Facing a tough life transition? My classes have been called better than therapy!
Want to improve your writing, or jump-start a stalled story? My classes are a literary double espresso!
Why do my classes work so well?
Because they’re not theoretical lectures on writing that don’t yield any actual words on the page. And you’re not left to confront the blank page by yourself.
Each of my classes starts with a discussion of a short, great scene from literature, and how students might make some similar literary moves in their own writing that day. Then we’ll dive into the writing, with me guiding, clarifying and brainstorming with my students every step of the way. Somehow, chunking down a scene into 10 or so component parts really frees students up to get wild and produce fresh, vivid writing.
My students’ work NEVER resembles the source material. The steps I walk them through in class aren’t rules, they’re simply suggested frames through which you can direct your narrative. You might write something that makes you gasp with surprise; you may find yourself crying with recognition as you see part of your soul bloom on the page.
My classes are living explorations. You’re writing with the hand of Virginia Woolf or Kent Haruf on your shoulder, and me cheering you from the side.
Available on Zoom and occasionally in person
I sprinkle all that with this secret sauce
Do not force your characters to be likable, do not hold too tightly to the hand of your reader, and do not aim for good writing.As fabulous writer Tobias Wolff so beautifully explained to fellow fabulous writer Mary Karr while she wrote her groundbreaking memoir, The Liar’s Club: “Don’t be afraid of appearing angry, small-minded, obtuse, mean, immoral, amoral, calculating, or anything else. Take no care for your dignity.” And it’s so, so true.
Honestly, if there’s a bunch of humans I want to spend time with, it’s writers taking no care for their dignity.
Even better are writers willing let go of what they’ve been told good writing is to find their own voice. So I proudly give all my students permission to write just the worst, dreadful, awful, sucky stuff.
”“If the angel deigns to come it will be because you have convinced her, not by tears but by your humble resolve to be always beginning; to be a beginner.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
