Welcome to this week’s issue of the IACCW Journal, now published on Tuesdays!

Following the completion of our 2012 Symposium recently, it is now time to return to the IACCW Journal Subscribers Prize Draw which was originally announced a few weeks ago.

We decided to postpone it so we could focus on the Symposium, and now we’re re-opening the invitation for you to win up to £50 worth of FREE digital download Products of your choice!

All you have to do is answer one simple question and you will automatically be entered for the competition. Read more in the current IACCW Journal here.

Before we move on from the Symposium completely, we thought you might appreciate reading a summary of some of the key points our Speakers shared in each interview.

So we’ve collated these into today’s article, Symposium Snippets: Wise Words for Writers Part 1 which covers the first 3 Speakers Lynne McTaggart, David Hamilton and Tami Simon. Part 2 will be published in our next issue and cover tips from Tim Freke, Mike Dooley and Jude Currivan.

Enjoy reading and applying all that you learn to your writing and authorship, and we’ll look forward to catching up with you again the week after next.

To your conscious & creative success!

PS This “Welcome” note is reproduced from the latest issue of our fortnightly IACCW Journal. If you’re not receiving our newsletter regularly, register with your name and email address here.

Conscious and creative writers have an important role to play in this year of major change and transformation.

Authors who have already succeeded in expressing their message with authenticity and impact have a great deal of experience to offer writers who are on their way to doing the same.

Here are some of the key points from the first three of our Symposium Speakers to support you as an author:

Lynne McTaggart, award-winning journalist and author of six cutting edge books that have been translated into 28 languages, spoke to us on Understanding the Bond: the Power of Stories to Change our World

• Stories engage people emotionally so you need to draw the reader towards the key point(s) of your book in an enjoyable way by telling lots of stories interspersed with your central message.
• “Show don’t tell” applies to non-fiction as well as fiction.
• Make sure your background research is solid and build a relationship with your reader through stories.
• Be prepared to live and breathe your topic in order to write authentically.
• It’s time for a new world story and writers have a key role in telling that new story in their own way. We need to look deeply, demonstrate what “is”, entertain, and inspire people to positive action.

David R Hamilton Ph.D., former pharmaceutical scientist, expert on the power of the mind to impact health, and author of six books spoke to us on Choice Point: Conscious Evolution for Writers

• David’s transition from self-publishing his first book to being signed up by a traditional publisher was hugely supported by the fact that he does about 120 public talks a year.
• He still finds time to write a book a year despite his busy speaking schedule which he explains by having a massive commitment enabling him to get up early and write.
• Finding your own voice comes from asking yourself “how would I say this if I were explaining it to a live audience?”, and keeping it as simple as possible.
• The cycles of life unfold as a spiral. At the end of each cycle, we have a Choice Point where we can embrace the shift onto the new level of the spiral. Collectively we are at such a point right now.
• Bring empathy into your writing by reflecting on what people’s needs are and how your readers might feel when they read your words. Ask yourself how you can write in a way that is compassionate to your reader. A small group of people with compassion can change the world.

Tami Simon, founder, publisher and CEO of independent multimedia publishing company Sounds True, spoke to us on A Conscious & Creative Approach to Multimedia Publication

• Tami explained that a sense of desperation to give her gifts and a commitment that came from her heart led her to find the right way to express her self in the world.
• As a multimedia publisher, she needs to see good quality video clips of potential authors to answer the question “How do they communicate?”
• She is also interested in what level of multimedia platform an author already has as well as what different media might be possible for their content including books, audio, video, enhanced ebooks and mobile apps.
• She recommends that authors create some well-made audio and video clips to show what it possible.
• Her final tips include to be your self, to be willing to create from the inside out, and to have good support.

In the next issue of the IACCW Journal we’ll bring you Symposium Snippets: Wise Words for Writers Part 2 from the remaining three Symposium Speakers.

Q4U: What resonates most with you from these key points? Share your comments below.

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© Julia McCutchen 2012. All Rights Reserved.

If you want to use this article in your ezine or on your website I’d be happy for you to do so as long as you use the complete article, including the copyright line, and include the following paragraph in its entirety:

Julia McCutchen is a writer, conscious creativity coach, intuitive mentor, and the founder & creative director of the International Association of Conscious & Creative Writers (IACCW). A former publisher of books on spiritual and personal development, Julia teaches conscious creativity, conscious writing and a holistic approach to writing for publication that combines the inner journey of creative self-discovery with the practical steps required for writing and publishing books. She is the author of The Writer’s Journey: From Inspiration to Publication. For more information and a FREE Special Report on Discovering Your Authentic Voice – on the page and in the world, visit www.iaccw.com.

Gail Sher

The first of Gail Sher’s Four Noble Truths for writers is: Writers write. Yet despite the best of intentions, many writers struggle to show up to the page each and every day. Intention is essential, and we need to know how to harness its energy to create a daily writing practice – the cornerstone of our writing foundation.

In this interview, Gail Sher will guide us through the framework of her Four Noble Truths for writers and lead us to understand how to:

• establish our writing environment
• recognize our authentic writer’s voice
• troubleshoot obstacles that tend to trip us up
• work with process as a key to unlocking our true potential
• cultivate and deepen our relationship with words, their inner silence and stillness

Gail Sher draws from four decades of Buddhist practice and three decades of writing and teaching writing.  In addition to One Continuous Mistake, The Intuitive Writer, and Writing the Fire, she has published over thirty chapbooks of poetry.  She works one-on-one with writers internationally, witnessing their judgment grow increasingly precise and astute.  For more information about Gail and her work with writers, visit her website www.gailsher.com

It may be overcast and wet outside, but we have some light on the conscious and creative horizon for you.

The 2012 Symposium is taking place in just 2 days time, on Wednesday 2^nd & Thursday 3^rd May.

This is your opportunity to access an abundance of bright inspiration from six of the leading lights in the field of consciousness and creativity to support you as an author.

I’m so looking forward to sharing what I know will be an awesome series of interviews with you. Join us to benefit from the fresh perspective our Speakers will offer on how you can succeed as a conscious & creative writer in our changing world.

To read more and register your place, click here

In terms of other news, we’ve decided to wait until after the Symposium to focus on our Subscribers Prize Draw so keep an eye out for the next issue of the IACCW Journal which will include more details about that.

In the meantime, enjoy a deeply inspiring conscious & creative week!

PS This “Welcome” note is reproduced from the latest issue of our fortnightly IACCW Journal. If you’re not receiving our newsletter regularly, register with your name and email address here.

I am delighted to introduce this guest article from writer’s unblocker and author

When you are writing in the zone, an amazing transformation in your physiology and neurology is taking place. Something much more subtle too is occurring across time and space.

If you could get the head of a writer in an MRI scanner when they are in flow, you would see both halves of the brain lit up at the same time.

For 95% or so of writers, as some are wired differently, this is what is going on. The right brain is holding the vision, shape and scope of what they are writing. It will be forming sentences and ’looking’ backwards and forwards over the book to check that what is currently being written fits in with the whole.

At exactly the same time, the left brain will be focusing on the act of writing itself and that the actual words used follow grammatical rules and are spelt correctly. Note this is a bit of a generalisation as there is much cross communication going between the hemispheres.

For the writer who is ’out of sorts’, something else might be in play. The left brain and outer cortex might be running thoughts that they might not have enough time to write or harbouring fears of self doubt about their talent. The right brain might be dreaming about a six figure advance and retiring in the Caribbean after selling a million books before the book is even written.

Fortunately there are many ways to ’get in the zone’. Meditation, walking, cross crawling and alternate nostril breathing are recommended practices before writing, and ideally daily. You may also find doodling and Mind Mapping around your chapters before you write them helps open new avenues of exploration. What you eat is also important as is keeping properly hydrated.

For the really ’in tune’ writer, much more is happening still.

Inside their bodies, the heart centre will be falling in love with what they are writing and the whole feeling of being in full creative flow. Their gut mind will be giving their work the ’green light’ as they write each sentence and finish each chapter. The root mind even gets in on the act by checking in with Mother Earth on the overall ecology of the piece.

At the same time, via an open crown chakra, the third eye of the writer will be connected to the collective mind and universal consciousness. This is one of the main benefits from regular meditation and ’right breathing’. As the collective mind stores all memories and knowledge from the present, past and future, the writer can also connect with their ’future self’ who ’knows’ the words they are about to write.

Even more useful too, the writer can also tune into their ’future reader’. What’s more, this communication is bidirectional.

The writer can check in with the change in state of the reader in the future to make sure their book creates the desired outcome. Even more subtly though the reader in the future will resonate with the actual emotional state and spiritual connectivity of the writer at the time when the words were being penned.

This means it is important not only to be diligent about what you are writing but also how you are feeling and being while you are writing. For example, if you are writing while angry or upset about something not to do with your book, your state of mind will leak across space and time, even if you are not explicitly writing about these specific emotions.

The opposite is also true. You can implicitly embed good intent and general bonhomie in your work and it will be picked up by the reader years after you have written it. What goes on between the lines is as important as the lines themselves. This is the state I am currently in while I write these words. Even as I email them off to the editor, I throw in a shot of good intent and unconditional love for good measure. What goes around, comes around.

This means as writers we have an obligation and duty of care to be pure of thought and mind. To paraphrase Bambi,”If you can’t ’write’ something nice, don’t ’write’ nothing at all.”

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Tom Evans is a writer’s unblocker and author specialising in making the esoteric exoteric. He teaches the art of whole mind thinking and how to connect to your future self who knows the words you are yet to write. See www.tomevans.co for more details.

Happy Monday to you, and I hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend! As we begin another week, we’ve been reflecting on the fact that Mondays are usually busy and intense days for most of us as we review priorities and gear up for the week ahead.

So we’ve decided to shift the publication date of the IACCW Journal to Tuesdays from May onwards. This is to create a greater opportunity for you to benefit from the news and information we’re sharing with you every fortnight.

We’d love to know if this works better for you. In fact, we’d love to know more about your reaction to the IACCW Journal generally, so we have a question for you:

What would you like to see more of in the IACCW Journal?

The IACCW Journal is written and published to serve you as an author, to inspire you to new possibilities and to inform you of new ways of approaching your authorship. Please tell us what you want included and what topics you’d most like to see covered in our articles.

To thank you for your time and energy, all responses will be entered in our IACCW Journal Subscribers Only Prize Draw. The winner will receive up to £50 worth of FREE digital download Products of your choice!

All you need to do is email a brief summary of your thoughts to info@iaccw.com and we’ll include you in the prize draw. You have until MONDAY 30 APRIL to send your ideas in to us. We’ll notify the winner by email on Tuesday 8 May, and with your permission, announce it in the next issue of the IACCW Journal on the first of our Tuesday publication dates, 15 May.

We recently ran a similar Prize Draw for IACCW Members. Thank you again to everyone who submitted their fabulous feedback and ideas which were all greatly appreciated. The winner was IACCW Member Shelley Hawkins and you can read more about Shelley and her work here www.theselfconnection.com.

We are so looking forward to hearing from you.

As ever, to your conscious & creative success!

PS This “Welcome” note is reproduced from the latest issue of our fortnightly IACCW Journal. If you’re not receiving our newsletter regularly, register with your name and email address here.

It is described as a “global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. With over 400 seminars and events, 1,500 international exhibiting companies and 24,500 publishing professionals, The London Book Fair encompasses the broad spectrum of the publishing industry.”

It is one of the main book fairs which take place each year for professionals in the book trade alongside Book Expo America, the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. There are also many smaller yet worthwhile book fairs and exhibitions internationally.

Many authors wonder if it is worth attending these trade fairs and many commentators say that it isn’t. My view is that it can be a valuable experience if you approach it with the right mindset. You also need to plan your visit well in advance and wear sensible shoes in the knowledge that you’ll be on your feet for most of the day!

It is important to be realistic when thinking through a book fair visit, especially if you have a vision of meeting agents and editors to present your book to them. Most publishing professionals will have filled their schedule of 30 minute meetings well in advance of the fair taking place.

Having said that, serendipity can, and does, occur at book fairs.

When I was attending these events as a publisher, I remember well the number of times an author just happened to turn up at our stand when I was in between meetings. On some of those occasions, I did engage in impromptu conversations about new projects, and although it was rare, some of those spontaneous approaches did lead to us to publish the book the author had presented.

If you are considering visiting a book fair this year, here are 3 tips to help you make the most of your experience:

1. Do some research to understand the basics about book fairs, set clear intentions of what you want to achieve, and plan your visit in advance.

These events are primarily for people in the industry and most professionals are there to do business with other trade insiders.

Many agents and large publishers will not be interested in the kind of spontaneous connections I described earlier. In fact, unless you have an appointment, you probably won’t be allowed in to the agent’s area which is cordoned off from the public.

However, there are many possibilities for authors who let go of unrealistic expectations and who concentrate on what is possible.

For example, you can:

• attend one of the many seminars that are held specifically for authors to help you to get your first book published or advance your career as an established writer.
• identify publishers you may not have come across before who might be interested in your book and collect catalogues to see what other books and authors are on their list.
• keep up-to-date generally with the ‘vibe’ in the industry.

2. Prepare appropriate materials to take with you.

Although you can’t count on being able to show your book ideas to agents and publishers, I do recommend that you take some good quality information with you just in case the opportunity does arise.

Here are my suggestions of what you should have with you. If you are writing:

• non-fiction, take a good book proposal with you plus one or two sample chapters for your book
• fiction, take a one page and a two page version of your synopsis plus information about you as the author and ideally some marketing ideas
• an illustrated book, take a summary of the content and author information plus some sample images to show your vision of the book overall.

Make sure that your contact details are included or securely attached to any material you might have the chance to leave with an agent or editor.

3. Remain alert to unexpected opportunities.

Alongside sensible planning, I also recommend keeping your eyes and ears open for spontaneous possibilities cropping up.

You might not be able to get to see the particular agent or publisher you have targeted as being perfect for your book, but you never know who you’ll stand next to in the queue for coffee!

In such a situation, remember the importance of being able to describe your book in one compelling key sentence. That way, the person concerned can quickly make a judgement on whether further discussion is relevant or not.

You’ll also need to be able to speak fluently and with confidence about yourself as the author, including details of your current platform and future plans for developing your profile.

Finally, remain open to all possibilities so that you leave with an abundance of information, resources, contacts and opportunities that will serve you well on your path to successful published authorship – and beyond!

What are your experiences of attending book fairs or thoughts about doing so? Share your comments below.

For more information about the London Book Fair, see http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk

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© Julia McCutchen 2012. All Rights Reserved.

If you want to use this article in your ezine or on your website I’d be happy for you to do so as long as you use the complete article, including the copyright line, and include the following paragraph in its entirety:

Julia McCutchen is a writer, conscious creativity coach, intuitive mentor, and the founder & creative director of the International Association of Conscious & Creative Writers (IACCW). A former publisher of books on spiritual and personal development, Julia teaches conscious creativity, conscious writing and a holistic approach to writing for publication that combines the inner journey of creative self-discovery with the practical steps required for writing and publishing books. She is the author of The Writer’s Journey: From Inspiration to Publication. For more information and a FREE Special Report on Discovering Your Authentic Voice – on the page and in the world, visit www.iaccw.com.

On this glorious spring day, I am delighted to share that registration for the IACCW 2012 Symposium which is taking place on Wednesday 2^nd and Thursday 3^rd May is now open – and you’re invited!

Our theme for this year’s virtual event with bestselling authors and international experts is 2012 – Understanding Our Role as Conscious & Creative Writers in a Changing World.

We have an awesome line-up of speakers who will share their wisdom and expertise, and all live interviews are FREE for everyone to enjoy. Audio recordings are reserved for IACCW Members. Read more and register your place by clicking here.

On that subject, if you already are an IACCW Member, please remember that today is the last day to submit your response to our recent Q4U communication in order to be included in our prize draw. The winner will be announced in the follow-up to our Member Event on Thursday.

In the meantime, today’s article was inspired by a recent coaching session with a Mentor Program writer. These real life situations are ones that we can all benefit from, either as timely reminders or as new learning to support us to do our creative work in the most rewarding and successful way possible.

Through this article, I invite you to explore The Alpha and Omega of Creative Expression, and experience the rich rewards of the intangible mystery of conscious creativity for yourself. We’ll look forward to hearing your reaction so do share your comments at the end of the article.

Have a wonderfully conscious & creative week!

PS This “Welcome” note is reproduced from the latest issue of the fortnightly IACCW Journal. If you’re not receiving this newsletter regularly, register with your name and email address here.

On this occasion, the prompt was to do with giving full permission to pause briefly following an extremely successful burst of creative productivity. This pause provided a much needed mid project recharge before diving in to the next phase of activity.

The core principle being applied here relates to the fact that the creative impulse arises from – and returns to – space. This alpha and omega of creative expression includes space in our schedule, space in our environment, and most importantly, space in our mind.

Even if we aren’t consciously aware of it, at a deep level the original creative impulse has its source in the space of infinite potential out of which everything flows.

When we honour this fundamental creative truth by taking regular breaks and pausing for a few moments to clear our mind of distracting thoughts before we begin a new creative task, our work arises from a deep and original source.

As writers, we can apply this approach to our writing and to connecting with our readers – both of which require us to be at our most creative in order to succeed.

Punctuating our forwards motion through the mini and macro cycles that are part of any creative project with some space, however fleeting, enables our most authentic ideas to take shape and form.

The Creative Cycle

From this seemingly “empty” space, which cutting edge science now confirms is far from empty in the way we may have previously thought, the creative cycle progresses through inspiration, imagination, and finally into actual creative expression.

With writing, this is when the words meet the page. The natural flow completes the cycle with a return to space before the impulse is reborn as the spark of a new idea and the wheel turns once more.

When we forget the importance of space and allow ourselves to be swept along with the intensity of the creative fire, we are more likely to lose our balance or feel drained rather than exhilarated by the time our project is complete.

Embracing the Intangible Aspects of Creativity

Wherever we are on our own creative journey, we may feel that this understanding of the creative cycle is hard to grasp because space is inherently intangible.

Yet, the very nature of creativity involves accepting and working with the intangible realms of our imagination and our intuition, and this is just one step further along that same path.

Initially, this degree of right brain activity may feel unfamiliar and therefore uncomfortable. Like anything, with regular practice, we can experience the reality for ourselves.

Invitation for You

Today, I invite you to embrace the possibility that there is a richly rewarding level of creativity to explore that can be discovered from simply including more space in your creative expression.

Try pausing for a few minutes before you begin your next creative task. Take a few deep breaths and enjoy the opportunity to bring yourself fully into the spaciousness of the present moment. Begin from there.

Repeat this process regularly and give yourself permission to relish some “down time” in between the major phases of any big project you’re working on.

Take this opportunity to explore the alpha and omega of creative expression for yourself, and do let us know how you get on by posting your experiences and comments below.

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© Julia McCutchen 2012. All Rights Reserved.

If you want to use this article in your ezine or on your website I’d be happy for you to do so as long as you use the complete article, including the copyright line, and include the following paragraph in its entirety:

Julia McCutchen is a writer, conscious creativity coach, intuitive mentor, and the founder & creative director of the International Association of Conscious & Creative Writers (IACCW). A former publisher of books on spiritual and personal development, Julia teaches conscious creativity, conscious writing and a holistic approach to writing for publication that combines the inner journey of creative self-discovery with the practical steps required for writing and publishing books. She is the author of The Writer’s Journey: From Inspiration to Publication. For more information and a FREE Special Report on Discovering Your Authentic Voice – on the page and in the world, visit www.iaccw.com.

Sophfronia Scott

Whether you realize it or not, every choice you make and every action you take is sending out a message about how you think about yourself, your writing and the world. And people are making decisions about YOU and your writing based on those messages.

Join us for this enlightening discussion in which you will learn:

• what a belief system is and why it’s important to understand yours
• how to recognize and verbalize your personal belief systems
• whether or not your beliefs show up in your writing
• how to change your beliefs, if necessary, to support yourself as a writer
• ways to adapt your approach to writing so that it better reflects your beliefs and makes your writing stand out

Sophfronia Scott is author of the novel All I Need to Get By (St. Martins Press, 2004) and has published essays in Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul amongst others. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Creative Writing-Fiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Sophfronia is Executive Editor of the Done For You Writing & Publishing Company. For more information visit www.doneforyouwriting.com