New workshop for the new year

Make a new commitment to your writing in the new year!
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT

12 week online class
$310

“If you don’t write your books, they might not ever get written.” Madeline l’Engle.

EDIT, 12/11/06:  I’ve had several emails inquiring–yes, there is still room in the class. 

There are a great many how-to-write courses and many great teachers of how to write a novel. This is not one of them. The Care and Feeding of the Girls in the Basement is meant to help inspire and encourage you, to help you learn (or remember) how to nurture your creative spirit. It’s a chance to renew your joy, tap into the original delight you once felt for writing, and start the year with a powerful commitment to yourself and your writing. We’ll draw from several texts, including The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron; Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarrissa Pinkola Estes, and Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, among others.

To take advantage of the power of fresh starts, class will begin January 1st, which just happens to fall on a Monday this year. The first email will go out the Friday before, to make sure everyone is online and can access the chat site.

SYLLABUS**

Each week will include lecture material posted via email, discussion, and 2 hour chat time.  There will also be recommended readings (most available online and all available through your library—a list will be distributed at the start of class).   Occasionally, I’ll post a link to an audio.  You will need to do the exercises and should plan to take an hour-long artist date each week.  There is no grade, of course, so how fully you participate is up to you.  EDIT in response to several queries: for those who have taken the voice class, you’ll be doing the work in private, rather than posting to the group, so it is much less reading intensive.

WEEK ONE–Basics

The care and feeding of the body

Artist’s Dates and how they work

Making your sacred space

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK TWO–Safety

The Good Girl Syndrome

Setting boundaries and creating a safe zone

Learning to play

Building an altar

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK THREE–Drama

Crazymakers 

Keep the drama on the page

Methods to recognize false drama and get rid of it

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK FOUR–Fear

Working with fear

Countering victimhood

Finding symbols of your own

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK FIVE–Abundance

Abundance—what it is and what it isn’t

If I have all I want, won’t someone else suffer?

Suffering as a secret virtue

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK SIX–Pain

Scar Clan and Descansos, working with sorrow

The good luck/bad luck game

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK SEVEN—Belonging

The odd woman out

Finding your tribe

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK EIGHT—Anger

Dancing with demons—accepting anger

There is no good or bad, grasshopper, only what is

The flip side…passion

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK NINE—Passion

Dreams and ambition as a road map

Drama and jealousy as road block

Passion as a calling

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK TEN—Power

Power corrupts…or does it?

Getting over fears about power

When you get what you want and it’s not what you thought

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK ELEVEN—Love

All you are is love

Writing as an offering and a joy

Accepting love, accepting play

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

WEEK TWELVE—Trust

You have everything you need

If you don’t write your books, they might not ever get written

Play as the rule of thumb

Exercises

Recommended readings

Chat

**The syllabus is still fluid and may change a little here and there as the lesson plan develops more completely.  I also reserve the right to shuffle the lessons if it seems the group needs to go a new way.

PAYMENT

$310 for the 12 week class

Full payment is appreciated at time of registration.  A minimum deposit of  ½ is due at registration, with full payment due by Jan. 15. 

TWO FULL SCHOLARSHIPS WILL BE OFFERED. Email me if you’d like to take the class and can’t swing it, or nominate someone else you think would benefit and can’t swing the fees.   A week before the class start, I’ll pull two names from the hat.   

Any questions?  Email me.

3 thoughts on “New workshop for the new year

  1. Yeah! Sounds wonderful!

  2. Andrea

    Wow, this looks so terrific! I’d love to do it myself but I would be MIA for January because of an intensive class and moot court thingy. Maybe I can work it out anyway….best of luck with this great venture.

  3. Barbara

    Andrea, seems to me law school and writing a novel and doing community work are a lot for one small person. Time enough another day.

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