The Transformative Power of Writing Circles: Interview with Susan Vespoli

Frederick Meyer  |  November 27, 2019  | 

writers.com instructor Susan Vespoli leads both in-person and online writing circles in the Wild Writing tradition of Laurie Wagner. In this interview, Susan explains what writing circles are and how they function, and how writing circles can be a transformative practice for both writing and life.

What is a writing circle?

There are different forms of writing circles, but the ones that I participate in and facilitate are based on a Wild Writing method, which also comes from Natalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind work.

You get together with a group. Usually three is the minimum and eight to ten is the maximum. The facilitator gives you a prompt to jump off. I’ve been taught to use poems, so the facilitator will read a poem, and then choose two or three jump-off lines to get you started. You close your eyes, get into the poem, and without thinking or remembering you start writing from a jump-off line.

So if a prompt is “I’m awake at 3:18 AM,” you write that and the other two prompts down. If none of the prompts work, you can rely on a classic like “I remember” or “What I really want to say is.”

Starting with your prompt, you write in what’s called a timed burst: the facilitator sets a timer for ten minutes, and you just write. You write as fast as you can, everyone writes as fast as they can, whatever comes up, no editing. You’ll hear your brain say, “Don’t say that!” or “You can’t tell them that!” but you’re supposed to ignore that and just let it all come up.

Everybody writes and writes without editing, and then the facilitator says “Okay, you have one minute, start wrapping up your thoughts,” then “Find your last sentence,” and then time’s up.

And then you go around and read. Everbody reads, and you’re not allowed to disclaim, “This is horrible,” or anything like that. And nobody says anything: everybody just listens, and at the end they all say “Thank you” to that person.

At first, people say, “I don’t want to read,” but that’s part of the writing circle. Everything that’s said in the writing circle stays there. It’s a trust thing, and like a witnessing. I read something recently that said “fire and tribe,” and it’s like that: you’re in a tribe, sitting around a fire, and you’re writing.

It provokes different things than you normally would write about, kind of teases things out that are buried. And the beauty is that not only do things come up for you, connections you’d never made, but you also hear other people and think, “Oh, I thought I was the only person who felt that way.” And you just honor people with a totally different life experience, and you get to say, “Oh, that’s what it’s like to be in that.” It’s a really human connecting tool.

Why does a writing circle bring out different pieces than we’d normally write about?

It just opens different doors inside you. There’s a quote from Natalie Goldberg, “Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.” It kind of opens doors.

An example of that is that my significant other and I often write morning pages to each other and read them to each other, but this morning I said “I’ll give you a couple of jump-off lines.” And from those, he wrote all these things I’d never heard about him. You come from a different spot, and you get clarity.

The more you practice, the easier it is to fall into that deeper place. We have all this stuff in us, and often we just write from the top piece of that. I’m sure regular writers are familiar with that “zone” where it’s almost coming from somewhere else. This is a way to drop into that more easily. It’s a practice, like meditation is a practice.

Also, my experience, and that of people I know who regularly do this practice, is that writing circles keep me clearer. If you don’t do it, you get tangled up in your thoughts. Some author said “I write to figure out what I’m thinking,” and it’s kind of one of those.

Having to share what you’ve written without a filter sounds terrifying.

I’ve heard other people say that. The first time I did this practice, in a teacher training with Wild Writing teacher Laurie Wagner, I decided to give it a shot and flew to her house in Alameda, and there were ten strange women in this house. There was some kind of magic, a shift, over the weekend. It was transformative. I still meet every week in a writing circle with those same women.

There’s some kind of a trust that happens, and maybe you don’t say certain things at first until it develops, but then it does develop. You start loosening up. Laurie said in her training that she’d let people pass, but only once. But if one person doesn’t read, it makes it less safe for all the other people. Because you’re witnessing for other people, you open more: you see that you’re not the only flawed person, and there’s beautiful stuff, too.

What can you say about how participating in a writing circle feels?

Once you’re in the practice of it, it feels like an opening. Of the people I’ve been in writing circles, either ones I’ve led or ones I’ve joined in, I’ve never had anybody say they feel worse. You feel better. A connection builds—I hear people say “I love you.” In this world, there are so few opportunities to connect on a heart level, a trust level, and this is one of them.

If it scares you, give it a try. There’s another quote, “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” You do have to be ready to open, to be naked. Not literally.

Do people often develop their work from writing circles into longer pieces?

They do, and I have. It’s not an expectation, and that shouldn’t be the goal—otherwise you have a little scanning editor going.

At the end of a writing circle, if you do want to talk to somebody about what they wrote, you’re supposed to ask, “Can I reference your writing?” And then you can have a conversation about it, and sometimes you’ll say, “You need to clean that up and send that out.” And a lot of what I’ve written, either essays or poems, I’ve written in writing circles and cleaned up. They’re in you, and you bring them up this way.

Susan's Upcoming Classes

poetry writing circle

Writing Circle Workshop: Moving Toward Creativity & Light

May 8th, 2024

Connect with other writers, spark your creativity, and write light-filled poems in this writing circle workshop. 

Frederick Meyer

Frederick has been with Writers.com since 2019. He studied literature, creative writing, social sciences, and business both as an undergraduate and in graduate school. He has also worked as a copyeditor, writing tutor, web developer, and spiritual coach. Frederick's writing interests are poetry, short fiction, and especially spiritual nonfiction. He strives to create a welcoming environment for all writers, wherever they're coming from and wish to go.

4 Comments

  1. Janis Brams on October 22, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    Thanks Susan for working so hard to widen the Writing Circle practice. Having been a Writing Circle practitioner for a number of years, I can attest to how powerful writing without boundaries or worry about perfection can be. Allowing the pen to float across a page without censorship gives us a chance to stand outside ourselves, to acknowledge our challenges, appreciate our blessings and embrace our authentic self.

    When others share from a raw and uncensored place, we are inspired to reach down deeper, to search out our own stories. It’s not often we get to know others in such a significant way, so quickly. We build a community of people willing to listen to whatever we need to say without judgement.

    Having been one of those “strangers” in Susan’s credentialing class, I know what a sensitive and skilled leader she is. I do Writing Circles with her each week and have learned much about leading and living from this very talented teacher and poet. How fortunate writers.com is to have found her.

  2. Marjorie Osborn on October 23, 2019 at 8:22 am

    Yay. Thanks for featuring susan’s great classes.

  3. Lynn Duvall on October 27, 2019 at 2:18 pm

    Hi Fred — don’t you mean Wild Mind writing circles “in the tradition of” Natalie Goldberg? Laurie’s a wonderful teacher and I know she leads WM writing groups. I’m just not familiar with her as the originator of Wild Mind writing groups. ???

    Also, I noticed in the blip of video about the WM circles what looks like a video for the class featuring Charlie Rose interviews. Wondering if you gave any thought to not including his work, considering his #MeToo history.

    Thanks for listening. Hope I can afford an upcoming course.

    • Fred Meyer on October 27, 2019 at 11:57 pm

      Hi Lynn,

      Thanks for your comments! Laurie teaches a tradition called Wild Writing. As you say, I believe it’s grounded partly in Natalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind work.

      Can you say more about where the video you’re referencing is? I’m not sure where to find that.

      Thank you for your thoughts!

      Best,
      Fred

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