You CAN make a giant leap forward in your writing project without disappearing for a month-long retreat to Tuscany or burning yourself out
Join THE EXPERIMENT and transform your writing process from ‘HEAVY and HARD’ to ‘light and liberating’ by partnering with your body, harnessing structure and play, and working with the science-backed magic of neuroplasticity
There’s something you want to write and it’s clawing to get out:
A novel • A literary memoir • A book of reportage • A collection of essays • A movie script • A PhD • A newsletter series • A poetry chapbook
You’ve tried forcing yourself to write – you time-block your calendar, sit down to a blank page, tell yourself: “JUST WRITE, DAMMIT” – but still, the words don’t flow.
When the words do come, writing feels like struggle and force.
Something in your body feels tight and constricted, the mental chatter won’t stop, and you can’t seem to turn down the noise.
You’re a writer, you love having written… but the writing process? Not so much.
Friend!
There’s a reason writing feels hard.
There are a LOT of cultural narratives that tell you how difficult it’s supposed to be.
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” –Thomas Mann*
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” –Ernest Hemingway*
(*Notice how these narratives often come from people at the top of the dominant power structure?)
While writing isn’t always a stroll in the proverbial park – unlocking the power of words requires skill, practice, patience, and craft…
Writing doesn’t have to be an exhausting, energy-depleting, anxiety-inducing slog.
It CAN feel different.
It starts with what happens before and between writing, as much as what happens during your writing process.
What if writing felt expansive, energising, liberating… even fun?
What if you were able to turn down the noise in your head, turn towards your writing with courage and confidence, and finally make the progress you want to make on your project…
All in a way that nourishes you and the people you want to reach with your words?
Hi, I’m Lara.
I’m a writer, coach, and former editor of books, magazines, and news publications.
I know all about pushing hard and hustling to meet external deadlines (just ask me about my years as a Wall Street Journal culture editor for Asia).
I also know the toll that can take on body and mind.
Last November, I conducted a creative experiment and wrote 30,000 words – the core of a project I’m now turning into a book – all without losing sleep, abandoning my responsibilities, or coming anywhere close to burnout.
Instead, my writing process felt energising, freeing, and expansive.
It allowed me to make huge progress on one of my personal creative goals – to author and publish a book of creative non-fiction – and I did this while running a full coaching practice, caring for young children, and going on a family holiday to Fiji with my in-laws.
Now I’ve created the exact programme to guide you through this experience, too.
Introducing…
THE EXPERIMENT
Feb. 20 to April 3, 2025
A 6-week creative incubator that will help you meet your writing goals by harnessing the power of structure, play, and neuroplasticity.
In 6 weeks, you’ll radically transform your writing practice so you can:
Turn towards your writing project with curiosity and confidence, and wake up excited about what you’re going to write next
Write more quickly, from a place of inspired action – instead of writing from urgency and disconnected rushing
Write from a place of clarity and relaxed attentiveness, feel more open and engaged with your own ideas, and more trusting in what you write next
Distinguish between your deep creative self and your critical mind – so that when you write, it’s with and from your powerful unconscious mind, and when you edit, it’s with and from your discerning conscious mind
Put into practice a simple, repeatable process for setting up generative, expansive writing experiments that will take you all the way to the completion of your manuscript
By the middle of the year, your writing project will be substantially fleshed out. Depending on your starting point, you’ll either have a solid backbone from which to grow your manuscript, a strong first draft, or a finished project you’re ready to share with agents, editors, and publishers.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“Working with Lara has radically transformed my relationship with my creative practice”
—Divya Victor, award-winning writer and professor
Here’s what it takes to bring more peace, pleasure, and power to your writing project:
Work with your body, not against it
Most “writing challenges” encourage you to push through (i.e. ignore) your body’s signals, steering you in the direction of mind-body disconnection and burnout instead of guiding you towards inspiration and your highest creativity. When you work with your body as a creative partner, not only does writing become easier, but you get to write better, faster, in a way that feels more like you.
Embrace creative constraints
Creative constraints, designed to support you and your project – including knowing your purpose before you sit down to write – give you and your work clarity, focus, power, and energy. This means less time spinning in indecision and overwhelm, and more time spent writing, in creative flow, and moving your project forward.
Write to your taste, from your power
The culture we live in trains writers to rely on external sources of authority – teachers, critics, editors, publishers – to judge the value of their writing (cue: inner critic, writer’s block, procrastination, perfectionism). Writing to your taste rekindles your self-trust. This frees you to say YES to your creative ideas, and transform failure into learning, bringing more peace, pleasure, and playfulness to your writing process.
Once you work with your body, embrace strategic constraints, and write to your taste, that’s when you’ll finally get to experience what it’s like to consistently feel playful, peaceful and purposeful when you sit down to write.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“Your framework helped me tap into a well of ideas, inspiration, and wonder I often find difficult to access in my busy life and busy mind”
—Jonathan Koe, musician and podcaster
And here’s how it breaks down:
Weekly coaching calls
This is where you’ll have the opportunity to receive regular live coaching – the kind that leaves you with huge shifts, connects you with your inner compass, and allows you to access more lightness, focus, and powerful momentum in your project.
Private community space
A shared online space to bolster your learning and accelerate your growth: celebrate your wins in a supportive community, evaluate and refine your experiments as you go, and ask for extra coaching if you need it. You’ll never stay stuck wondering, “How do I move forward from here?”
Plug-and-play neuroplasticity practices
Guided audio recordings to help you reweave your nervous system towards spaciousness and ease, so you can show up to your writing project feeling open, resourced, and ready to create.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“"I am feeling the huge shift since our coaching. I feel truly changed”
—Sarah Hurrle, philanthropic fundraiser and holistic coach
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“Lara creates a space and energy that allow the words to flow. It’s like the cogs have fallen into place, and the wheels are finally turning”
—Private client, director and winemaker
Join THE EXPERIMENT
Enrolment opens Feb. 14
Programme runs from Feb. 20 to April 3, 2025
We’ll meet for weekly Zoom calls on Thursdays at 10:30am Adelaide time
(convert to your time zone), with the option to add calls for Europe-friendly time zones depending on the location of participants
Investment: AU$1,000
Payment plan: 2 monthly payments of AU$500
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“The result for me personally was a quantum leap into trusting my own inner compass”
—Melanie Gritzka Del Villar, artist
It IS possible for writing to feel light and liberating EVEN IF it’s only ever always felt hard and heavy.
THE EXPERIMENT is here to help you:
Write from self-trust and your highest creativity, instead of anxiety, overwhelm, and self-doubt
Design creative experiments that balance challenge with gentleness, accelerating your project’s growth while respecting your nervous system
Choose goals based on both extrinsic and intrinsic measures (extrinsic goals = the external outcomes you want to create; intrinsic goals = how you feel while you’re creating those outcomes)
Transform “failure” into learning and opportunity, so that failure always moves you forward instead of setting you back
Put in place supportive structures that help you show up for yourself and your writing steadily over time – this does NOT require getting up before dawn or writing every day from 9 to 5
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“You helped me come back to my power as an artist”
—Wawi Navarozza
If you’re still reading this page, and you’re wondering if joining THE EXPERIMENT is a “risk,” let me validate you:
Choosing your creativity IS a risk.
Without risk and venturing into the unknown, you never go anywhere new.
Embracing risk and the unknown is the essence of creativity – and it’s also part of what makes the creative path uncomfortable.
AND you can take a risk in a way that feels like white-knuckling your way through fear and anxiety…
OR you can take a risk in a way that feels like openness, curiosity, and heart-led courage.
Which would you rather choose?
Join THE EXPERIMENT
Enrolment opens Feb. 14
Programme dates: Feb. 20 to April 3, 2025
We’ll meet for weekly calls on Thursdays at 10:30am Adelaide time
(convert to your time zone), with the option to add calls for Europe-friendly time zones depending on the location of participants