THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT
12 week online class designed to nurture writers and help create circles of support
$340
Email me to reserve a space
No classes scheduled until next spring, 2009.
“If you don’t write your books, they might not ever get written.” Madeline l’Engle.
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 make 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.
BACKGROUND
For several years, I wrote a column by this name for Novelist’s Ink, the newsletter of a group of published commercial novelists. 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. I’m writing my last column this month, and have developed the material into a 12-week class.
CLASS FORMAT
The class will be conducted online via email and chat. Each Monday morning, I’ll send out the week’s lessons and exercises to the group. In addition, we will meet three times during the course in a chat room, to gather and ask questions, talk about the week’s lessons. Unlike my voice classes, you’ll be doing your work privately, and we’ll use the email loop to discuss whatever comes up, rather than posting lots of material.
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE GIRLS IN THE BASEMENT
12 WEEK CLASS
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.
WEEK ONE–Basics
The care and feeding of the body
Artist’s Dates and how they work
Making your sacred space
WEEK TWO–Safety
The Good Girl Syndrome
Setting boundaries and creating a safe zone
Learning to play
Building an altar
WEEK THREE–Drama
Crazymakers
Keep the drama on the page
Methods to recognize false drama and get rid of it
Chat
WEEK FOUR–Fear
Working with fear
Countering victimhood
Finding symbols of your own
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
Chat
WEEK SIX– Scar Clan
Scar Clan and Descansos, working with sorrow and anger
The good luck/bad luck game
Chat
WEEK SEVEN—Belonging
The odd woman out
Finding your tribe
WEEK EIGHT—Passion
Dreams and ambition as a road map
Drama and jealousy as road block
Passion as a calling
WEEK NINE—Power
Power corrupts…or does it?
Getting over fears about power
When you get what you want and it’s not what you thought
Chat
WEEK ELEVEN—Love
All you are is love
Writing as an offering and a joy
Accepting love, accepting play
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
Chat
TWO FULL SCHOLARSHIPS WILL BE OFFERED. I’ll draw two names from a hat a week before class begins.
Email me if you’d like to be considered, or to nominate someone else you think would benefit and can’t swing the fees. Put "scholarship" in the subject line and specify which class you’d like to be considered for.