What if you could develop your nonfiction or poetry manuscript while receiving input on content, structure and planning?
And you could feel super-motivated to power-on, while connecting with a group of fabulous and supportive women?
What if creating your manuscript could be a sacred experience where your healing and milestones were witnessed, attuned to and celebrated?
And what all of this magic could unfurl within a six-hour sanctuary designed to support your nervous system to relax and your mind to move into its creative zenith?
So many of we women who embark on the journey of creating a manuscript feel hesitant, stuck or isolated.
Writing a book is a big dream for us, and though we have many ideas, we feel we need a greater understanding of the process as it applies to us.
We wonder if there’s a right or wrong way to go about this!
We have so many questions, and we wish we had a map from start to finish.
Imagine how it would feel to have certainty in what you’re writing and planning. You have a sense of structure, and this gives you the confidence to relax into your writing. You easily maintain the focus and motivation your project requires of you, because you are supported by an intimate group of women who are showering you with ideas and insight and who want you to be your best!
If this sounds like a dream, read on! I’ve designed this program for women writers who are ready to embark on the dream of creating their manuscript.
Marn’s coaching has been a profound and magical experience for me. Our time together has been transformative — a huge turning point for me with regard to building confidence in myself as a writer. I chose Marn for her empathy and gentleness and found that we were aligned, that I could trust her with my writing. No matter what she says, it’s positive coming out of her mouth. Inquisitiveness and trustworthiness are her core qualities. Our sessions inspired me to share my work with other writers, to grow an intimacy with my writing and expand what I’m willing to put on the page. Trusting others with my writing helped me to override my second-guessing and self-criticism. Without Marn I would have given up, quit, walked away. My memoir is at 450 pages now, and I’m proud of it every time I read it! I could never repay Marn for the impact her coaching has had on my development as a writer.
I’m looking forward to coaching you as you move toward your greatest vision for your manuscript!
I facilitate this program and others, and I coach women writers on a large range of issues related to the writing process.
I’ve worked as a professional writer and writing workshop facilitator for the past 33 years.
I’m the author with an award-winning book of poetry, along with two books I’ve taken through the full editorial process and will self-publish.
I’ve just written a hybrid memoir/self-help book for women on the process of writing that I’m circulating to literary agents.
As a playwright, I’ve written and produced for the Toronto and Vancouver Fringe festivals, and my recent musical comedy was critically acclaimed by Vancouver media.
As a journalist, I’ve written for the Globe and Mail, CBC, and Georgia Straight, among many publications.
I also worked as a writer, editor and consultant for 25 years.
For more info, please see About.
The series is six months long, with one, six-hour workshop per month. It is limited to four participants to allow spacious time for each woman to ask questions and receive support.
The staggered workshops allow writers time to absorb what they’ve taken in during group coaching sessions and implement new concepts into their manuscripts.
It is set up as an in-person experience on this page —please inquire about the Zoom-friendly alternative.
Monthly sessions follow the same structure:
Guided visualization: Each workshop begins with a 10-minute guided visualization to support women to centre, focus, open to their creativity and tune into their deep needs.
This section initiates the nervous system support that is the backbone of each session.
Check-in: The check-in circle is an opportunity to really hear where each woman is coming from that day and to follow their journey from month to month. A guiding question is: where are you in your manuscript-creation and/or healing journey? I respond to each woman, and women also respond to each other in this circle. This is a place to connect deeply before we dive into the creative process.
Love Seat manuscript sessions:
Each writer receives 50 minutes of focused attention from the group. This allots us the time we require to hold you and your story in a sacred circle. This spaciousness supports the creative, emotional and spiritual unfolding of your work.
During this time, writers may request support for their manuscript-creation processes. Examples include:
Manuscript organization: structure, chapter sequence etc.
Literary aspects: theme, voice, flow
Creative brainstorming: for any aspect of the manuscript
Content structure and pacing: sequencing, content holes, narrative that requires strengthening, or chapters that could be more pointed or concise
Clarity: how is the writer’s intended message being received?
Overcoming Blocks: supporting women around emotional blocks that are arising within the process: fear, perfectionism, lack of confidence
Scheduling writing time: supporting writers to find the time they need when they need it
Feedback: on writing samples
Publication (general overview): options, protocol, publishers, literary agents etc.
Ten-minute breaks between presenters and a 30-minute lunch break provide opportunities to refresh.
Closing circle: Participants share their takeaway and set an intention for their next writing step.
We close each circle with a ritual completion to seal the energies.
My role as facilitator: I hold space, set the energetic tone, maintain a high level of safety for the group, provide structure and facilitate the flow of the circle.
I am always the first responder to the queries of the woman on the love seat, leading by example and diving deeply into the essence of the questions being asked.
I use every tool in my kit to serve the manuscript and personal-development needs of participants, from my background as an author and professional writer/editor/consultant to my work as an intuitive energy-work practitioner.
My style is gentle, powerful, playful and empathetic.
In our final session, we close with a gratitude ritual that honours each woman’s growth during the course of the series.
Venue: The series is held in the bright and beautiful ocean-side space of Circles in the Square, at 165A Market Hill, in False Creek, Vancouver.
Pedagogy of love: The Group Manuscript Coaching program (GMC) is an author development series based on a pedagogy of love and respect. This is in contradistinction to the tradition of many writing schools, which incorporate criticism as a foundational teaching mechanism.
I don’t “teach”women how to write, yet the participants in my programs grow exponentially as writers through support and affirmation, through reflections of what inspires us about their writing. We also make room for our intuition to support the deepening of each other’s writing processes.
Group Coaching: The Group Coaching experience offers many benefits to writers, who receive feedback from a close circle of women —not just one coach — at a much lower cost. The group experience also provides the opportunity to learn from the questions and responses of sister writers. With the support of the opening meditation, check-in and intentionality of the session, we naturally incorporate the synergy of the group to fuel each other’s creative processes. This elevates us to take each other’s writing to eye-opening new levels. In this way, the series is profoundly inter-connective in a manner that few other group manuscript coaching programs could match.
Integration of the writing and healing processes: In addition, the GMC program integrates the manuscript creation and healing processes.
It is my experience that these processes always move in tandem with each other, because our spirituality and creativity are closely linked.
Nervous-system friendly: Many group coaching programs are focused on end-results and utilize short, 60-minute sessions. The GMC is based on the principle that emotional safety is foundational for processing, integration and creativity.
Authentic check-ins: Unlike many other writing workshops, the GMC program makes space for a real check-in at the start of a session, and there is room for women to express what is up for them and be heard by the group before we dive into the creative. The outcome is inherently healing, as we welcome the fullness of each woman and her current experience.
In this way, sessions tap directly into the transformative power of women’s experience to kindle and ignite our creativity!
Extended focus-time for each writer: While many group coaching programs include 15-20 minutes of hot-seat time for each participant, the GMC program extends that to 50 minutes. This time-frame allows each woman to centre herself fully while being honoured, witnessed and attended to in her process.
Geared toward women: The GMC program is rooted in feminist ideology and is non-hierarchical.
The program is facilitated by a woman and geared toward women and the feminine experience. Each session is inherently a celebration of women and our power, stories and capacity to overcome!
As a co-creative sisterhood, the GMC program fosters an environment of mutual support and joy for each others’ creations, as opposed to the competition that can be found in many writing courses. There is a palpable excitement as women witness their own and their peers’ capacities to expand beyond their perceived creative limits.
It is a highly creative, in-depth manuscript incubator that is designed to transform your book-writing experience. By integrating the emotional, spiritual, creative and pragmatic, it is a comprehensive journey to the heart of your process.
The program is geared for women at any stage in their manuscript creation process. It is a process-oriented series that meets each writer where she is at. There is also so much to learn from the experience of sister writers on a comparable journey.
Absolutely not! When it’s your turn in the “love seat”, you may use it for a wide variety of purposes, from asking for support with your writing block to helping you with your concepts, from responding to the first paragraphs of your story to feeling out themes. Of course if you have writing to share, we would love to hear it.
If the structure of the series supports you to complete your manuscript within the six-month timeframe, that’s great! If it doesn’t, that’s also great: )
The program is here to support you on your journey in any way you need. While completing your manuscript can be an outcome, so can acquiring more confidence in the process and a solid, working plan for the creation of your babe.
Great question! The notion of spiritual as it is used here encompasses a sense of respect around the sacredness of our lives and the process of creativity. You do not need to believe in god, and it is not religious.
Writers are invited to take what works for them in the guided visualizations and leave what doesn’t, to translate the intention into whatever feels aligned for them.
Join a pivotal six-month journey of wild creativity and deep connection!
Book a call to discuss how this program might serve your creative and personal needs.
When you enroll today, you’ll get:
6, 6-hour Group Manuscript Coaching sessions
Investment: $2,300 CA + GST = $2,415 CA
Payment plans are available.
Recommended: for women who wish to go even deeper into their manuscript-creation processes, add The Creative Unblocking Intensive bundle of three sessions at $500 CA + GST = $525 CA, for a savings of $100 CA over purchase of individual sessions
Topics include:
Please see the Coaching page for more concepts.