also a published poet and songwriter. She lives in London with her husband and daughter.