My Story

The photo features Lissa M. Cowan, Author, Creator and Storyteller in front of a white brick wall. She is the owner of this website. She smiles, has brown shoulder-length hair and wears a large white scarf with magenta circles and a modern black design of lines and interlocking patterns. She also wears a grey bomber jacket and black pants. Her hands are at her sides and she looks ahead.

My Story

If you're a writer or would like to write and need some guidance to craft your story or another piece of writing, then welcome!

Maybe you’re itching to complete a writing project, yet feel you don't know where to start. This is a supportive, relaxed, and fun community of writers, doers and changemakers that inspire each other through learning and re-learning to write, live, and work creatively. In this community, you can...

Learn what you would like to write about and I'll help you to develop a plan that allows you to do it.
Establish a writing practice that you do every day.
Write copy for your website, product or service that truly reflects what you're offering.
Send me your book or another piece of writing and I'll send you a detailed report for next steps.
Learn from a seasoned writer (me) with close to 20 years of writing and book publishing experience.
Connect with like-minded writers to support and learn from each other.
Find inspiration in the works of authors, teachers, and artists.

If you're a creator who's feeling unmotivated or having a hard time starting a project, then welcome!

Learn what you would like to create or make and I'll help you to develop a plan that allows you to do it.
Establish a creative practice that you do every day.
Discover that creative work is not separate from life but an integral part of living.

The photo shows arms of a young woman entrepreneur wearing a watch on her wrist; one hand typing on a laptop keyboard while the other writes a note on a small notepad. To the left is a fancy coffee in a white cup while pink hydrangeas sit beside her to the right. Sunglasses rest in a pink lined glasses case beside the hydrangeas. A small globe of the world is partly shown at the top left. In front of the computer sits a white iPhone.

Calling All Writers And Creators

Inspiration can come from anywhere, yet sometimes you may feel like you’ve been sucker punched by too much busy. My online courses are all about helping you get your creative mojo back, start writing, and feel amazing again. Whether grappling with an unwieldy book project or a blank canvas, you’ll discover how to live in that sweet spot of creating and being in the zone more than just once or twice a month. Each day, your energy will positively light a fire under you to be even more creative! My somatic-based writing courses help connect you to your body, allowing you and your writing to feel more alive and grounded. What's not to like about that!

This image shows an open notebook lying on its spine. In the middle of the notebook are several coloured pencils with their tips pointing forward. One of the other pages is open slightly and there is some indistinct writing on it.

Calling All Writers And Wannabe Writers

I offer tailored one-on-one writing coaching to help you make sense of your wild and wonderful ideas so your audience sees and hears the real you. Whether you’re writing an e-book, a book of poems, a breakout business book or memoir, or just need some guidance to develop a work plan to start and keep writing, together we’ll whip your words into shape and laugh lots along the way.

The black and white photo features Lissa M. Cowan, Author, Creator and Storyteller in a front view. She has shoulder length hair and smiles with her mouth open. She wears a simple chain-link necklace, a white rib-neck shirt and dark grey motorcycle style jacket with zipper. She has dark features and a simple nose ring. Her earrings are a black and white geometrical pattern on an upside down triangle reminiscent of the 1920s.

Enter...moi

My name is Lissa and I'd love to help you write and/or finish your dream writing project. And, if it’s creative guidance you’re after then we'll go together to that happy place of creating—like the fort made of cushions in the living room, or that little table in the kitchen of your childhood that’s covered in crayon, ketchup and paint. As a writer and creator I'll work with you to uncover the story or stories burning inside you. Together, we'll bring your writing and life into razor-sharp focus and produce some heart dances and inner high fives along the way. My one-on-one writing coaching and somatic-based writing courses offer a selection of different options to help you achieve your writing dreams and enjoy the journey.

You Want to Know More About Me?

The photo shows a lush forest scene with a deciduous tree in the foreground and a close up of grass, rocks, sticks and leaves on the ground. In the distance dim light breaks through trees.

I grew up climbing trees and pretending I was sick (sorry, Mum) so I could stay home from school and read books.

I have always been fiercely independent and nurtured big dreams.

This photo features the author as a seven or eight-year-old child standing in a small, round kiddie pool. The water is grey-green and is below her knees. She wears a tomato red two-piece bathing suit with white ribbing around the neck. She stands in a pool, a toddler (her sister), crouching at her feet. The author has her knees bent, legs open and her hands resting on her thighs. She is sticking her tongue out and her eyes are squinting from the sun. In the background is a forest and pond to the left.

In grade three I won a writing contest and decided to become a writer. From then on I wrote stories and poems and scribbled in my diary.

The photo shows a vintage 1930s or 40s black typewriter on a white surface. The view of the typewriter is from the top. There are gold words inscribed on the machine that say “favorit” in stylized capital letters with an illustration of something resembling wings underneath. There is a piece of paper sticking halfway out of the typewriter with some illegible words written on it that look like a title.

In university, I studied English Literature to read books and eventually write some. In my early 20s I became a feminist and activist, and continued to write fiction, later receiving awards for my writing.

This image shows a close up of hands cupping light-coloured fir needles. The person’s hands are together so that the hands look like a bowl holding these leaves or fruits. The background is blurred green and looks like grass.

I learned early on that I was an artist yet needed my left brain to keep my big ideas and me in line.

This photo shows a woman from the knees down, her arms loosely wrapped around her legs. She wears a long red dress or skirt and is seated barefoot on a parquet floor with toenails painted blue. Her laptop computer, smart phone, teapot, a half-eaten apple, teacup, notebook, muffins on a plate and black high-heeled shoes surround her on the floor. She sits by her coffee table that is mostly hidden from view. The table is low, sits on a tan shag rug and is made of rustic wood painted white.

I once co-ran a publishing house and communications company where I launched brands, books and magazines, translated a book of poetry and raised money for kickass causes.

The photo is of Lissa M. Cowan, Writer, Creator and Storyteller. She stands in an alleyway in front of a brick wall that is painted beige-pink. She smiles and gently clasping her hands. She has brown, shoulder length hair, dark eyes and eyebrows. She wears a metallic 20s style dress with a short-sleeved V-neck covered one third up by tan mesh. She wears long earrings that are geometrically shaped and with a black and white design.

Biography

Lissa M. Cowan is the author of Milk Fever, a historical fiction novel, co-translator from French of a book of poetic prose, and other fiction and non-fiction. She publishes articles in magazines, newspapers and blogs on topics related to creativity, somatic-based writing, and meditation.

As the founder of Good Stories Grow Here Writing Studio, she offers 21 Day Writing Meditation and Writing the Body, her signature somatic-based writing courses to help individuals connect to their bodies, their senses, bringing immediacy and liveliness to their writing and their lives.

With these courses Lissa helps people awaken to themselves and live richer, truer lives based on their passions, their uniqueness, and their spirit's calling. Uncovering stories that live deep within us can produce a lightness of body and spirit, carrying us to a higher level of being, relationship to the world—and a greater joy.

She also offers courses, Write. Review. Repeat. for people who have a manuscript or partial manuscript and can't figure out what to do next. Kiss My Clarity is to help entrepreneurs take their business copy from so-so to super.

Her courses are featured on Udemy, an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 65,000 courses and 15 million students, and DailyOM, a website featuring a universal approach to holistic living for the mind, body, and spirit. Her online courses and guided meditations are also featured on Begin to Heal, a digital platform showcasing 200 holistic practitioners from a range of disciplines.

Her intuitive guidance is informed by years of bodywork encompassing craniosacral therapy (CST), yoga, Radical Wholeness embodiment techniques; Jungian dream work; and her own journey living with chronic pain over 20 years and coming home to her body. She follows a daily meditation that draws from Vipassana meditation and from Tibetan Buddhism, primarily Vajrayana practices and techniques.

Her writing expertise is informed by over 20 years working as a professional copywriter, publisher, and communications generalist, and as a published author of fiction, a poetry translation, and non-fiction.

Lissa tailors her one-on-one writing coaching sessions to individual needs, whether that's working on pieces of writing to completion, doing somatic-based writing exercises and meditations to clear blockages in the body, or honing in on a person's story that's waiting to be told, and helping them to develop that story.