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:
- innovative, usable exercises to get at the part of the mind that creates good writing,
- discussions of topics that arise in your writing process, and
- 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 Aug 30
Course Fee: $390 (Call 510-594-1905 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan.) Note: No class 10/4
SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Wednesday nights, 7-10 pm: starting Aug 24
Course Fee: $390 (Call 831-728-9983 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan). Note: No class 9/14, 10/5
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 August 22
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. Note: No class 9/5, 10/3.
EIGHT WEEKS: Tuesday Afternoons 11:30 am -3:30 pm
Starting Sept 6
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. Note: No class 10/4.
SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Thursday nights, 6-10 pm
Starting August 25
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. Note: No Class 9/8, 10/6
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.
SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Thursday mornings, 10 AM - 1 PM: starting September 15
Course Fee: $390 Call 831-728-9983 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan. Note: No class 10/6, 10/27.
Weekend Writing Retreat in San Francisco
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.
Spend your weekend working on that long-awaited project, connect with other people, and return home with a lot of new writing done.
Saturday and/or Sunday, 10 AM - 6 PM
Next retreat TBA
Course Fee: $125 for either day, or $225 for both days. Pre-registration required. 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: Sunday Afternoons 1-5 PM
Start Date TBA
[Three Sundays a month]
Course Fee: $390 (4 hours a session, which includes transportation time.) Call 510-594-1905 for more information
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.
Course Fee: $250 Pre-registration required.
LOCATIONS
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 Santa Cruz near Center and Union Streets. Details upon registration.