Dear Creativity Workshop Participants,
I have a little project in mind which involves all of you (it’s not work, I promise!)
If you are interested, please send me an e-mail – same address as last year (and yes, the fact that we are almost a year since the start of the workshop is important).
Even if you didn’t finish, I would still like you to participate in this project. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Cheers,
Me :)
Today was supposed to be a primer on the short story. But I ended up being very unhappy with the post I developed, so I cancelled it.
If you are stuck on writing the short story, you can’t go wrong with Michelle Davidson Argyle’s Master the Shorts series.
I’ve updated the workshop schedule to include a number of topics that have been raised by participants. Download the new version here-> Creativity Workshop Posting Schedule.
I’ve also skipped posting the answers to the scavenger hunt, as the majority of people got them all correct.
Keep posting those goals! Tomorrow will be a collection of story prompts, Sunday the review post and then Monday everything begins.
We have three last minute participants: please welcome T.A. Olivia, Natasha and Margaret Bail.
They’re madly scrambling to catch up with the rest of you. Please drop in to their blogs and say hi. They have been added to the bundle.
It’s time to get to know your fellow workshop attendees. (Createes?)
Today you will be going on a scavenger hunt through the participants’ blogs.
Below is a list of thirty-one (31) items for you to “find”. Each item is from an attendees blog.
The auditorium is packed. Thirty-two people of all ages and nationalities are slipping through the door in ones and twos, searching for a good seat, smiling nervously at unfamiliar faces. Most of them are clutching a sheaf of papers, or a notebook, or a binder; class information, hastily scribbled thoughts, reminder notes.
A guy from New Zealand bumps into a girl from Indiana. They apologise, smile, decide to sit together. Everywhere people are grouping up, settling down, preparing for the semester to come.
There’s a sense of expectation, a palpable energy in the room. Positivity, drive, enthusiasm. These people are ready to grow.
Welcome, everyone, to the first day of the Creativity Workshop.
While the whimsical passage above may not be the literal truth, that’s what I see in my mind today. We’re all here for the same purpose, and we’re ready.
This first week is like an orientation week. You won’t be doing any writing, but you will be formulating your goals for the rest of the workshop. The schedule is as follows:
Tomorrow marks the first day of the Creativity Workshop. I’m excited, but also steeling myself for the amount of work involved. Not just running the workshop, but writing 12 new short stories as well.
I predict my brain will be a wet rag at the end.
I have sent out an e-mail to all participants. If you didn’t get this e-mail, please check your spam folder, and if it’s still not there, e-mail me: m(dot)faber(at)iinet(dot)net(dot)au.
Good luck and have fun!
At the bottom of this post you will find the workshop schedule as a downloadable attachment. It’s a word file, and virus-free. Please download and open the file to see what you are in for.
The workshop is structured in three blocks of four weeks, with an intro week and a closing week. The framework for each week is as follows:
Week One is the intro week, where we talk about formulating goals, what you want out of the workshop and what you are aiming for. In that week you will post your goals and I will offer guidance and assistance.
Week Two we start work.
Regular readers will know that I have been dropping hints about this workshop since February. Well it’s finally organised and ready to go!
This workshop is for any writer, at any stage, who:
This is something I have wanted to do for myself since last year. I finally realised that it wasn’t going to happen unless I sat down and MADE it happen, no matter what distractions I have from work and family. I was originally just going to blog about my progress, but when talking with other writers, I realised that it could be of benefit to more than myself. So I decided to offer it as an open workshop.
Absolutely not. This is not a “how to write” workshop, at all.
It is a workshop about teaching yourself to be creative when you need to be, not at the whim of the muse or the tides or the phase of the moon. There are no spiritual revelations or pseudo-religious preachings. There are exercises and weekly goals. There will be significant effort required on your part. You will be expected to produce.
Of course they do. You can create everyday. You can create on demand. You can produce work at whatever rate your other commitments allow you to. You don’t have to wait for the right moment to come, or the right idea to strike you. You don’t have to be at the mercy of writer’s block or your fickle muse.
My muse is a working gal. Always has been. She works to deadlines; so can you.
Oh, I can guarantee fun. Whether you join in to work on your idea generation, or whether you join in because you want to stretch your wings and try something new, you will have fun. You’ll be creating every day. How can that not be fun? And you’ll be with a group of other artists, which is a very inspiring place to be.
Each participant works with what time they have available. If you can only manage a couple of hours a week, that’s fine. If you can manage at least an hour per day, that’s better. There is a fair bit of head-space required, but you can slot that in when you’re showering, driving, commuting, walking etc.
How much you manage to produce is dependent on you. Do the best you can. We’ve all got commitments. Think of this as good training for being productive all the time, no matter what is going on in your life.
I’ve said “writer”, because that’s what I do. Artists and photographers are welcome to come along and use what they can.
I’ve lectured and tutored at university, so I know how to organise a class. I’ve mentored, so I know how to offer support and encouragement.
I use my creativity every day, not just for fiction, but for writing articles, documentation, instruction manuals etc. And I have never, ever, run out of ideas.
Creativity is not just a useful tool for fiction writers. You can apply it to so much more of what you do.
Nothing at all.
A blog would help. If you don’t have a blog, I will offer other options.
I really encourage you not to. One of the benefits of this type of workshop is the community aspect. Get to know your fellow participants.
Not at all. What you produce is private.
This workshop is a self-learning exercise. While I will be facilitating and mentoring, the learning part is up to you. I will give you guidance on how to define your goals to reach your identified outcomes, offer assistance and advice on techniques and analysis. But it is up to you to actually do the work. No-one will be checking up on you.
I will post the schedule tomorrow, and you can sign up there if you are interested.
Then please post them in the comments, and I will address them.
I’m very excited about this workshop. Yes, it’s going to be hard work, but hard work pays off. It’s going to be a pretty grueling journey, but I know at the end I will be richer for it.
And I know it’s going to be a lot of fun. So if you’re looking to s-t-r-e-t-c-h yourself, come along for the ride. Everyone is welcome.
