Writing is always a reflection of the writer.
When the writing is flowing, it’s because the writer is flowing.
When the writing is stuck, it’s because the writer is stuck.
When I quit my job almost a decade ago with young, doe-eyed dreams to write a best-selling book, I didn’t think this way. I thought of writing as a tool of communication; a vessel of self-expression. I wanted to use writing to advance the quality and purpose of my life.
This is where many writers begin. It’s an invitation for struggle.
Today, I understand that the quality of one’s writing — that the felt-experience of writing — is very much equal to one’s relationship to oneself.
“If my writing is flowing, then I must be flowing.”
“If my writing is stuck, then I must be stuck.”
Nothing in nature is detached from any other part of nature. In fact, since everything in nature essentially is nature itself, we might more accurately say, “Nothing in nature is detached from any other part of itself.”
I believe the same is true for you and me as humans.
Nothing about us is detached, separate or isolated from any other part.
The writer in us is the whole truth of who we are; not a small sliver of soul whom we might feel inclined to hide from prying eyes. The creative in each of us is also the whole truth of who we are. The calling we feel to express ourselves in the world? That calling is the whole truth of us, too.
However, the society in which we live really likes to reinforce the idea that everything is distinct and separate from everything else.
Work life, personal life. Red state, blue state.
Some facets of our society even believe that certain things should be set apart distinctly, like gender roles and race, sexual orientation and political party affiliation, even which brand of soap or chocolate bar is “your own.” Our society is just about obsessed with distinguishing “the whole” from itself.
(No wonder so many people feel fractured, less-than, and lacking. We’re constantly being told that we are less than the whole that we know ourselves to be.)
If this idea that “Nothing about us is separate from us” is true, then it stands to reason that how we behave, how we feel, what we dream, or what we desire is, in fact, a representation of “who we are” in any given moment.
Forgettable as these passing moments may seem,
simply by paying closer attention to our thoughts, words and feelings, we theoretically get closer to living the entire life that we wish to live. Because thoughts, words and feelings represent the whole of who we are. These expressions, ordinary as they may appear, are ultimately what make up the total narrative of the lives we live.
Whatever stories we tell ourselves, and hear the most often, and believe are true... that is what we become. The course of our lives follows suit.
Because “Nothing about us is separate from us.”
Imagine if more of our everyday thoughts were rooted in our innermost beliefs. How less would we feel fractured, longing, or unwhole on a given day?
Consider if most of our words were aligned to our values well before we spoke them. What would the stories of our lives then become? Bold? Brilliant? Fearless? Unyielding?
Imagine if our deepest desires had a voice, and we deliberately chose to let that voice speak. Could that voice guide us any more effortlessly into what decisions to make, and which to leave behind? Wouldn’t that voice help us understand the right path to pursue, and why?
How would the whole of life feel if we lived more of it as if we were already whole?
How would ordinary, everyday, even forgettable moments feel if they were lived as opportunities to embody and express the “soul-code” that resides within?
However we fill our minds, our hearts, and our days, our lives become that.
We become that.
Because nothing about us is separate from the whole of who we are.
I am here to help guide you further into the wholeness of who you already are.
*
Hello, and welcome to Unavoidable Writing.
My name is Dave Ursillo, and I’m the creator of this course. Throughout your time navigating these lessons, I will be your guide. Thank you for being here. And thank you for giving yourself to your writing.
Because when you give yourself to your writing, you give yourself to you.
Writing isn’t just a method of communicating a story, idea or message to the world. Even when unshared with anyone else, writing is a powerful personal practice in mindful self-awareness.
This is the gift I want to give you: self-awareness through self-expression, a resource that is capable of revealing to us all the hiddens truths of who we are and how we wish to live.
And yet…
Over the last decade of my life — being a writer and author; teaching writing and creative self-expression; working with hundreds of writing clients from around the world; and exposing myself to more writing communities, groups, experts, authors, books, techniques, and philosophies than I could count — I have been disappointed that this idea of using writing as a vessel for living one’s best life has been, well, almost non-existent.
I dream of a future in which writers will be taught, as a starting point, what I myself never was told:
“Learn to know your writing through knowing yourself. The better you know yourself, the better your relationship to writing, and the better the quality of your writing will be. Inner world, first. Outer world will follow.”
Because, instead, what most writers are told is this:
“Let us blindly pursue lofty goals, publishing deals, bestseller lists and Oprah’s famed couch. It’s a long shot, but you can do it. Maybe. Like, there’s literally *a* chance, although probably not much of one. But anyway, forget that. Just start writing. A lot. Like, 10,000 hours or so of practice should make you an expert, some guy once said. And all the neurosis, self-defeatism, anxiety, confusion, woe-is-me, depression, starving artist vibes, social isolation, guilt, fears, worries, questions, doubts and imposter syndrome you come by? That’s just being an artist, kid. Welcome to the club.”
Ouch.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Today, I am on a mission to guide writers and creatives into a foundational relationship to the written word as an entry-point into ongoing and self-supportive conversations with the soul.
Because “Nothing about us is separate from us,” I believe that a healing, self-supportive, ever-deepening relationship to the whole of yourself births all the good, noble desires that you and I have for our lives, from being well and happy to contributing love to the world and even creating brilliant expressions of artistry like books, poems, songs, dances, and kind words with a stranger on the street.
Unavoidable Writing is a writing course. But as you already are aware, Unavoidable Writing is more than being about cold skill-building, or forcing yourself to write for 100 consecutive days, or fixating upon any end goal or outcome outside of yourself.
Unavoidable Writing is about the writer behind the writing.
(That’s you!)
This program exists to help you evoke the beauty, uniqueness and gifts that reside within your inner world. Through very specific styles and manners of writing, Unavoidable Writing will teach you how to answer your call to write by embracing your personal journal as the vital, soulful space for ongoing communion with the divine spark that resides within you.
You’re here because you understand that the whole of you cannot be conveniently, politely, or delicately separated out of the whole truth of who you are.
Programs and workshops that expect you to go “all in” on becoming “a professional writer” or author have probably left you feeling more excluded than deeply seen, witnessed, and guided into more of the life you are already living.
In Unavoidable Writing, I want to show you how to embrace a personal journaling practice as a helpful, healthful, self-supportive system for recognizing the whole truth of who you are. If you have audacious career goals to become a best-selling author (as I once did), or even modest dreams to see your name in print someday, what you are here to learn is the ideal foundation upon which any dream or goal can find its roots, and survive long enough to become possible.
Your writing practice will support your life, and your life will support your writing practice. Our goal is to experience symbiosis, reciprocity, and sustainability in creative self-expression: the whole, unseparated from itself.
In doing so, it is my hope to help you empower, embolden, and share more of your divine spark in our world.
No matter your experience level with writing (or even if you consider yourself “a writer” in title), Unavoidable Writing is your first next step to physically inhabiting your inner truth, your voice, and your callings.
Writing will show us the way.
Your friends are my friends, too, so I'd be happy to extend a $30-off discount their way. Tell them to use the code unavoid30 at checkout. Thank you!
