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Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine

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Not your ordinary how-to manual, Peggy Tabor Millin's Women, Writing and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine is a unique and inspiring blend of the poetic, spiritual and practical in which the author seeks a balance between "feminine being and masculine doing." Intentionally written in what she perceives is a more feminine form, each chapter spirals back to what has gone before, delving deeper and deeper into each concept. As she explains, "The feminine writes in circles, makes leaps, tells the truth with dream, imagery, and metaphor, and relies on inner knowing. The masculine approach makes outlines, develops linearly from premise to conclusion, and relies on outside authority." Struggling for a structure which honors both, Tabor Millin achieves a synthesis of the intuitive and the cognitive which is the foundation of any creative endeavor.

Unlike many purely intuitive books, Women, Writing and Soul-Making also provides important guidelines that organize and inspire our task of writing more, writing deeper and finding our own voice. She begins with "The Three Steps" of focusing on the sensations of the body to keep ourselves centered, the often recommended free-writing to random prompts, and developing a practice that includes regular writing in a supportive circle of women. She describes an inner being she calls "the observer" who helps us notice without judgment and silences the inner critic who gets in the way of our free expression. She then outlines three obstacles: believing there should be no obstacles, listening to the "I cant's" instead of the "I wills," and searching for an outside authority instead of relying on our own inner guides.

Her "Four Wisdoms" give us access to this inner guidance. "The wisdom of not knowing" tells us we must face our dark and unknown shadow in order to find the truth which will transform our writing and our lives. "The wisdom of the ecology of body and earth" leads us "out of our heads and into our bodies" so we can discover our own voice. "The wisdom of fierce compassion" encourages us to look at the ugly and painful without flinching and to use our anger as motivation for action. "The wisdom of diversity" allows us to tolerate other opinions and helps us make peace with the fact that our writing may not resonate with everyone.

"The Four Paradoxes" teach us to accept that writing is both "pleasure and pain," that we must accept both "praise and criticism," that we desire and simultaneous fear both "fame and disgrace," and that we must reconcile ourselves to both "gain and loss" since we will have to give up an old world view to bring something new into being. "No way exists to make this gain other than to accept that discomfort, anxiety, and insecurity are necessary" she writes. "We consent to uneasiness as motivation for the creative journey--which is no less than our spiritual journey toward self-realization."

As a writer, musician and composer I found Women, Writing and Soul-Making an excellent guide for any creative endeavor. In this wise and wonderful book there is much, much more to inspire not only writers but anyone seeking to heal her artistic self, to explore her inner feminine and find a path to her own voice, her own truth. An absolute must, it deserves an honored place on a nearby shelf beside the likes of Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron.

by Lisa Shirah-Hiers
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Peggy Tabor Millin's text Women, Writing, and Soul-Making is an inspiring work, itself a model of the journey the author asks women writers to take. Millin's discussion of the academic and technical writer and the challenges that this writer has in setting free her feminine/creative side is particularly helpful. In addition, the author's insights on the inner critic are most welcome. This book ranks right up there with the works of the other great teachers of creative writing - Natalie Goldberg, Anne LaMotte, Ralph Keyes, etc.

I began using Peggy Millin's method, the centered writing practice, as I searched for my writing voice. After several months of writing, short stories began to emerge, and then a novel. Several of the short stories have been published. My novel is in final draft. Her method taught me to write from that place deep inside to find my fearless, best writing. If you are serious about writing, buy this book!

So much wisdom in this book, I find myself reading it slowly... It's a book to keep returning to, filled with encouragement to write, reminders about cyclical time, the sense of deep acceptance of self that comes with that, the trust that we move apart and together, like seasons, the sense of healing which is possible, a sense of spaciousness and forgiveness.
I think one of the things I most enjoy is that there are individual sentences, paragraphs, pages, that make me want to stop reading for a while and start writing.

Oh yes, and her deep appreciation of the feminine approach to writing, and to living... Peggy Millin encourages us to to trust the process as we explore both inner and outer worlds, and reminds us that everything doesn't have to fit together today.

Finally, a book about the creative process that makes sense! Peggy Tabor Millin opens the door to a new experience in creative writing. Women,Writing,and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine is an enthralling invitation to begin the journey of self-discovery that taps into the recesses of our souls. She suggests that we write from the inside out and shows rather that tells us how this may be done. This is not a typical "how-to" book; it is a "how-to-be" book. From the process she suggests, amazing writing occurs and inner healing occurs. I seldom ever read a book twice, but this one is a wonderful exception.

The author holds a written conversation with her readers about the Sacred feminine and masculine energies. We are trained well in engaging our masculine energy from the time we are babies. We're pushed into learning, applying, and doing. From the moment our innate desire to walk makes itself known, we engage the masculine energy. Attending school, taking a job, all have an end point, results are always expected from us and if they're not met, our position becomes tenuous. While masculine energy is the spirit that moves and directs, feminine energy is the soul, and it is the soul that holds the space for being and space for knowing. It is here that Peggy excels, introducing us to the Creative Feminine.

Peggy's premise is that, " ...with sustenance from a writing community of their own gender, women can overcome the individual and cultural messages impacting their self-identity. That it's through soul-making --through the writing-- " ...that we peel away erroneous assumptions and restrictions imposed on our lives." And that it is through the writing process that we can "...answer the call to winnow away all that is not the perfect soul we already are." She identifies the meaning of fearlessness as an invitation to experience the world just as it is and just as we are.

When I completed my reading, I realized several things. It was not written in a progression. It didn't start with one chapter which then fed directly into the next, which then paved the way for the next and so on. Rather, it was brilliantly allowed to be circular in its movement so that every chapter was neither the beginning nor the end. It flowed in and out like the tides. It took you deep, then floated you back to breakfast and dishes and the phone calls that needed to be made for the day. All together, it made the whole.

Though it is not a "first you do this, then you do that" kind of book, it is an invitation. It invites its readers to play in a feminine approach to writing, which defies a masculine hypothesis, argument, and conclusion format. The reader is gently nudged toward trusting the intuitive rather than the cognitive process. It is about a practice of writing from the story content rather than about it.

Women, Writing and Soul-Making introduces concepts and practices for the writer that aren't what you find in other writing books. Begining writers will find this book enthralling, but it is also very much for published authors and writers who've been writing a long time. Whether a fiction writer, a romance writer, a non-fiction writer, an essayist, a poet, or a memoir writer, this book transcends the how to and takes the reader to the space and knowing that come with writing from the creative feminine.

Peggy believes from her experience with years of teaching women's writing circles that how women approach writing when they embrace the Sacred Feminine is uniquely theirs. Their root is in the feminine soul, and their connection to her grounded through the body. In reading the pages, we begin to have a new understanding about what it means to be a woman and a woman who writes.

I am a writer and I enjoy buying books on writing. I really enjoyed Peggy Millin's book. Bringing in the sacred feminine brought a depth and beauty into this subject. I discovered new insights into my writing life. I especially enjoyed the stories of her own journey as a writer. I experienced inspiration and hope. I felt gratitude as I read her journey, as it helped me to take a fresh look at my own. Thank you for sharing with honesty and integrity.

I'd gotten the notices but put off buying this book. I had all the goodies, and some that weren't so good, and I thought rather than read another 'how to' book, I should devote the time to writing. But something kept nudging me, and I can't say how glad I am. Peggy Millin's" Women, Writing, and SoulMaking" is unlike any other book out there for women who write, especially women who may think it's too late to explore their creative side. With this book Millin affirms, encourages, and nurtures in ways simple and profound. With uncanny precision, she brings her skill, experience, insight and compassion to the very place where aspiring women writers find themselves today and assures them that they are indeed awakening to one of history's most momentous eras--the one in which half of the human race awakens to its potential, stretches, and affects the universe! Thank you Peggy Tabor Millin!

This book was exactly what I needed as I faced writing my first e-book for my website. I was SO relieved and excited to see my exact issues and blocks addressed in such an intelligent and compassionate way. Pegggy took things I already knew from spiritual and personal growth perspectives and pleased me to no end when she applied them to feminine creativity. I felt such a sense of "Of course!"

There were many pages I bookmarked and highlighted, many gems of wisdom, depth, and inspiration. I can't wait to revisit the book. A friend wanted to borrow mine, I told her to get her own, I won't part with it.

There is no greater treasure than fully knowing yourself. "Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine" is a guide for women in exploring one's own soul and using creative exploration to gain a sense of self that what one truly wants out of their life. Thoughtful and empowering, "Women, Writing, and Soul-Making" is quite the treasure, highly recommended.