Gather your crayons, colored pencils, scissors, and glue sticks and get ready to write! A sketch pad and notebook can come along, too. Writing should be fun, but sometimes we approach it with dread, trepidation, woe. The inner critic gets hold of us and won’t let go. Perfectionism, distraction and inertia take hold. This process can help you create or re-establish your writing practice with a new approach, enthusiasm.

We long to get words on the page, express our thoughts and feelings, tell our stories, but it can feel daunting and scary. We distract ourselves, or tell ourselves our words are not important and sadly, toss the journals aside. With arts and crafts, we make writing fun, playful and inventive. Together, we will write our stories and literally cut them up and rearrange the pieces to create deeper layers of meaning. We will write through the process, quiet the naysayer, and toss out those negative thoughts forever.

This workshop focuses on the adventure of writing while introducing structure, including the art of the flashback, inserting memories, filling out backstory, and using dialogue effectively, among other techniques. Your stories will be richer and more powerful, conveying the message you want to send. Break new ground in your writing practice with an approach that ignites your creativity.

No experience is necessary, just the desire to tell your story and a sense of play.

You will:

Draft a timeline of experiences you want to explore in your writing

Open the door to a new way of expressing yourself

Allow yourself to color out of the lines, be messy and adventurous

Create a story, essay or poem that is layered, meaningful and focused

Establish a writing practice that you look forward to every day

Thursdays, June 18 , 25 and July 2, 10 am - 12 pm.

Cost: TBA

Location, in person at The Soul Center, 8101 Park Heights Ave. Baltimore, 21208