"Word Play / Word Power" - The Series You Didn't Know You Need

I love this photo, which seems to me both internal and external.
This was from a class I taught with the O'Keeffe Museum.
We spent the day exploring Georgia O'Keeffe's glorious Abiquiu,
hiking and writing to various prompts I offered the group.
After lunch, students relaxed and wrote more in the lush garden of the restaurant.

In the last post, we were talking about "Word Play" classes. They are intimate groups, authentic talk, and definitely unexpected exercises. I volunteer every last bit of information about process and expression that I think students want, and leave lots of space for writing, questions, thought-provoking discussions and laughter.


We laugh a lot.


One of the students said of the last series: “Thank you for a great time!  It’s good therapy for me and I feel somehow more than I was before.”


Would I be bragging if I said everyone feels good leaving class? I hope not. I think it's true.


I miss the classes when they aren't happening. They are the weirdest mash-up of poetry, memoir, story-telling, humor, imagination and surprise. There are no grades. Doesn't matter to me if you spell well, or put your periods and commas in the right place. That's not what this is about.


It's about finding beginnings. It's about finding your voice.


"Word Play / Word Power" Writing Series
Where: Southwest Literary Center, Santa Fe, NM
Monday evenings --  April 4th through May 2nd (5 weeks), 7-9 PM

People Need to Write

I'm getting ready to teach another series of creative writing classes. I call them "Word Play / Word Power." Even though the name never changes, the classes are different each time.

I try to meet students where they are -- and they are many places. Currently I have a student interested in mysteries, another one swimming through the waves of spirituality, a former MFA student who writes exquisitely but wants the steadiness of exercises... and on and on.

How critical it is for all of them, every single person, to have a chance for expression. These are not necessarily students that would define themselves as writers, so many don't even know they have something to say. Most don't realize that their stories are, in some way, universal.

For the first class, people are often shy... or maybe it is better defined as "careful." I ask for volunteers to read and everyone holds back. If I've learned names, I call on someone. I gently pull the words from them into the room.

But by class two... wow! completely different scenario. They are now, hands raised, ready....  desperate, even.

It's wonderful to watch the transformation - and to provide the place to make it possible.

Next post - more on "Word Play"