we're all writing the same few stories

Not that we as a collective are writing the same 2-3 stories.

But that we, each of us as individuals, have the same 2-3 stories and themes that we orbit around in our creative work, like planets around the sun.

This is what my agent says every time I bemoan that I am “once again” writing about religion, that all of her authors have a handful of themes and topics they spend a career exploring. This is what happens in my writers’ group, where we see each other wrestling with recognizable topics and themes in such a way as to be (affectionately) predictable. “Ahh yes, Jeanna is going to write about the role of religion in individuation from the mother!” is something you could say about both my memoir and my novel WIP. Garrard Conley once said a version of this to me, too, that we have such deep affection for and understanding of each others’ work because we share the project that is writing about religion and sexuality — over and over, til the wheels fall off.

I can feel some of you kicking back against this, and that’s okay — this idea doesn’t have to be for you! I want to write romance AND mystery AND a memoir! you might be thinking. I’m writing historical fiction about Tudor England AND a book about tarot!

Cool.

… and you might still be circling around the same few themes in each of those projects.

My first book Heretic is, at its core, about the role that religion and belief more broadly play in the construction of identity, the role they have on a person’s agency. In the sense that a memoir is a story about one person’s change over time, the book uses religion and sexuality as its two anchors through which to refract that change.

Now, consider my second book, Astrology for Artists, which comes out next year. It’s practical non-fiction, a “how-to” self-help that is very much is what it says on the tin. But the ethos is deeply rooted in identifying the ways that people, limited as we are by systems and structures (like organized religion!), can exercise agency to make substantive change in our own lives. AFA is very concerned with capital-B Belief, particularly the ones we absorb in a country, a culture, a context, as well as with the role of Spirit in the everyday.

The third finished book currently cooking is the novel, which I don’t want to say as much about since it’s still in edits with my agent. Suffice it to say that it is historical fantasy set in the wake of the Black Plague that is very much concerned with mothers and daughters and the Catholic church and also witchcraft. It’s a coming-of-power that (once again) has me exploring the role religion plays in shaping women’s destinies.

Three very different books. Three very different categories.

… a pretty obvious through-line, though.

This 2-part, 4-hour generative ritual workshop is for everyone who wants to not only know what kind of stories they are most drawn to, but who also want to channel a workable story idea right here, right now.

Together, in both sessions on November 17th and 24th, we will engage in ritual meditation, guided journaling, and (optional!) group conversation.

P.S. Never meditated? Not sure what “spirit” even is? Don’t worry — this workshop is designed to be beginner-friendly for anyone who has never done any kind of spiritual thing whatsoever!