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"If you don’t do your work, it might not ever get written." Madeline L’Engle
Over the past few years, I have been engaged quite a lot more in teaching. It seems to me that there is a great need for circles of encouragement among writers, and that is what these classes are designed to do. Each class is meant to foster creativity and friendships, as well as inspire writers to find and produce their own special body of work.
BACKGROUND
For several years, I wrote a column
called The Care and Feeding of the Girls in the Basement for Novelist’s Ink, the newsletter of a group of published
commercial novelists. (The title comes from a phrase coined by Stephen King, though he calls his "boys in the basement." Of course.) It’s a working group, with a number of writers
who’ve been producing novels for decades, and it seemed to me that the
newsletter offered plenty of business and writing advice, but there
wasn’t much attention given to the idea of how to take care of the
vulnerable, more delicate creative of the personality. What I was seeing around me were a lot of exhausted, demoralized writers who needed desperately to fall back in love with their writing. So I started writing about it.
Which lead, in a roundabout way, to teaching creativity and voice to both aspiring and published writers, and helping to create circles of support for writers at all stages of their careers. There are lots of people who tell you how hard this career is, how impossible the statistics, how challenging, and how very few writers ever get published. I believe that no one is called to writing by accident, and what most writers need is encouragement and some illumination about how to stay healthy and productive and allow the process of creation, rather than forcing it.
CREDENTIALS (such as they are)
I have been writing for my bread for virtually all of my adult life, through ups and downs in both my personal and professional life. By some miracle, I am still madly in love with the process and the product, but it hasn’t always been easy. These classes are the product of all those years of writing professionally, and they continue to grow and expand as each class teaches me something new. As my career continues to grow and expand, it feels more and more important to stay grounded in the day-to-day tending that an artistic path requires, and this is one way I have found to continue to feed my own "girls in the basement".*
Email me with questions
ONLINE CLASSES
VOICE I
A six-week class on the basics of voice, including family and place influences, as well as illustrations of how each voice is naturally unique.
VOICE II
A continuation of the previous voice class, taking the study of voice into more particular and individual levels.
GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT
A nourishing and step-by-step journey though the cornerstones of building a healthy writer’s life, from the basics of health to figuring out your best work styles. Best for emerging writers who are in earlier stages of their careers.
CIRCLES OF QUIET
An anonymous course for published authors, 9-weeks, utilizing some of the same aspects of Girls in the Basement, but more particular to the needs of long-time writers who might have lost their way, or simply want to connect with others in a safe and supportive environment. (Email me if you are interested in more details.)
(begins June 16)
ON THE ROAD
Santa Barbara Writers Conference, June 22
Romance Writers of Australia, August 25