What is the urge that first prompted you to pick up a pen or turn to your laptop in the middle of the night? Was it for money? Fame? Love? Those are all nice things to have, and some writers actually get them somewhere along the way. But your desire to write probably has a different origin.
Something inside you suspects that writing can change your life or that it can change someone else’s life to some degree. You have an innate knowledge that words matter, that how you say some- thing can utterly transform what you say.
You know this because it has happened to you. At some point in your life (probably at many points) you read something — a book, a poem, an essay, a story — that opened a door in your mind, enabled your soul to expand, or changed your perception. Now, you want to do the same thing for yourself and possibly for others with your own words and ideas.
You want to transform the awful, the mundane or even the transitory into something lasting and beautiful.
You want to create art out of life.
In these Transformative Writing workshops we explore both the process and the craft of transformative writing and participants leave with tools that will help them use writing as a tool for understanding their own struggles and challenges and for transforming their life material into art. The workshops include discussions on publishing, creating a workshop of your own, and committing to a writing practice.
Workshop Topics include:
THE POWER OF VOICE — Creative people often speak of the creative “flow” when their work comes effortlessly. For writers, that flow comes in the form of voice, a distinct style that individualizes and invigorates our writing. This workshop will explore some techniques for sum- moning the power of voice to help us with our personal writing.
THE THREE KEYS TO PERSONAL WRITING — These three keys will help you unearth your richest materials and turn them into gold.
THE NARRATOR IN IN YOUR HEAD — There you are in the worst situation possible and suddenly it’s as if you are floating above the scene watching yourself and someone is describing the events taking place. Accessing the narrator in your head will help you get into the writing “zone” and enable the healing process to take effect.
GILDING THE LILY (the craft of imagery and symbolism) — Once you’ve got your material, how can you transform it into a piece of writing that moves others, that clearly translates your thoughts and feeling to others?
FROM FACT TO FICTION — One of the beauties of fiction is how “true” it can be. In this workshop, we’ll look at some specific steps for creating fiction from personal stories, and we’ll practice these steps in exercises designed to strengthen our use of metaphor and symbolism.
And more! At out Winter Writing Retreat, we incorporated sound, breath, and body work into our writing exercises!
