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Erica D'Eramo 0:00
Erica, hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo, and today we've got a repeat guest joining us, and one of our one of our favorite alumni of the Two Piers podcast, GG Renee Hill. GG is an author, creative coach and facilitator whose workshops and coaching programs break down barriers to creative expression and explore writing as a pathway to wellness, personal clarity and collective growth. She is the author of the recently published story work field notes on self discovery and reclaiming your narrative. In addition to working with individuals through one on one coaching and group coaching. She also facilitates transformative workshops for a diverse list of organizations, including corporate and nonprofits as well as literary groups. We are so excited to have GG back on the podcast to talk about the work of story work.
Erica D'Eramo 1:06
GG, welcome back. So glad to have you back. I think it's been like over a year since we've had you on the podcast.
GG Renee Hill 1:12
Yes, well, I'm so excited to be back. Of course, I love chatting with you. I love what your work is about, and what a great way to kick off the year is to start with my you're my first interview of the year, so I think it's really appropriate.
Erica D'Eramo 1:27
Yeah, what an honor. I mean, this has been, I'm like, I'm genuinely honored to have been able to witness the process of you, you know, preparing for this book, the creative endeavor of bringing this book into the world and now kind of watching it be shared. I've bought so many copies of it to hand out to friends. There's two copies on the bookshelf and right behind me, one a little bit more well worn than the other. I'm keeping one pristine, so this so I'm I'm just so happy to have you on to kind of share some of the some of the lessons from the book itself, but also some of the lessons from the creation of the book and how that might apply to our listeners.
GG Renee Hill 2:10
So yes, yeah, there's a story behind. There's always the story beyond the story, right? Like I realized that so much now as a long time reader and always loving books. Now that I'm an author, it's like, wow. Like, we just think that before you really become an author, you just think like, maybe it's just youth, right? Because as an adult, you realize that there's a process behind every thing, but as a kid, it's just like, oh, this book just magically came together. You know, they wave a wand and they create this, this awesome thing, but there is a whole story behind birthing that. So, yeah, I think that that definitely connects to the conversation we're having about, you know, storytelling.
Erica D'Eramo 2:56
So I know we've, we've had you on to talk about the power of journaling and how folks can incorporate that. We also had you on for a discussion around creating community and how that can really build resilience, like resilience being rooted in community, and what that looks like to build community and embrace community. So for folks who have not caught either of those episodes, though, and are maybe new to the power that is GG, what? What's your what's your kind of origin story? Who are you as a human just to introduce, introduce listeners, yeah,
GG Renee Hill 3:33
I am a writer and author, and I didn't start out life really thinking that that would be the career that I would end up in. I started off working in corporate America, and I was very much molded to go in that direction. I was raised by two blue collar parents. Well, I guess my mother was, she was a secretary, right? So neither of them got their degree. So I was very much conditioned at an early age, that I would go to college and and that success looked like working in an office, wearing suits to work, and you just sort of this whole idea. And I bought right into it, because I liked the, you know, I liked the idea of pleasing my parents and being successful, and I wasn't really connecting my hobby or my joy that I got from the arts to something I could actually do with my life, until I got into the corporate, you know, the rat race. I guess we'll just simplify that. And felt really unfulfilled. And I think in your 20s is your time to really learn where the gaps are in what you thought you wanted to do and what you actually you know are motivated and fulfilled by doing, and it really lined up as well with my emotional personal journey, because I was struggling with this image and. This, these expectations from family, as I mentioned, from my peers, from just society, and I wanted to appear successful. I wanted to make good on the 1000s of dollars I went, I spent to go to school. And there was just these things, these expectations and demands that I was, that I felt, that I needed to line up with. But mentally and emotionally, there was a lot going on beneath the surface, not only just with that career journey and trying realizing there was a gap there and how I really wanted to live and what really felt like sustainable to me, but also things from my childhood that I had never dealt with, identity issues and pain and sadness and anxiety things I didn't really have words for, but it was sort of like this shadow following me that was unprocessed trauma, right? And just unprocessed dynamics in my family of origin and growing up that I'd never dealt with, and we're just kind of lurking there, but I'd never really been given the tools of how to deal with that, other than to sort of hide it and avoid it. And if you're strong, if you're resilient, then you can that's just part of being an adult. I thought, right like you have this baggage, and the more respect and success you'll have is dependent on if you're able to sort of hide this, this baggage. So it all kind of came to a head, and I started, you know, I finally went to therapy in my late 20s for the very first time, and that's when I started writing. And writing opened the doors to that self understanding that I didn't have, that there was this story beneath the story, there was the image that I had for people and the story I was living, but then beneath that, there were all these layers that I just didn't feel like I had the permission to explore, and pretty quickly, I felt the calling to share what I was discovering just by picking up a pen and paper. I mean, I had journaled earlier in my life, here and there, sometimes more than others, but it was never a tool for healing. For me, it was as a child, it was a place where I would explore my imagination. And then even in my young adulthood, it was a place for venting. I would vent in a journal occasionally, but I didn't see it as a tool for healing until my late 20s, and once that door opened, it wasn't like a crack for me Erica. It was like they banged open and I was like, This is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I didn't know what that would look like long term, there's a lot of discovery and learning curves and all of that, but that's where it all started. I started writing for myself, discovering that it was definitely something I was meant to do, and it just carried on from there. I started blogging. I started sharing my words. I started trying to find ways to be of service with this work as I was growing myself, and then eventually that led to books and workshops and all the things that I do now.
Erica D'Eramo 8:08
So, yeah, I mean, we I talk about, like, this book coming into being. This is not your first book, like you've you've written. This is the one that I was like along the journey for I got to witness and kind of participate in some of the the workshops and whatnot that that were along the way, but yeah, shadow for GG's other books. We'll definitely talk a little bit more about that as we talk about how to connect with GG. But I, I think that this, this work, is so relevant to so much of the work that we do, and even the professional coaching realm, because we're constantly bumping up against these concepts and beliefs around identity and what we should be doing, and the danger of like exploring some of our Stories, or maybe taking ownership of those stories and rewriting them. Or even I think about your work a lot when I encounter kind of fixed versus growth mindset and people saying, like, oh, but what if i What if I do it and it's bad? What if I do it and people don't like it? And I just think, like so much of this work that you've been doing and have captured and shared really resonates with a lot of those themes.
GG Renee Hill 9:25
definitely, definitely, that's what I love about this work, and I think it is just going to be a core, foundational aspect no matter where my career goes. Is this applies to everything, how we relate to ourselves, show up at work, show up in our relationships, how we take care of ourselves, it's everything is stories, the stories we tell ourselves, the stories that we've inherited, the stories that we evaluate and reimagine, is really what the book focuses on, and it being by choice and. By our values and not by default, right? And we really look at those stories that come from that fixed mindset of any story that disempowers you, that says you're not enough, that says you can't recover, that says you won't be loved, you won't be accepted. You won't be you know, any story at all that disempowers you is a great story to hold under the microscope and to ask yourself, well, what else could be true? How else could I look at this? Does this line up with what I truly, I truly believe about myself and about life, and a metaphor that I use a lot in my work. As you know, Erica's layers. There's always these layers. And any belief, limiting belief that we have is is something that we can peel back the layers to get to the root of to kind of try to trace back in our lives. Where did I get this belief? Yeah, like, where did this start? And that can be a great, great, great place for us to just very gently, very gently, you're right. We can't force it. We don't want to, because sometimes you know the answers can be to lead us back to traumatic times in our lives or painful things, and we want to be gentle about it, but I think that's where it starts. A lot is tracing back those limiting beliefs to, well, where did I get this from? And then thinking to yourself, based on the life I've lived, the wisdom that I have now, the perspective that I have now, the hope and need and desire that I have now, does this line up with who I want to be? And a lot of times we can see those gaps really clearly, if we're just honest with ourselves,
Erica D'Eramo 11:43
yeah, I don't know how many times in a in a coaching conversation, we'll, like, unearth some kind of lingering belief that when we get to the bottom of like, why are we doing this? And when folks hold it up to the light, they're like, I don't actually even believe that. You know that I don't know honor is related to wealth or something like that, that like, and when they hold that up, they're like, but I don't even actually that doesn't feel that feels ick to me, right? Yeah, now we get to be intentional and operate in alignment and really hold it, but until we do that, until we actually like, investigate what that story is and then rewrite it ourselves that we're just at the mercy of what we've inherited, or what we've what we've picked up along the way. Yeah, I if you were, I know this is like so much to ask of an author, because, you know, it was probably countless hours, countless months, like, years in the making, really, if there were some key tenets of the book that you would say, to give folks, like, a little taste or a sample of what would what would you say those are, like, the key, I don't know, moral of the story.
GG Renee Hill 12:55
yeah, yeah.
GG Renee Hill 12:57
I think that the way I broke the book down kind of answers this question. There's three sections. The first one is roots and origins. So the first section is just asking you, sort of like we were just talking about to look at to identify any belief or story you're carrying that is disempowering you in some way. It's causing a pattern that you don't want. So I'll just use myself as example, as I did in the book. I knew I was carrying a few different beliefs that, like you said, when I wrote them down, I externalized them out of my head onto paper. I didn't really believe that, but it was so ingrained in my patterns of behavior, things like, you know, I'm not good enough, or I'm not tough enough. I'm not, you know, strong enough. I am unreliable. If people saw me for who I really am, if I showed up as my full self, people wouldn't like me. If I'm not pleasing and making people happy, then I'm not, you know, other ones were like, around worth, right? My worth was connected to my productivity and my career, or how much money I made, my worth was connected to these things. And so we all have these beliefs and stories we're carrying around. So the first section, roots and origin, kind of asks us to identify what some of those things are. And I use my personal story because I find that that's helpful. I want it to feel like the readers in conversation with me. And I'm not just like, ask ourselves these questions. I'm like, here's some perspective on my life and how I started peeling back the layer to identify mine, and then I kind of turn it over, like, what does this bring up for you to help, you know, make it feel more like a conversation, or like almost like a workshop environment, or like sitting around the fireside, like having a sharing circle, right? Because it makes it more gentle to be honest with ourselves, because that can be heavy work, depending on like, what you're used to, but we can often trace it back. Back to experiences that we had coming of age that planted these seeds. And as children, we're very black and white. We're very much come to conclusions, and we stick with them, and it becomes such a core belief that we don't even question it, especially when it seems affirmed by people that we trust, people that we look up to, or society where we want to be accepted. So it starts there with just sort of identifying some of those things. The second section is truth and lies. And the reason why I called it that is because this is a section where I'm guiding the reader to think about, what are my actual truths, though? What are my values? What do I really believe? And what have I been what have I inherited or what have I been living? It's not true. What are the false narratives right to just identify with curiosity, not with judgment, not with pointing fingers, and all throughout, there's a thread of getting back to our creative selves as a pathway to these truths and to peeling back these layers, because I feel that, I firmly believe that our creative instincts and our creative spirit like that we're born with that, you know, as children, that we access so comfortably, we lose that a little bit moving through life, because we turn that over to like well, instead of me being creative And and feeling out what feels right for me, expressing myself in a way that feels authentic for me, let me fit into this mold right here, because I see that this mold might get me where I want to go. So we lose some of our trust and our creative instincts. But by getting back to that, and I give examples of different ways we can use writing through storytelling to access what our truth actually are, where it deviates from some of the ways we've been showing up. Sometimes lies can show up in just I really wanted to say yes, but I said no, or I really wanted to say no, but I said yes, our actions are not true according to what we really feel. How can we access that part of ourselves that's really true and aligned in a way that
GG Renee Hill 17:09
doesn't feel threatening at first, and Creative Writing is such a great way to do that, because first, it's just you and the page. And so much of my journey has been that is like I discover these truths about myself on the page, and it gives me the courage to practice that in real in real life. So that's truth and lies. And then the final section is voice and vision. Once you've done this work, you've done this with these roots and origins, you've discovered what your actual truths are. You're you're starting that conversation with yourself anyway, some of the false narratives you've been carrying with that understanding, what do you want to say with your life? Right? How do you want to use your voice in a way that's more aligned with who you really are and your vision? What is your vision for your life? With the with this understanding, because things are going to shift, and the way you see the world will shift, the way you show up in the world, the value that you trust, that you're bringing to the world, all of those things shift. So it's guiding you through some of the ways that you can discover and also actionable things you can do to practice living more in alignment with your true voice and vision that you know doesn't have all those fears and doubts and limiting beliefs in the way.
Erica D'Eramo 18:17
Yeah, I can picture some folks in my world being like, well, but I'm just not creative. This doesn't apply to me, because I'm just not creative. And if you're listening folks who think you're just not creative, I assure you that you are. And that might be like, you've really creatively figured out how to set up the shelving in your garage. You've really creatively figured out the most elegant code you've really creatively figured out how to get all the kids to all the places somehow, despite, like the laws of physics, creativity can show up in a lot of different ways, and it's not just in writing, but I think like, writing is An interesting one, because and it can be tough for people too, because of it being, like, physical and on the page, because, especially if we have fears around fixed mindset, like even just journaling in a way that no one's going to read it, sometimes that voice comes in and is like, well, what if your grammar is terrible? What if it doesn't make sense? What if I What if I just, like, don't have anything to say, right? Like, what if I struggle to put something down on the page? And that's part, like, that's part of the work.
GG Renee Hill 19:32
It's part of the work. I'm so glad you named that Erica, because somebody's thinking that. Some, a few, a lot of somebodys are thinking that right now listening to this because it's so true, and both of us have experienced that ourselves. We talk about it. So even if you do think of yourself as a writer, that still happens and that judgment still comes in. It's part of the work. And I would say to that person who's thinking that to like Erica said, remember that. Your life is creative just the way you've chosen to design your life. You've made creative choices. Meaning creativity is not just drawing and singing and designing. Creativity is just making authentic choices and that express who, who you are, your needs, your preferences, you know, your values. That's That's what creativity is, how you speak, how you naturally just communicate, is an is a creative expression. So when you sit down the journal and that, that judgment comes in and says, This is going to be no good, and all of that, the first thing I would do is recognize your inner critic. Just recognize your inner critic. People coming in the tone they use, you know and recognize, that's just my inner critic. And this is for my eyes. Are critic.
Erica D'Eramo 20:49
Yes, thank you for your input, and you can go, take a seat for now.
GG Renee Hill 20:57
I don't need you right now, and that let that just be the very first practice. It's just allowing yourself to write the way you talk or the way you think, and just being brave enough to witness that and to be your own witness, because really, and when it really comes down to any type of journaling writing, it's just an act of of practicing self acceptance, and it's not for anyone else's eyes not to impress and in so many of us achievers, everything is to impress everything
Erica D'Eramo 21:26
you know, to I'm not gold star, and if
GG Renee Hill 21:33
we're not going to do it perfectly, then we don't want to do it so that right there is a limiting belief to be looked at and to be worked With. And journaling can be a great way to soften that and to ease that, and just allow yourself that space, to be messy, to be inarticulate, and it's okay, right? So that's a great place to start.
Erica D'Eramo 21:56
i love, like, flipping this a little bit, especially when I've got, like, those real achievement oriented folks who are like, I love a challenge. I love excelling. Like, I want to be amazing at everything I do and like. So the goal today, the challenge today, the like stoic, you know, like mindset, is to be excellent at being messy, being excellent at being sloppy, being excellent at imperfection, like that is actually the challenge. Here it is, embracing that discomfort like a champ, like
GG Renee Hill 22:33
love that framing. I absolutely love that, because that's the language that they'll under. Someone who has that mindset will understand like, oh, okay, i can do that.
Erica D'Eramo 22:43
Yeah, right. Like, we, I think I've never done, like, well, I shouldn't do that. Like I've done Muay Thai, but, you know, in yoga, we talk about handstands sometimes, and I used to be so afraid of handstands, because, you you know, it's like you're either upright and balanced or you're not, and it's felt very binary and it was scary, and what if I get hurt, and what if it's not good, until somebody actually reframed it from like, the goal of a handstand practice is not actually the hand being vertical and being perfect. It is to learn how to like fall and have fun with it and fall out of it in a way that, like, you can still laugh about it and do it safely, and to be, like, curious about it. And once I realized, like, oh, that's the practice, that it's not the output. It is actually the exercise itself. It's like the embracing of the imbalance, the embracing of the fall, it really changed it for me. So I think how we how we frame the goal, is important in these endeavors,
GG Renee Hill 23:45
very important. And just that, that lesson right there, that the process, who you become, what you allow yourself to experience, is, I believe, more important than the result in any scenario, right? Because when we get a result, we get an accomplishment. It lasts, you know, we feel that that hit and we feel that goodness for a moment. But who what we had to dig deep for in order to do that, we get to take that with us forever. That's like, that's wisdom we've gained. We've a beautiful most moment, a part of yourself that you've accessed to do that you seem to take that with you forever. So I love the idea of reframing it like the goal is just to be able to let go and be excellent at letting go and giving yourself those experiences.
Erica D'Eramo 24:32
And like, don't deprive the world of your imperfect mess, because we're here for it, right?
GG Renee Hill 24:37
Like it's magnetic. We can't take our eyes off of people who embrace their full selves, their quirks, their gifts, like it's it's so suppressed in so many cases that when we see it, it's like a light shines. It shines so, you know, there's so many examples, I'm sure that each person listening can think of that. You know. Whether it was a performance that you saw or speaker or even just somebody in your family who just draws everybody in with the way they tell jokes or tell a story, just letting that authentic part of you that's not polished and perfect shine through is really what it's all about. And so, yeah, yeah. I think that this the I hope that the book helps readers to access that part of themselves and recognize that the things that make them feel and like we talked about limiting beliefs, the things that make them feel like they need to hide and they need to suppress, that's that's really where their magic lies, and so much work and wisdom lies there.
GG Renee Hill 25:47
Yeah. So the book is available on all platforms, story, work, field notes on self discovering, reclaiming your narrative, as well as two guided journals, which might be great for someone who's just starting to journal, just starting to do that self reflection work and connect with their voice. One is the self care check in, and the other one is called a year of self reflection, and they're both available. Just look up GG Renee Hill on Amazon or bookshop.org. Wherever you get your books, you can find my my work. Mostly talk about my workshops on my website, all the many layers.com. I do writing workshops for every no matter where you are in your writing journey, you can find something that will be appropriate for you there. I also have a sub stack called writing the layers and, well, these, these things will be linked up.
Erica D'Eramo 26:53
I even linked your book in the newsletter. So anyone that gets the Two Piers monthly newsletter will also have gotten a link to your book to book shop.
GG Renee Hill 27:01
Thank you, I appreciate that. So yeah, those are the places you can find me on Instagram, at GG Renee writes, yeah, that's that's kind of a little bit of everywhere.
Erica D'Eramo 27:12
So Well, I know GG does like a monthly, a great like monthly workshop where folks come and write to writing prompts. It's very low pressure, but it's really a great way to kind of dust off some of the rust, perhaps, and just witness people embracing their like messy selves and their like imperfect, unfinished work. You know what they got done in like five minutes of writing? So highly recommend popping into one of those workshops, if it calls to you. But thank you so much, GG, really, really great to have you back on the podcast.
GG Renee Hill 27:47
Thank you for having me, and I will look forward to next time, because I need to visit at least once a year.
Erica D'Eramo 27:55
Sounds like a great plan. And dear listeners, you can find a recap of this on our website, along with all the links that we just mentioned, to connect with GG and her work so And we look forward to seeing you next episode.
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Reclaiming Your Narrative: A Conversation with GG Renee Hill
What does it really mean to reclaim your story?
In this episode of the Two Piers Podcast, Erica D’Eramo welcomes back author, creative coach, and facilitator GG Renee Hill.
GG’s work explores writing as a pathway to wellness, personal clarity, and collective growth. Her latest book, Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative, invites readers to examine the stories they have inherited, identify the ones that no longer serve them, and reconnect with their own voice and vision.
Throughout the episode, Erica and GG discuss creativity, identity, limiting beliefs, perfectionism, journaling, and the courage it takes to let ourselves be seen before everything feels polished.
The Story Behind Story Work
Erica opens the episode by reflecting on what it has been like to witness GG’s book take shape.
As GG points out, readers often encounter a finished book without seeing everything that came before it. There is always a story behind the story: the experiences, experiments, workshops, questions, and personal discoveries that eventually become the work itself.
That process feels particularly fitting for a book about storytelling and self-discovery.
Story Work is not GG’s first book, but it is one Erica had the chance to witness developing over time. She participated in some of the workshops that helped shape the ideas and has since shared copies of the finished book with friends.
From Corporate America to a Creative Life
GG did not grow up assuming she would become a writer.
Raised by parents who had not attended college, she learned early that success meant earning a degree, working in an office, wearing professional clothes, and building a stable career. She followed that path because it represented accomplishment and because she wanted to make her parents proud.
Once she entered corporate America, however, she began to recognize a gap between the life she thought she was supposed to want and the life that felt fulfilling and sustainable.
At the same time, she was carrying unprocessed experiences from childhood, including pain, anxiety, questions about identity, and family dynamics she had never been given the tools to explore.
The model of adulthood she had absorbed was largely about concealment. Being strong meant carrying the baggage without letting anyone see it.
In her late twenties, GG began therapy and returned to writing. This time, the page became more than a place for imagination or venting. Writing became a tool for healing and self-understanding.
As she describes it, the door did not open gradually. It “banged open.”
Writing helped her uncover the story beneath the story: the public version of her life and the quieter layers underneath it. That discovery eventually led to blogging, books, coaching, workshops, and a career centered on helping other people reconnect with their own creative voices.
The Stories We Carry Without Questioning
One of the central ideas in GG’s work is that our lives are shaped by stories.
Some of those stories are chosen. Others are inherited from family, culture, relationships, or earlier experiences.
They may sound like:
I am not good enough.
I am not strong enough.
I am unreliable.
People would not like me if they saw who I really am.
My worth depends on how productive I am.
I need to please people to be accepted.
I cannot recover from failure.
These beliefs can become so embedded in our behavior that we stop recognizing them as stories. They begin to feel like objective facts.
GG encourages readers to examine any story that leaves them feeling powerless and ask:
Where did this belief come from?
When did I begin carrying it?
Does it reflect what I truly believe now?
Does it align with the person I want to become?
What else could be true?
Erica connects this directly to coaching. Often, a client will follow a belief down to its roots and realize, once they can see it clearly, that they do not actually agree with it.
Until we examine those narratives, we may remain at the mercy of ideas we inherited without consciously choosing.
The Three Sections of Story Work
GG organizes the book into three sections: Roots and Origins, Truth and Lies, and Voice and Vision.
Together, they guide the reader from identifying inherited stories toward living with greater alignment and intention.
Roots and Origins
The first section asks readers to identify the stories and beliefs creating patterns they no longer want.
Many of these beliefs begin in childhood. Children naturally draw conclusions from their experiences, often in very black-and-white terms. When those conclusions are reinforced by family, authority figures, or society, they can become deeply rooted.
GG uses stories from her own life to make the process feel more like a shared exploration than an assignment. She wanted readers to feel as though they were sitting in conversation with her, rather than being instructed from a distance.
That gentleness matters because tracing a belief to its origin may bring people back to painful or traumatic experiences. The goal is not to force an answer. It is to approach the layers with honesty, care, and curiosity.
Truth and Lies
The second section focuses on distinguishing personal truth from inherited or false narratives.
GG invites readers to consider:
What are my actual values?
What do I truly believe?
Where have my actions drifted away from what I feel?
Where am I saying yes when I want to say no?
Where am I saying no when I want to say yes?
Creative writing can help surface those answers in a way that initially feels safer. Before a truth has to be spoken aloud or acted upon, it can first exist privately on the page.
For GG, writing has often helped her discover what she believes and then build the courage to practice that truth in her life.
Voice and Vision
The final section looks forward.
After exploring the origins of our stories and reconnecting with our truth, what do we want to say with our lives?
How do we want to use our voice?
What kind of life do we want to build?
GG describes this section as an invitation to practice living more closely aligned with our own voice and vision, with less interference from fear, self-doubt, and limiting beliefs.
“But I’m Not Creative”
Erica names an objection many listeners may have:
“I’m just not creative.”
She challenges that assumption by pointing out that creativity appears in far more places than art or writing.
Creativity might look like:
Finding an elegant solution to a coding problem
Designing a storage system in the garage
Coordinating several children’s schedules
Solving an operational challenge
Communicating an idea in a way people can understand
Making choices that reflect your needs, preferences, and values
GG agrees. Creativity is not limited to drawing, singing, or traditional artistic work. Our lives are creative because we are continually making choices about how we will live and express ourselves.
The belief that we are “not creative” may itself be another story worth examining.
Writing Through the Inner Critic
Even people who identify as writers hear the inner critic.
The moment someone sits down to journal, thoughts may begin to surface:
What if the grammar is terrible?
What if this makes no sense?
What if I have nothing meaningful to say?
What if the writing is bad?
GG suggests beginning by simply recognizing that voice.
“That’s my inner critic.”
There is no need to fight it or eliminate it. The first practice is noticing it, thanking it for its input, and allowing it to take a seat while you continue.
Private writing does not have to impress anyone. It can be messy, fragmented, repetitive, inarticulate, or unfinished. The page can become a place to practice self-acceptance rather than performance.
Becoming Excellent at Being Messy
For achievement-oriented people, imperfection can feel almost intolerable.
Erica offers a different framing: make messiness the challenge.
What would it look like to become excellent at:
Being imperfect
Writing badly
Letting something stay unfinished
Trying without controlling the outcome
Staying present through discomfort
She compares this to practicing a handstand in yoga. The goal is not simply to become perfectly vertical. Much of the real practice involves learning how to fall safely, remain curious, and try again without turning the fall into a verdict.
GG connects this to a broader lesson: the process often shapes us more than the result.
An accomplishment may create a temporary sense of satisfaction. The courage, self-trust, and wisdom developed while pursuing it stay with us.
The Value of Imperfect Expression
Near the end of the episode, Erica offers a direct invitation:
“Don’t deprive the world of your imperfect mess.”
GG describes authenticity as magnetic. People are often drawn to those who allow their quirks, gifts, humor, and humanity to remain visible.
The very qualities people work hardest to suppress may hold some of their deepest insight and creative power.
That does not mean sharing everything or ignoring boundaries. It means becoming more willing to let expression exist before it has been perfected into something safe and polished.
Continuing the Practice
Alongside Story Work, GG has created two guided journals for people who want more support beginning a reflective writing practice:
She also offers writing workshops for people at different stages of their creative journeys. Erica highlights GG’s monthly writing workshops in particular, which offer a low-pressure environment to respond to prompts, experiment, and witness other people sharing work that is still messy and unfinished.
The point is not to produce something perfect in five minutes. It is to practice showing up, listening inward, and making room for what emerges.
Final Reflection
The stories we carry shape how we see ourselves, how we relate to other people, and what we believe is possible.
Some of those stories still serve us. Others may have outlived their purpose.
Writing gives us a place to slow down, bring those narratives into view, and ask whether we want to keep living by them.
As Erica and GG discuss throughout the episode, reclaiming your narrative does not require arriving at a polished final version of yourself.
It begins with curiosity, honesty, and a willingness to meet yourself on the page.
Connect with GG Renee Hill
You can learn more about GG’s work, explore her resources, and join her creative community through the links below:
Visit All the Many Layers for information about GG’s workshops, creative writing cohorts, monthly writing prompts, and other offerings.
Subscribe to Writing the Layers, GG’s weekly newsletter and Substack, for reflections, writing prompts, and resources to support your creative practice.
Join GG’s free First Friday writing session, an open-to-the-public space for guided prompts, free writing, and creative connection. (The next one is tomorrow, July 3rd, 2026 at 7pm! Register here.)
Follow GG on Instagram for updates, reflections, and invitations to upcoming programs.
Connect with GG on LinkedIn to follow her work with individuals, organizations, and creative communities.
Check out her other guest appearances on the Two Piers Podcast
Whether you are returning to writing, building a more consistent creative practice, or looking for a supportive place to explore your voice, GG offers a range of ways to begin.
Affiliate disclosure: Some book links in this post are Bookshop.org affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, Two Piers may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. These commissions help support the work we do at Two Piers.
