Call for Writers
a rare opportunity to write for a monastery
Introduction
Do you enjoy writing about things like consciousness, mysticism, awareness and class warfare? What about personal experiences in consciousness, or in studying, taking classes, or interrelating with a teacher? What have your studies and practices revealed to you?
Do you enjoy discussing the history of mystics, or the roles of various religious or related secular movements, including philosophies or scientific advances that dovetail into the monastery’s mission focus? Do you have ideas about how to integrate tech, apps and cloud-based software into the so-called mystic’s journey?
Can you see yourself putting a new spin on an old idea? The idea of being a monk or nun in everyday life? An everyday life mystic? How does that look? Do you feel cloistered in your own life, or deeply integrated? Can you share how your studies, experiences and insights have been applied in normal, everyday life circumstances and relationships?
Do you have practices, or just go with the flow? Are there social issues that mean a lot to you? Does social responsibility go hand-in-hand with deepening consciousness? Are there books we should read, or movies with a message that are relevant for an everyday seeker?
Writers
We are looking for writers who can help grow the monastery as a world-wide resource for mystics, students and philosophers. But not strictly a ‘catch-all’ resource, because that would be a bit encyclopedic. Rather, our focus is on consciousness and awareness. Other things, too, but mostly that.
We want to help people have deeper experiences in consciousness and awareness. We want to help that become an easier and easier thing to do.
What you can expect
If money is your motivation as a writer, you won’t find it here. At least not quite yet (see below). Because what has compelled the founding of the monastery is something deeper, something that drives us whether we have funding or not. It’s kind of like this: if you’re meant to do this, you might feel some kind of inner call.
If you join as a writer, you will be:
- Founding Writer, The Little Creek Monastery. This byline is reserved only for writers who join us in the early stages of our growth. Consider this similar to joining a startup very early, pre-funding. It’s a limited opportunity. We may not be able to give you shares, but we can definitely give you a cool byline. And speaking of shares, the thing you’re sharing in — The Little Creek Monastery and its mission — is decidedly unique.
- Contributing Writer, The Little Creek Monastery. If you join us as a writer a little later in our development, this will be part of your byline.
- A member of the monastery’s Writer’s Guild (in development).
- Entitled to use our logos. Shown here (subject to change… we may ‘rebrand’).
- Entitled to select/not select an additional self-conferred monastic title of your choosing. There’s no pressure to do this. But the thing is, we have a delicious Monastic Chicken Soup recipe, just in case you were wondering.
Our Current Founding Writers
- Paul Ellis
- James Souttar, London
- Gerben, Netherlands
- Mark Walter, United States
- Brian Windwalker, United States
Note to writers: don’t feel rushed to crank out rapid fire work. If you like to take your time, that’s totally fine. Do what works for you.
The Writer’s Guild of The Little Creek Monastery
The concept of the monastery’s writers guild is for the monastery to host informal discussions related to helping bring about a deeper consciousness and awareness. It will also help keep our efforts a bit coordinated.
Once we roll this out, we will probably begin with an informal discussion forum (currently in design). Later, if it makes sense, we can consider live Skype or related. We won’t deploy a forum until we have enough active writers on board that it makes sense.
On a more formal basis, when the monastery hosts teachings, lectures or special guests, writers will be invited first. This may come in handy if class size gets limited.
FUNDING
To get funding for a monastery is a heavy lift. So, no promises here. But read on if you want to know what we’re up to.
The basic funding elements
We view ourselves as a startup, a monastic startup.
We believe that if we have any kind of chance of receiving funding, we need to show ‘need, product, participation and traction’.
- Need — we talk about need and mission on the link below.
- Main Product — the monastery’s written work is our product. It’s spread out among six Medium websites. We are currently building a central website, to get things a bit better organized, but it’s our long-term intention to keep all writing on Medium.
- Secondary Products — monks and scribes have always filed and preserved. We do that too. We call it Scripture 2.0. There are various efforts around the world to preserve sacred work. We don’t need to duplicate that. Rather, our focus is on consciousness and related topics.
- In this regard, we can use some help organizing things. We are producing hundreds of essays a year, and are also slowly moving into helping preserve the work and teachings of other organizations we serve.
- Software Product — We likely won’t be developing an app, beyond a website and Medium, unless we receive funding. In the meantime, we are considering how to employ cloud-based software to bring to consciousness the advantages of technological prowess, including the ease with which people download and deploy apps. Some monasteries make bread, wine, coffee or fruitcakes. Us? We’re software mystics. Ideas welcome!
- Participation — it is our hope to assemble a team of writers who are focused and committed to the topics of consciousness, awareness, inner journeys, and more. With funding, we hope to be able to pay modest fees to our writers. We promise, no fruitcakes in barter.
- Traction — good, topical writing will grow the monastery’s audience. Which will give each writer an opportunity to not only expand their own reach, but also strengthen their deeper, more impactful on behalf of consciousness. There’s reach, and then there’s Reach.
The funding team
We are quietly building a team to approach potential investors. The monastery will be a member of what seems to be shaping up to be a team comprised of four organizations. More about this once we get our presentation deck finished.
