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"IGNITE YOUR WRITING PRACTICE" WEEKEND WORKSHOP
A weekend intensive that combines all the playful freewriting energy of The Opening’s most popular courses. Plus you get individual, targeted coaching on how to create time for writing in your daily life from professional coaches Beth Meredith and Eric Storm of CreateTheGoodLife.com
For two full days of writing and connection with other writers, learn techniques of playful exploration to access the places in your mind that produce powerful writing, naturally. When you let go of all the strain, effort and self-criticism you learned in school you can find the voice that sounds like you. When you access the subconscious you automatically (and easily!) produce richer, more complex, more inviting pieces of writing.
Your time in this workshop will be balanced between:
• Energizing exercises for exploring your intuitive mind and the lushness of language,
• Hours of writing each day,
• Supportive and specific feedback from the group on writing you wish to share,
• One-on-one coaching sessions with Andy on any aspect of your writing including: organization, finding the right style, blocks or problems, revising, or, if you are ready, getting published,
• Individual advising from Beth and Eric about life issues that are blocking your writing and creativity, as well as coaching on how to find more time and energy for what you really want in your daily life.
Plus the course includes a follow up phone session with Beth and Eric a month after the course.
DATES: March 24 & 25 (Sat & Sun). This is a daytime only workshop from 10 AM- 6 PM. Participants will arrange their own lodgings.
LOCATION: A light-filled and airy studio set among the rolling hills of Marin. Enjoy the peacefulness of the natural surroundings and views of Mt. Tam and the San Pedro Bay. 10 minutes from downtown San Rafael, 35 minutes from Berkeley. Specific address provided upon registration.
FOOD: We will provide tea and light snacks. Please bring a bag lunch.
INSTRUCTORS: Andy Couturier, MA and new partners with The Opening—Eric Storm and Beth Meredith, MA
of Create The Good Life.
WEEKEND COURSE:
TWO DAYS: Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM-6 PM, March 24 & 25 (9 spaces left)
Course Fee: $385
Call Beth at 707-694-1872 or Beth@CreateTheGoodLife.org for more information.
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LIFE STORY and CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Access the places in your mind that produce powerful writing, naturally. When you let go of formulas and rules taught by schoolteachers and writing books you can find the voice that sounds like you. Once you break the habits given to us by society and stumble upon your own way of putting words together you not only have more fun, the writing itself comes alive. You can then organize your piece from that same improvisational place in the mind. Even revising can happen from the same exploratory mind that you compose from.
In this course you will learn how to :
• Find the place in your own consciousness that produces powerful, surprising writing
• Create anticipation
through innovative ways to arrange the pieces of your writing
• Craft and hone
your work without the suffering
• Receive
useful feedback that keeps you
writing
Time in the course is equally balanced between:
(1) innovative, usable exercises to get at the part of the mind that creates good writing,
(2) discussions of topics that arise in your writing process, and
(3) precise, useful feedback on each person's writing.
The Life Story course helps you start, continue and complete writing on a topic you want to explore. This format works great for fiction and poetry writers as well.
OAKLAND COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Tuesday nights, 7-10 PM starting Feb 21, 2012 (6 spaces left)
Course Fee: $390
Call 510-594-1905 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan.
SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Wednesday nights, 6-9 PM starting Feb 8, 2012 (5 spaces left)
Course Fee: $390
Call 831-728-9983 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan.
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BOOK COMPLETION GROUP and WRITING PRACTICE SESSIONS
Writers with a book or other
large project meet weekly to put time into their work and to break through the barriers they experience
in the process. In this intensive format, at least 2.5 hours of each session are spent in class doing writing. "Like getting a gym membership," says student Phil L. "Plus you get a personal trainer!"
Included is a 20-minute one-on-one session with the instructor to help coach you through blocks or problems, or to consult about a chosen passage, or to get ideas on anything from overall organization to revision. At the end of each session there is always a short period when we read our work aloud and get feedback. The instructor will also be available once a week for short phone coaching by appointment.
This class is also appropriate for people just getting started on their book project.
OAKLAND COURSES:
EIGHT WEEKS: Monday Evenings 6-10 pm
Starting February 13, 2012 (6 spaces left)
Course Fee: $475 (4 hours a session plus availability for weekly coaching by phone.)
Call 510-594-1905 for more information or to ask about our installment payment plan.
EIGHT WEEKS: Tuesday Afternoons 11:30 am -3:30 pm
Starting Feb 14 (3 spaces left)
Course Fee: $475 (4 hours a session plus availability for weekly coaching by phone.)
Call 510-594-1905 for more information or to ask about our installment payment plan.
SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Thursday nights, 6-10 pm
Starting March 1 (6 spaces left)
[NOTE: no course meetings on 3/15 ]
Course Fee: $475 (4 hours a session plus availability for weekly coaching by phone.)
Call 831-728-9983 for more information or to ask about our installment payment plan.
WRITING FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Accessing the Intuitive Mind
Experiment with consciousness
and play with the texture of language and your words
will emit from a space of unpredictability and surprise.In Writing from the Subconscious, each time we meet
we experiment with two or three freewriting techniques
such as:
• Scrambling and
splicing: the power of fragmented meaning
• Playing with the
many pleasures and resonances of word sounds themselves
• Associative listing
and intuitive juxtapositions
• The surrealist
technique of "automatic writing" to write
what you don't know
• Dilating the mind
with image, scent and sound
Throughout the process, we emphasize play, surprise
and connection with others, and finding the startling
and hilarious power of our own minds.
This is unlike any other writing class you've ever
taken.
Not Currently Scheduled: Email with your interest to andy@theopening.org
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Weekend Writing Retreat in San Francisco
Saturday and/or Sunday, 10 AM - 6 PM
Next retreat TBA
Two separate day-long retreats that can be combined or taken separately. This retreat includes aspects of all three of our most popular courses.
• Extended writing periods to move you forward on your project (many students bring their laptops).
• Intensive one-on-one coaching sessions on any aspect of your writing including: organization, finding the right style, blocks or problems, revising, or, if you are ready, getting published.
• Lots of specific feedback from the group, as well as from the instructor.
• Fun freewriting games and experimentation to get your body and brain moving.
LOCATION: A beautiful Victorian house in the heart of Russian Hill, San Francisco, with many private rooms to work in and a large, open workshop space downstairs. Accessible by public transportation, and carpooling help will be available. Exact address provided upon registration.
This is a daytime retreat only, from 10 AM- 6 PM. Participants will arrange their own lodgings.
FOOD: Bring a bag lunch, or eat at nearby restaurants.
Next retreat TBA
Call 510-594-1905 for more information
WRITING IN NATURE
 Use writing to connect to the intimacy of the luminous natural
world. (You don't need to be writing *about* nature: just using her many intelligences to open up your writing process.)
On each of six delicious spring afternoons
we travel to a different magical spot around the Bay
Area. Each location--shoreline, redwood forest, bird
sanctuary, canyon, rolling pasture
land-- has been selected for its access to a particular
kind of magic. Your sprite-ly guide and writing exercise
connoisseur will bring you to each
mystery spot (you don't know where we are going until we get there!) and lead you through unique writing experiments
to bring your subconscious mind alive and into vivid
connection with the shimmering natural world.
SIX WEEKS:
Start Date TBA
Call 510-594-1905 for more information
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Weekend Writing Retreat in the Redwoods
A long weekend of writing in the redwoods, with laughter, companionship, a blazing warm fire in the woodstove, and a few fun games to boot. And you'll return home with a lot of new writing done.
With a group of other writers, spend three days that include:
• Extended writing periods to move you forward on your project with no distractions (Many students bring their laptops)
• Intensive one-on-one coaching sessions on any aspect of your writing including help with any blocks or problems, or to consult about a certain passage, or to get ideas on anything from overall organization to revision.
• Lots of specific feedback from the group, as well as from the instructor.
• Fun freewriting games and experimentation to get your body and brain moving.
LOCATION: A beautiful retreat center in the big old-growth redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains, the Quaker Center. (About 1 hour and 15 minutes drive south from Berkeley). The Center has an outdoor labyrinth in a circle of redwoods, a tiny meditation cottage in the deep woods, an orchard, and miles of trails.
LODGING: Lodging is extra, but only $75 for both nights. It will be shared accommodation, with four people to a room, comfy camp-style beds, a wood stove (central heating as well) in a redwood lodge.
FOOD: To keep costs down, each person will take responsibility for buying the ingredients and cooking one meal for 6-8 people. There's a fully-equipped kitchen at the lodge, and with the help of one other person, you will make either one breakfast, lunch or dinner. Then of course you will help out as the sous-chef with one other meal. More details upon registration.
Next retreat not yet scheduled. Please email andy@theopening.org with your interest.
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LOCATION
Oakland courses are held in a cozy private library near the corner of Alcatraz and Telegraph. Details upon registration.
Santa Cruz courses are held near downtown Sant Cruz. Details upon registration.
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