Writing Motherhood
A six-week creative writing course for mothers who want to explore their experiences through words. Through reading, reflection, and guided writing exercises, we'll make space for the stories of motherhood that are rarely told, and discover new ways of telling our own.
No previous writing experience is necessary.
Just a willingness to begin.
Motherhood changes the way we experience ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. Yet finding the words to describe those changes isn't always easy.
Writing Motherhood is an invitation to pause, pay attention, and explore the complexities of maternal experience through creative writing. Over six weeks, we'll read, reflect, experiment with language, and begin transforming our experiences into stories.
A Space to Write Motherhood
Reading
Discover how other writers have explored motherhood, identity, memory, and the complexities of maternal life. Through carefully selected literary excerpts, we'll consider the different ways personal experiences can become compelling writing.
Reflecting
Explore your own experiences, memories, and observations through thoughtful prompts. We'll consider the expectations, contradictions, and moments that shape our understanding of motherhood, making space for stories that don't always fit familiar narratives.
Writing
Experiment with creative nonfiction techniques, including scene, sensory detail, voice, and perspective. Through accessible writing exercises, you'll begin turning memories, observations, and everyday moments into pieces of your own.
Connecting
Write alongside other mothers in a supportive, small-group environment. There will be opportunities to share your work and exchange reflections, but sharing is always optional. Your writing remains yours.
Inside the Six-Week Course
Across six weeks, we'll explore motherhood as both lived experience and creative material. Each session combines close reading of selected literary works, guided discussion, and practical writing exercises designed to help you develop your voice, experiment with storytelling, and discover the possibilities within your own experiences.
Whether you're returning to writing or picking up a pen for the first time, you'll be encouraged to write with curiosity, honesty, and freedom from expectation.
Week 1 —
The Stories We're Told
Motherhood is surrounded by stories about what we should feel, who we should become, and what our experiences ought to look like. But what happens when those expectations don't match reality?
Through reading, discussion, and guided writing, we'll explore the narratives we inherit about motherhood and begin turning our own experiences into stories.
Week 2 —
Before and After
Who were you before motherhood, and who are you becoming?
This week explores identity, memory, and transformation. Through personal reflection and creative writing, we'll consider the relationship between the person we were, the mother we've become, and the parts of ourselves that exist beyond motherhood.
Week 3 —
The Maternal Body
Our bodies carry stories of pregnancy, birth, change, memory, and experience.
We'll explore the maternal body as a source of creative material, using sensory detail, physical memory, and embodied experience to bring greater depth and immediacy to our writing.
Week 4 —
Memory and the Everyday
Some of motherhood's most revealing stories emerge from the smallest moments.
This week, we'll turn our attention to the ordinary rhythms of maternal life, exploring how memory, domestic detail, and everyday experiences can become meaningful and compelling narratives.
Week 5 —
Ambivalence and Contradiction
Motherhood can hold love and resentment, joy and grief, fulfilment and frustration — sometimes all at once.
We'll explore the contradictions of maternal experience and consider how writing can make space for difficult feelings, uncomfortable truths, and the complexities that familiar motherhood narratives often leave out.
Week 6 —
Finding Your Voice:
The Story Only I Can Tell
Every mother has a story, but finding the confidence to tell it in your own voice can take time.
In our final week, we'll bring together everything we've explored, revisiting and refining our writing, recognising the strengths of our individual voices and considering how to continue writing beyond the course.