Writing Creatively

Over the years I’ve approached writing with:

1) An ego-based, left-brain, “yang” energy, pushing myself hard, pursuing sky-high expectations of achievement. This made writing torturous and left me constantly falling short, feeling like a failure, writing at a rate of 2 sentences per hour, and eventually giving up.

2) An instinct-based, right-brain, “yin” energy, much gentler to myself and my writing as I tried to let it come to me without demands or expectations. This helped me explore my writing and produce a lot more words, but could still be pretty torturous as my stories lacked plot, structure, and drive, and my writing sessions often felt directionless and confusing.

3) And finally, as you may have guessed, an approach that is a balance of the two, and is generative, nourishing, supportive, sustainable, and productive.

Yearning to write, struggling to write, failing to write, and -- finally -- writing: this has been my life's work.

So when the artistic director of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival (full disclosure: I'm married to him) asked if I would create a creative writing course for their new artistic mentorship program, I found I had quite a lot to share.

I'm offering two courses this fall through the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Mentorship Program:

Writing Creatively is for adults who yearn to tap into creativity reliably and joyfully, without running into writer's block and giving up when they've barely started.

Creative Writing for Teens is for creative writers aged 14-18 who love to write and want guidance to develop the tools they need, with the freedom to follow their own creative path.

In each of these 8-week virtual courses, we will:

• Develop a sustainable and sustaining creative practice, where commitment meets inspiration.
• Learn the tools we need to get out of our own way and step into the flow of creativity -- despite resistance, doubt, and the inner critic.
• Write a short story from idea to completed draft (using principles that can be applied to whatever comes next: more stories, a novel, a memoir, a play…)
• Generate and refine our work within the safe container created by our 8-week commitment, weekly online gatherings, a supportive mentor, and our fellow writers.
  

Writing Creatively meets virtually Wednesdays at 7:30pm from October 28 to December 16, 2020.

Creative Writing for Teens meets virtually Thursdays at 4:30pm from October 29 to December 17, 2020.

This approach to creative writing is perfect for you if:

• You’ve always wanted to write but never felt you could give yourself permission to prioritize it.
• You already consider yourself a writer but you struggle to maintain a consistent writing practice and you’re looking for accountability, support, and a feeling of not being in this alone.
• You start stories, novels, or plays in great bursts of inspiration but abandon them halfway through when the words on the page fall short of the masterpiece in your imagination.
• Writing is what you long to do, but the reality is a struggle. Every time you sit down at your desk your precious writing time gets sucked up in editing your opening paragraph eight times, writing half a new sentence, checking Facebook, checking Instagram, responding to email, deleting the new half-sentence, and closing your computer in despair that you just don’t have what it takes.
• You’re willing to devote yourself to a creative practice and a set of creativity-sustaining principles, show up for your writing every day (ideally for a minimum of one hour), and trust the creative process even when it’s uncomfortable.

​If this sounds like something you or someone you know has been looking for, you can find out more about Writing Creatively here.

If there's a literary teenager in your life, send them on over to discover Creative Writing for Teens here.