Your ideas deserve to see the light of day
Harness the power of constraint, THE EXPERIMENT… and draft from scratch
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?)
And because you love – even venerate – the written word, you’re probably weighed down by a sense of pressure and self-comparison.
Writing doesn’t have to be an exhausting, energy-depleting, anxiety-inducing slog.
While writing isn’t always a stroll in the proverbial park – unlocking the power of language requires skill, practice, patience, and craft – 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, and:
Turn towards your writing with curiosity and openness
Bring more of yourself to the page
Finally make the progress you want to make on your project
AND write in a way that’s actually compelling for your ideal readers, because you’re finally giving yourself permission to write as you?
Hi, I’m Lara.
I’m an integrative coach, seasoned editor of books, magazines, and international news media, and as of May 2026, a signed author with a traditional publishing house.
I know all about pushing hard and hustling to meet external deadlines (just ask me about my years as a Wall Street Journal digital culture editor for Asia).
And I also know that you don’t need to grind yourself to exhaustion to write what you want to write.
In November 2024, after multiple attempts at drafting a book, I conducted a creative experiment and wrote 30,000 words in a month – the core of a project that became my forthcoming essay collection, Abakada, which attracted a traditional publishing offer within 72 hours of first queries (yay!).
I did this without losing sleep, abandoning my responsibilities, or coming anywhere close to burnout. Instead, my creative process felt energising, freeing, and fun, even when I was writing through challenging material.
This 30-day experiment allowed me to make huge progress in reaching a lifelong goal – to author and publish a book that felt truly like me – and I did this while running a fully booked 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 share with you the core skills that allowed me to do this with a sense of expansiveness, liberation, and playfulness, without worrying about word counts.
Introducing…
THE EXPERIMENT
Aug. 5 to Sept. 16, 2026
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
In 6 weeks, you’ll radically transform your writing practice so you can:
Build momentum in your writing project from a place of inspired action – instead of writing from urgency and disconnected rushing
Wake up excited about what you’re going to write next
Feel more connected to your creativity and engaged with your own ideas
By the end of September 2026, you’ll have the core of a manuscript you’ll be able to grow into 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, winner of the PEN Open Book Award and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
Here are the core skills – the 4 D’s – you’ll put into practice in our 6 weeks together:
DESIRE
Learn to follow and trust your desires as a writer. Release the impulse to hustle or force. Allow your desires to give your work clarity, focus, power, and energy.
DECISIONS
Stop second-guessing your intuition. Decide in advance on a framework for your writing – including when you’ll write and what “enough” looks like. Become your own green light when it comes to your creative ideas.
DEVOTION
Take the pressure off any single writing session. Practice following your ideas where they lead. Release attachment to the outcome. No need to wait for the “perfect conditions” to write.
DATA
Get curious about what works. Transform your relationship to “failure.” Build powerful momentum in your project by learning from your own unique process.
Once you put into practice the 4 D’s, 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
Here’s our 6 weeks together inside THE EXPERIMENT breaks down:
6 x weekly coaching calls
We’ll meet for a cadence of 3 consecutive weekly calls, take a week off for integration, continue with 2 weekly coaching calls, and a final closing call to celebrate and look towards the future.
Each week, you’ll learn core skills and 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.
Community and between-session support
A private Telegram group 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?”
PLUS:
1:1 coaching session (30 mins)
Everyone who signs up for THE EXPERIMENT before July 4, 2026 receives a 1:1 private coaching session tailored to you and your specific writing project.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“I’m 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, winemaker and entrepreneur
Join THE EXPERIMENT
Programme runs from Aug. 5 to Sept. 16, 2026
We’ll meet for weekly Zoom calls on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Adelaide time
(convert to your time zone)Call dates:
Aug. 5, 12 & 19
Sept. 2, 9 & 16
(Integration week: Aug. 26)Investment: AU$1,200
3-month payment plans available
Early bird: AU$1,000 + complimentary 1:1 session available until July 4, 2026
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“You helped me come back to my power as an artist”
—Wawi Navarozza, artist
It IS possible for writing to feel expansive and liberating EVEN IF it’s only ever always felt hard and heavy.
THE EXPERIMENT is here to help you:
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
Write from self-trust and your highest creativity, instead of anxiety, overwhelm, and self-doubt
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“The result for me personally was a quantum leap into trusting my own inner compass”
—Melanie Gritzka Del Villar, artist
Want to take a quantum leap into trusting your own inner compass too?
Join THE EXPERIMENT
Aug. 5 to Sept. 16, 2026
If you’re still reading this page, and you’re not yet sure if joining THE EXPERIMENT is the right move for you, there’s a good chance that you might unconsciously be thinking that investing in this programme is a “risk.”
Let me validate your brain:
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?
If it’s the latter, I’d love for you to join me in THE EXPERIMENT.
Join THE EXPERIMENT
Programme runs from Aug. 5 to Sept. 16, 2026
We’ll meet for weekly Zoom calls on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Adelaide time
(convert to your time zone)Call dates:
Aug. 5, 12 & 19
Sept. 2, 9 & 16
(Integration week: Aug. 26)Option to add two calls for Europe, Africa, and South Asia time zones depending on the location of participants
Investment: AU$1,200
Payment plan: 3 monthly payments of AU$405