In this seminar, we will dip into what Bonnie Friedman calls the “emotional side of the writer’s life.” Why? Because tapping into the joy of language is a head and heart exercise. We will begin by creating a portrait (no drawing skills needed) of our present-day and writer selves. After falling in love with ourselves, we will wake up to our characters and invite our stories in through prompts and free writing exercises. This is meant to help you generate new ideas or relight the spark for existing work.

We will draw our inspiration from Friedman’s book “Writing Past Dark” and notes on process and creation from other writers, including Kiese Laymon, Ocean Vuong, Amanda Gorman, and Vivian Gornick. This seminar, while open to all genres and levels, may be of special interest to literary nonfiction and fiction writers and writers who are in the early stages of their journey.