Write Life - Into the Woods
Read the resonance of the story you’re living by writing your way through it.
A four-hour writing workshop in nature for anyone who wants to overthink less and live more.
INTO THE WOODS
28 November, 08:00-12:00
Newlands Forest, Cape Town.
R777
12 places only | eBook included
What Happens
A four-hour creative, psycho-spiritual workshop where we turn the elements of story towards our own lives. We’ll see what surfaces from the deep. And then we’ll write our way back.
An opening and closing ceremony honouring Story and the Elements of Nature, led by Kshetra
A gentle nature meander to gather the elements that make a short story magic
Sensory, safe, FUN, embodied writing, plus peer play and feedback
Light refreshments
What you’ll leave with
A story: something you’ve discovered, explored, or begun to tell
A new way of seeing your life, through the elemental architecture of story
An embodied creative practice you can return to when you’re stuck in your head
The Elements of Story eBook, with prompts and craft tools to keep writing
A belly full of laughs, and a heart that’s pumping chocolate. Yes, really.
Is this for you?
Yes, if you:
Want to write, write more, or write better
Want to own your mind, your attention, and your story
Are feral, wild, and free and want to stay that way
Would like to be feral, wild, and free, and want to write your way there, as I did
Maybe not, if you:
Want a quiet, polite lecture on grammar
Would rather think about writing than actually do it
Insist on abusing and abandoning yourself
No experience required. You don’t have to call yourself a writer. You just have to be willing to play, notice, feel, and write.
Why go outside to write?
The most engaging writing doesn’t come from thinking harder. Your truest story doesn’t either. It comes from presence.
We use nature, movement, and sensory awareness (not just the five we’re used to) to settle into the body before we write. You notice more. You feel more. The result is writing that is vivid, precise, and true.
Compelling fiction is rooted in truth.
Ready to write your way through it?
Your Guides: Story and Land
Stella Madre
Writer | Mystic | Muse
Tall tales in short form with a tiny guide.
Stella is a South African writer whose fiction explores belonging, mythology, ecology, and the relationship between people and the living world. Her stories can be short and steamy. Sometimes tall, but always true.
She’s known for irreverent honesty, a grounding presence, warm wit, and no-nonsense tenderness: the combination that helps people tell the truth, dissolve old patterns, and write new chapters with courage.
With a background in professional writing, entertainment, stand-up comedy, life coaching, and yoga, she has spent nearly three decades guiding people through spiritual practice, embodiment, creativity, and personal truth.
Three things to know about Stella: she has a bit (a lot) of a potty mouth, she’s better in person, and she’s happiest busting a move, reading or writing in nature.
Kshetra Govindasamy
Kundalini Teacher. Geographer. Fun Alchemist
Kshetra has spent decades at the crossroads of Vedic wisdom, movement, and the land itself. He doesn’t bring healing to people so much as create the conditions where it becomes possible. His approach is simple: slowing down isn’t a retreat from life; it’s a prerequisite for living it.
He has run a mapping firm in London, done salmon conservation in Scotland, responded to disasters in India and Indonesia, and crossed the Himalayas by motorbike, before South Africa pulled him home. Now he guides everything from half-day forest immersions to multi-day retreats across the Western Cape.
“You are the medicine. The forest helps you remember.”
Check Ksh’s Website Here. And Insta.
What people say
From people who’ve done Stella’s Short Story Magic workshop
“Having the forest as our playground, she encouraged us to use the Nature elements as inspiration for our writing... Her experience and passion as a storyteller and as a teacher of this skill have given me the desire to put pen to paper with more confidence and know-how.”
Suzie-Mae Jenkins
“I hadn’t written anything creative in years due to crippling self-doubt. The prompts in the workshop helped guide my short story out of my imagination and onto the paper by removing the hypercritical voice in my head... With whimsy and fun, my creativity flowed, and my self-doubt disappeared.”
Tanya Richer
BTW, are you becoming a Mermaid? 🧜♀️
In Sanctum, the Story Bundle (Two workshops - one price) is FREE.
In Circle: Buy Write Life, get Short Story Magic free.
Want to become a Mermaid?
Find out more and subscribe.
https://mermaidmadre.substack.com/about
Read One of Stella's Stories:
A journalist falls for an ex-cop over a series of steamy interviews. First published in Tattoo Press’s ‘Love Me Tender - short stories of Obsession ’. Readers report a ‘happy ending’. Not for readers under 16.
From riveted readers of Come to My Window…
“This is like Ladies Detective Agency smoked a crack pipe and got spat out into an alternate dimension. 😂”
“I’ve had sex twice since reading this story!”
“I was riveted to your short story, absolutely top class, I’m blown away!”
THE ARTIST DATE DISCOUNT: If you made it all the way down here, you spotted the Artist Date Discount! Send me a short story or some other piece of writing that you are tinkering with, and I'll send you the discount before you pay.
Write Your Story. Remember Your Soul.