Uncover Your Personal Genius - Creative Writing with Rae Bird
“A woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset - it gives outwardly and feeds inwardly at every level.” Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves The Women’s Writing Project provides a unique women-only space to discover, unfold, ignite, and share your true creative abilities. Nurture your creative spirit and enjoy the company of other women writers in a small group setting. All our workshops are designed to bring your writing to life and to support and encourage the best writing in yourself and others. Click Writing Workshops above for a list of current classes - online and in person.
The Women's Writing Project honors the work of: Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes: Women Who Run With the Wolves, http://themoderatevoice.com/author/clarissa Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down the Bones, http://www.nataliegoldberg.com, Christiane Northrup MD: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, http://www.drnorthrup.com, Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way, http://www.theartistsway.com and many, many others. “Some things need to be written, some stories need to be told. They are that significant. There's something in that ancient tradition of sharing, whether around a campfire or in a living room, that makes me feel that I am alive, I belong, I exist, and life is good.” Christine Albers Contact Rae Bird for more information Cell: 641 919-0547 e-mail: [email protected] Facebook.com/The-Womens-Writing-Project TheWomensWritingProject.weebly.com |
“The most difficult thing is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things – but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all.”
John Cassavetes The Art of Free-Writing The Women's writing project teaches and promotes what Natalie Goldberg calls free writing. I have heard it called it generative writing, fast or rush writing. W.B. Yeats referred to it as trance writing. Jack Kerouac called it spontaneous prose. His On The Road became famous for writing as "the unceasing flow of words". Kerouac insisted on not editing and even publishing the writing as is. Whatever it's called, this keep the hand moving, put it all down method is used to generate an abundance of raw material, keep the editor at bay (until later), unleash our most creative expressions, and tap us into our own inner knowing. Free writing can be used in journalling or Julia Cameron’s essential artists tool, from The Artist's Way, morning pages. In my experience the free writing technique is especially vital for women in allowing them the freedom to discover their true voices - a return to personal authentically and power. For further insights into how women write and how the kind of writing traditionally taught in universities differs from the kind we are speaking of here, read Ursula LeGuin’s essay on the Mother Tongue by clicking the Read This section in the bar above. Free writing involves keeping the hand moving, saying what shows up, and not editing, or hesitating as we write. This writing asks us to express full out - an adventure into self and language. Tapping into the untamed writing voice yields an explosion of thought and language and can unearth more of our creativity than a polished use of educational tools and grammar could ever allow. From William Stafford: “This process-rather-than-substance view of writing invites a final, dual reflection: 1. Writers may not be special or talented in any usual sense. They are simply engaged in sustained use of a language skill we all have. Their "creations" come about through confident reliance on stray impulses that will, with trust, find occasional patterns that are satisfying. 2. But writing itself is one of the great, free human activities. There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery, in writing. For the person who follows with trust and forgiveness what occurs to him, the world remains always ready and deep, an inexhaustible environment, with the combined vividness of an actuality and flexibility of a dream. Working back and forth between experience and thought, writers have more than space and time can offer. They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.” |