Gateless Writing

Writing has been part of my life since I got my first journal at 11. Over the years, I've filled boxes of notebooks, written essays, blog posts, and strategy documents, and co-authored a book on facilitation processes for groups working through conflict.

But writing has always been first and foremost a way of finding out – about myself, and about the world and how I perceive it. When I've written deeply about a story from my past, I feel a sense of integration and a rounding out of my being, like something that felt fragmented has really always been whole. When I inquire into a problem or puzzle, I can count on new thoughts arising – sometimes in moment, often later that day or the next.

At its best, it's like writing turns the magic on. Words are suddenly everywhere. A stream of them could alight anywhere and light everything up with new ways of comprehending.

The Gateless method of writing facilitation is the best I've found to reliably open up this depth of writing. Suzanne Kingsbury, the creator of Gateless, developed it after many years of inquiring into why creativity sometimes seems to flow effortlessly, and other times it feels almost totally inaccessible.

After studying the neurobiology of creativity and reflecting on her own and others' experience, she came to a simple but radically powerful commitment: keep writers out of fight or flight – that state when our sympathetic nervous system recognizes a possible threat and gears us up to respond. Instead, anchor writers in the body and the imagination and nourish them with appreciation for their own craft.

In our culture, where art is commodified and early education still focuses primarily on inculcating conformity, most of us have experienced wounds around the creative process and feeling less than good enough. The creative act often feels fraught with shadowy demons and anxiety.

A Gateless writing session begins with a somatic meditation, bringing us into the body and then helping us sink into our associative minds, where long-term memory and imagination live side by side. An evocative but spacious prompt is offered as a jumping off point, and participants write freely for several minutes. Then we have an opportunity to read pieces aloud and receive feedback about what really worked in the piece.

The feedback we give in a Gateless salon is exclusively positive and supportive. And not in a superficial, "So great! You go girl!" cheerleading kind of way. It is laser focused on the specific strengths in the work that spoke to us as listeners – this particular turn of phrase, how the details brought me right into the scene, how I could taste what the narrator was eating, how the structure of time in the piece was so satisfying.

The experience of hearing our strengths reflected back to us creates a positive feedback loop. We come to associate creativity with pleasure rather than anxiety. We feel supported and capable, rather than braced for criticism. In the language of polyvagal theory, this support activates our social nervous system, helping us anchor into our most settled, creative, and responsive selves.

Crucially, when giving feedback, we treat every piece as a work of fiction, and address our comments to "the narrator" rather than "you", giving the writer some space from the work, letting it stand on its own as a piece of art. And then we let it go. When the session is complete, we don't speak of the piece or its contents again. It is up to the writer what they may wish to do with the piece in the future.

These simple but profound practices create a strong container in which it feels safe enough to go deep and wide, letting our imagination run, exploring themes that felt too tricky before, or trying out new voices or styles. Participants often find that the well of creativity is reopened and flowing freely after a Gateless session.

In these truly harrowing times, growing confidence in our voices and claiming our truths feels even more important than ever. I am offering Gateless salons to support our personal and collective power and resilience, as well as for the joy of the written word.

My next salon series is coming up in Florence, MA in February and March. Join my email list to hear about future offerings. If you have group that might like to experience a Gateless salon together, please contact me.