Workshops Ahead!

Registration is now open for the spring 2013 season of Write for Your Life.  There will be two options: four Wednesday evenings (April 10 to May 1) or four Thursday evenings (April 11 to May 2). The Wednesday program includes structured lessons covering essentials of the writer's craft, along with story development through guided readings and feedback. Thursdays are intended for those who have already taken one of my workshops and wish to concentrate on story development. Both programs will focus on memoir and personal narrative. Exercises, writing prompts and other motivational materials will be part of both programs.

Enter your email in the space below and I will post you more details. Space will be limited in both programs so please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in signing up or just curious to find out more. I would be happy to answer your questions.

 

Write for Your Life! is a dynamic cross between classroom instruction and café conversation, suitable for writers at all levels. The focus is memoir, which may include essays, reflections, creative nonfiction or poetry. Read more...



True Story, Part One

by Paula on January 11, 2013

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Note: I have played with the posting dates on this five-part memoir in order to present my True Story sequentially. Start here, then return Home and continue with Part Two if you’d like. I hope you do. ~ Paula  There are things that are too close to put into words. When I was younger I [...]

True Story, Part Two

January 19, 2013
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On day three I am visited by Dread. That’s how I have come to know my surgeon, though I would never say such a thing out loud. I am too polite, even in this reduced state. Despite all he has put me through, I can’t help liking Dr. D. He has a reassuring smile, a [...]

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True Story, Part Three

January 3, 2013
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I’d love to speed this memoir up. I mean, who really wants to slog through the next five years in faithful episodic fashion? Not me. So let’s cut to the chase: took painkillers, slept a lot, waited for the next surgery, and then the next. But los escritores won’t let me get away with shortcuts. [...]

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True Story, Part Four

January 2, 2013
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Fast forward. I’m counting backwards from ten, looking up into the 300-watt halos around the faces of two surgeons, whom I hope are better than just one. As you’ve guessed, the third surgery went sideways. Something bad happened to my already angry C6 nerve root and my left arm was plunged into a vat of [...]

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True Story, Part Five: Reading & Writing

January 1, 2013
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The important thing, the one really good thing among the many I’d like to forget, is that I had to have this dance with dread before I could radically change my life. I know this sounds terribly Oprah, but it’s true. I was a stubborn Type A, a career journalist who rarely wrote outside the [...]

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation

October 4, 2012
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I spent it working – but in a good way. Workshopping isn’t really work, after all, especially when creativity around the table is running high and the synergy is snapping and no one wants to leave when it’s time to. And that’s exactly how the first season of Write for Your Life wrapped up last [...]

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Stirring it up in June

June 12, 2012
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You might think writers’ workshops are all the same. People come, talk about writing, write, read what they’ve written, talk more about writing, go home and write. And yet, there is no way to predict how a group will evolve over a month or two. What kinds of stories will surface, how voices will change, [...]

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They’re off and writing!

May 5, 2012
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The April-May workshop continues to gather steam as we roll past the halfway mark. A diverse and dynamic group of eight women and men has settled into a very creative groove – reading and sharing, supporting and challenging, laughing and choking back tears (but in a nice way). In fact we’ve become such a cohesive [...]

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Spirals, Bubbles & Nuggets

April 25, 2012
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Gazing down at the fast-shrinking town of Loreto from my window seat I catch a glimpse of the crazy spiraling pattern of concrete and cactus-studded earth that is erupting along the median of the highway leading in and out of town. When you drive by this thing (what would you call it? ornamental highway divider? [...]

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Nachos & Libros

February 10, 2012
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Every Thursday afternoon throughout these winter months I have taken my place at the head of a long wooden table on the patio of Café Lolita in the southern Baja town of Loreto. Around the table are anywhere from six to twelve writers who are friends. Or friends who are writers. Either way it’s a [...]

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