Write your Addiction Story & Stand Out from the Crowd
Every person is sitting on a collection of extraordinary experiences but not everyone has the urge to write those stories. The fact that you do already makes you different. And you’re used to be different, I know that. But in this case, those differences are going to work in your favour because they are what makes you and your writing stand out … Work with me and let me show you how to write your addiction story in a way that make your writing stand out from the crowd!
Your Personal Writing Coach
Hi there, I’m Sasha, a writer, poet, performer and addict, and no this is not a chapter of AA. This is the first chapter of you writing your story from a place of truth.
To start I want to let you know a bit about me and why I’m qualified to help you. I’ve been a freelance writer for many years, and have a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester. I also wrote copy for the cannabis industry for the last 8 years and I’ve been a user of cannabis since my early twenties, so, yeah, forever.
Which means I know about underground culture, and I know sharp writing about underground culture. And to celebrate that culture, I published a collection of poetry called Infinite Jade, which is a conceptual album and immersive sound experience on the internal alchemy of stoners.
I’m particularly interested in stories about addiction because we all have stories related to addiction but we have no idea how to talk about them, or how to write about them outside of the mainstream recovery story.
That’s why I’m a huge fan of writers like Bukowski, Denis Johnson, Hunter S. Thompson, Sarah Hepola and Cheryl Strayed, writers who get straight to the heart of a topic, no bullshit, but paint it with a platter of precise words that feel like a shot to the heart. They’re writing about addiction but they transport us to a hyper-real world with a magical glow and they do that by playing with language.
In other words, I like real prose and poetry that dresses down its wisdom by focusing on the ordinary magic of life.
- Real prose
- Precise words
- The ordinary magic of life
But there’s another really important idea here that never gets talked about in relation to addiction and that’s that not every addiction story is a recovery story.
Sometimes it’s a stuck in one place story, sometimes it’s a working 100 hours a week story, sometimes it’s an impress my mother story, sometimes it’s an I learned to fly story, and sometimes, yes, it’s a I lost my brother story.
But the problem is there is no space in our culture to talk about the in-between stories, stories from the margins, or even the positive thing you took away from the sad story because when we do, we ram right up against societal stigma, and that wound runs deep, it’s not easy to get around.
But the truth is stories about addiction are stories about real life. And stories about real life matter because they tell us who we really are. If we hold up a broken mirror to ourselves, we can’t be surprised when the reflection is cracked.
So, the work we do here is really about re-building the mirror and it’s really important work. With so much fake in the world today, the thing we have that’s really real are the real stories. The gritty, the failure, the rejection, the addiction. But to tell these stories on the page what matters is the writing.
I know that writing difficult stories takes courage, but I want to clarify something up front: This is not a support group. This is a creative writing class.
We are not here to treat writing as therapy. We are not here to fill out worksheets about our feelings. There are beautiful spaces in the world for that kind of healing work—but this room is about language and how we approach writing as a craft.
Let’s be honest, the world is full of people with unbelievable stories who write unreadable books.Why? Because they focus entirely on what happened, rather than how it is told.
They are reporting facts but not inviting the reader into the world of the story, which means the reader doesn’t connect with the story, the reader feels no emotion. The rule holds true no matter what you’re writing, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction or poetry, the GOAL IS TO STIR EMOTION IN THE READER. Remember, the story is for the reader!!
So, when you work with me, we’re going to look at HOW a story is told to give you new ways to think about your story and how to fill it with emotion so that it connects with readers. And we do that by focusing on language.
My classes are steeped in literary history, and I use literary devices to help you get to the heart of your story and tell it in a way that is true to your voice. To get a sense of my teaching style, here are two FREE classes:
Chapter 1: Strange Sensation – Leo Tolstoy on How to Make the Familiar Strange
TRANSCRIPT:
In 1917, Tolstoy coined a literary term called Ostranenie, which translates to ‘defamiliarization’ or, quite literally, ‘making the familiar strange.’
Tolstoy argued that as we move through life, our perception becomes automatic. Which means you walk down the street, you look at your phone, you talk to a friend, you think about something else, you rarely see what’s right in front of you, and you rarely put any value on that. You take it for granted, it’s what is always there, the same street, the same friend with the same problems, and so on. What you are seeing is the concept of them. Your brain takes shortcuts to save energy.
Tolstoy wrote that automatic perception devours life, and that the entire purpose of art is to return us to the sensation of living—to make us feel that water is watery, a stone is stony, and so on, to sense what is around us, to really see it. NOTE: This is an exercise is paying attention, and something I cover in future workshops.
Chapter 2: Play With Language – Rimbaud on Using Strange Language to Surprise Readers
WRITE YOUR STORY
Understanding the approaches that other writers use is one part of the process of learning how to tell your own stories. The other part is figuring out which styles work best for your way of writing … because you have your own way of writing, and your own voice. Which is great because honing your voice is exactly how we make writing that’s alive on the page and stands out from the crowd.
But there’s only one way to get there and that’s to experiment with a whole bunch of styles, to shake up your concept of writing, to shake up your concept of what language can do,.
If you are sitting there right now with a story burning a hole in your pocket, I want to see it. Send me your work-in-progress. It doesn’t matter if it is a single, messy page, a fragmented outline, or pages of a rough draft hidden on your laptop. Send it to me exactly as it is.
When you share that work, you have two distinct paths forward with me:
- Path One: One-on-One Coaching. If your story feels incredibly raw, deeply personal, or uniquely complex, you might not want to share it with a room full of people just yet. If you want individual guidance and attention to help you build your story, sign up for a one-on-one coaching spot and I will guide you into your story.
- Path Two: The Group Workshop. If you are craving the energy of a group, the accountability of a weekly deadline, and an intelligent peer community to critique your craft, then the full 4-week masterclass is for you. Spots are limited to keep the room focused, so add your name to the waitlist for the group workshop before you leave tonight.
Send an email to: thehealthyhashhead@gmail.com and in the subject box, put either COACHING or WAITLIST and I can add your name to the list, and in both cases I’ll respond with rates and availability.
I can’t wait to hear from you, and start the process that brings your story out of the margins and where it belongs, alive and kicking on the page. Let’s go!