Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Kasaba.
Hi Karen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Guided Writing Tours is actually based on how I used to play as a kid. When we were 9 or 10, my friend Dana and I invented our version of a Disneyland attraction in her mom’s darkened garage. The younger kids in the neighborhood paid a nickel for me to pull them around in a wagon, narrating the story of a Haunted House, or Undersea Adventure, while Dana dressed up and hid in the dark, waiting to pop out and scare them.
I loved creating a world with words in a dusty, oil-stained garage, where kids used their imagination to co-create the experience. I was basically a tour guide but didn’t realize that until years later when I had a chance to volunteer as a docent at Ganna Walska Lotusland in Santa Barbara. Interacting with guests as I led them around the garden taught me about landing emotional beats and maintaining engagement. The tour was meant to provide an informative context for visitors to have their own personal experience of the garden, which could be quite profound. All I did was show them the path.
Based on these experiences, I like to approach my writing workshops and coaching as a kind of tour guide for writers – showing them the path to their own stories.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
In 2016, my divorce launched a major reinvention. Around that time, Airbnb was launching Experiences, and I was inspired to design and pitch something that made writing fun enough to do on vacation. I loved the idea of writing outside, in nature or an evocative setting. I started taking small groups out to museums like LACMA and the Hammer to write, inspired by the feelings the art evoked in their bodies. I facilitated feedback with guidelines to keep it positive and supportive. I loved hearing what people came up with. Some writers continued to develop their stories and essays all the way to publication – so these outings were really sparking something.
When the pandemic hit, I had to re-imagine in-person tours in an online format. I started with prompts inspired by psychometry, dreamwork, and the Akashic Records. Airbnb introduced Online Experiences in April, and I was among the first 50 hosts to offer an experience globally. My experience – Intuitive Writing Workshop in Hollywood – became popular with corporate teams working remotely – I’ve hosted groups from Facebook, Yelp, Grammarly, YouTube, Wayfair and more. It’s fun for me and bonding for the teams, and participants have come away enlightened and inspired.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I studied improvisation with the Groundlings in LA, I was blown away by the experience of entering a scene immediately, as if it were already happening. I wondered about a way to achieve this on the page, with the same reliability. All it took was a willingness to surrender to intuition. Over the past few years, I’ve developed experiential prompts that utilize divination, sound and guided visioning. By following my carefully crafted prompts, with my guidance and facilitation, writers are able to access key emotional moments easily, and enter right in the middle of the scene with their writing, just as I experienced with Improv. These intuitive prompts provide a direct portal into their story.
Right now, I offer online experiential writing workshops and developmental editing and coaching for writers working on book-length projects. My Visionary Writing Workshops are a safe space for writers to discover the story they’ve been wanting to tell. I’m devoted to helping writers maintain a sustainable practice, and offer a free guide to get started, as well as the opportunity to receive ongoing inspiration and find out about future workshops and events via my mailing list.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
What I find grounding is to reconnect with the original source of my inspiration – pulling kids around that garage in a red wagon – and feel that sense of excitement and curiosity in my body. This is the energy I want to convey in my workshops. It’s thrilling to guide other writers toward their own path of discovery, so they can access their authentic voice and bring their unique stories into the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://karenkasaba.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guidedwritingtours/
- Other: Free Writing Guide – https://karenkasaba.com/freeguide; Airbnb Experience – https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/1657378?source=p2
Image Credits
Photos by @DechartPhotography
