How to Come Home to Yourself (and Build Your Village) Through Personal Narrative
A personal tale of seeking inner clarity and creating something (a journey) that channels my core skills —writing, storytelling, and community building—to help others find theirs.
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
—J.R.R. Tolkien, Bilbo’s quote in The Fellowship of The Ring
ACT I: The Start of Something New
I did not mean to start this.
Honestly, I was just trying to collect the pieces of me that still made sense after several years of cyclic transformations. The ultimate act prompted by motherhood.
Somewhere in there, I also moved to a quiet, suburban corner of Jersey, across from New York City. It felt like Bilbo trying hard to settle down in the Shire and act normal after having been there and back again, while carrying something as precious as the one ring of power around his neck. I even started gardening.
Really, I was just trying to reclaim my life script after a stretch that felt like pure improv. In the mess of it, I found myself scribbling stream-of-consciousness drafts at odd hours (thank you, toddler sleep regression), recording voice notes while walking past deer in the woods, and quoting Le Guin and Woolf in my Notes app like some kind of literary survivalist.
What I found wasn’t a master plan—but a thread. A way to write myself back into focus. So I turned that process into something we could do together.
In Hacking Communities, I wrote:
“As a community builder, your role is to make others feel at home. To create a space where they can take their shoes off and be fully themselves.”
I’m following my own advice here. And Virginia Woolf’s. You need time and space to express yourself (A Room of One’s Own).
So I created a personal-narrative-writing experience to be a room of your own.
Time to take your shoes off.
So I Started This…
A guided experience to turn lived experience into personal narrative, personal narrative into a content-based lighthouse, and that into meaningful community.
I set out to create a room of my own (inspired by Virginia Woolf’s advice) and ended up designing an experience to help others build their own.
Paraphrasing Woolf: a person must have a room of her own if she is to be creative. You need to make time and space for creativity.
So I designed an experience that serves as a room you can step into, while making your own. This room is made of space, time, and community.
It’s called the Clarity Journey: a slow, small-batch experience for reclaiming the creative direction of your life through storytelling.
The deeper goal? Building your village through it.
ACT II: The Something New in Motion
What Is This? Aka “Just say the damn thing.”
This isn’t a course.
It is a guided experience designed to help you gain inner clarity through creative writing, storytelling, inner work, branding, and community building.
Maybe you’re creative at heart but haven’t found the time or space to honor it. Maybe a major life shift left you searching for solid ground. Or maybe you’re carrying a story that could you bring deeper clarity and confidence.
Wherever you are, this Journey brings together everything I’ve learned about community building, storytelling, personal branding, and creative writing.
You’ll learn how to:
• Make sense of your life story through personal narrative writing
• View your journey through story arcs and hero’s journey frameworks
• Turn lived experience into authentic, shareable content
• Build a community aligned with your voice, values, and vision
We’ll meet for six core sessions, with guest speakers and ongoing support. Expect stream-of-consciousness writing, brand tools, creative prompts, and storytelling frameworks. You’ll leave with a clearer narrative, renewed momentum, and likely a trusted circle of new collaborators or friends.
It’s a small, intentional group. One spot left in the current cohort. ("Out, damned spot!"—if you got that, I think you’ll love it here.)
Might open another. You can reach out directly if this feels like your season.
If you’re ready to carve out space to think, write, and connect—this is your room.
🔗 More details here
Or message me.
Take-This-Home: 3 Steps to Regain Inner Clarity Through Personal Storytelling
Craft your Personal Narrative
Break it Down into Publishable Bits
Build Your Village.
1. Craft your Personal Narrative
Make sense of your story. Cultivate self-love by giving it time. Create value (and validation) from within. As put by psychologist and author Maureen Murdock:
“When you write your memoir, you will understand, perhaps for the first time, the significance of your life through the language, images, and emotions you craft from the memory.”
From stream-of-consciousness practices (following Joyce and Woolf’s steps) to crafting your personal mood board, hero’s arc, and character diamond, create lumps of clay that will serve you in shaping an inner clarity masterpiece.
2. Break it Down into Publishable Bits.
Turn your narrative into something you can share with whoever you choose—just yourself, a private circle, or the whole world. Examples include:
A beautifully crafted memoir or anthology. (Make it a book, or a content series—think publishable essays or a newsletter.)
A compelling personal brand blueprint, channeled into a well-crafted website, portfolio, or social profile that reflects your knowledge and offerings.
A clear content strategy to grow on the platforms you love. Show up consistently (without the cringe) on Substack, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok—or wherever you thrive.
3. Build Your Village.
Become a lighthouse for those who truly matter.
Connect from your true core and attract those who resonate with your voice. Find the people who relate, who can learn from you, or who want to support what you’re building. Create a thriving community, grow a meaningful audience, or build the support system you need to grow your business—or all of the above.
These often form different layers of closeness within the same ecosystem. One that sustains your life, on your terms, by your own definition of success.
So. You can follow this steps for inner clarity, all by yourself…
Or Apply to Join the Clarity Journey
The Clarity Journey is a 3-month, small-batch experience for bold, creative women to reclaim their voice through storytelling—be it a brand, memoir, or project.
The deeper goal?
Build a village that supports the life you’re designing on your own terms.
Highlights:
6 core sessions, held biweekly from June 25 to September 3
Creation-focused tracks to keep you accountable
A small, curated global cohort of like-minded peers
Guest sessions with experts in storytelling, coaching, branding, and more
A thoughtful gift sent by mail
→ Program details here
Sessions: Every other Wednesday, June 25–Sept 3
Times (EST): 8:30–10 AM • 1–2:30 PM • 8–9:30 PM
Sign-up deadline: June 21
Why Bother?
Because without clarity, everything feels scattered.
We say yes to the wrong things. Chase borrowed dreams. Join or build communities that don’t quite work, trying to fit in like square pegs in round holes.
Clarity isn’t just about direction, it’s about discernment. Decision making.
When we understand the story we’re living (and the story we want to tell), we begin to make more aligned choices. We stop performing and start belonging.
Wouldn’t it be fun to truly connect with yourself as the main character—and finally become her? To pause, get creative, and rewrite the stories that shaped you—seeing yourself like a writer sees their favorite character: with care and curiosity. To look at your life through a hero’s (or heroine’s) lens and make sense of what made you, you. To share what feels ready, and in doing so, build a village that truly sees you.
Because as I shared before:
“…sharing your story is an act of care towards yourself and others. When you tell your story, you become a lighthouse to others who may resonate with it.”
In a Nutshell
It’s not about branding for the sake of it, or writing just to be seen. It’s about seeing yourself clearly enough to make choices rooted in who you really are—and drawing in the right people because of it.
This kind of work matters most in moments of reinvention—whatever sparked it. A new chapter, a role shift, a life event. When the ground feels shaky and everything turns into a slow becoming. In those in-between spaces, clarity becomes an anchor. A mirror. A compass.
Because a meaningful village, the kind where care and ambition can actually coexist, can’t be built on noise, confusion, or someone else’s blueprint.
It has to start with truth. Your truth.
Do it for the plot.
Do it for yourself—your younger, current, and future self.
Do it for your people—your children, your community, the world.
Or all the above. Do it for clarity’s sake.
Clarity is what makes that possible.
And what makes it last.
Thanks for reading all the way here. If this spoke to something in you—come say hi, or learn more at Nest & North’s Clarity Journey page.