Workshops
For writers of all levels, spend a week in beautiful Maine learning how to excavate and show pivotal moments in your memoir, diving deep into the personal themes and memories of your life story.
Dates:
Oct 16, 2023 - Oct 20, 2023
Levels:
All
Workshop Fee: $1350
Class Size: 10
Do you want to go on a writing retreat and grow your writing life?
Do you want to dive deep into personal themes, and memories to write a memoir?
Do you want to learn how to excavate and show pivotal moments in your life story?
Jennifer Schelter intends to demystify memoir writer’s essential tools and practices to help reveal the vulnerability and beauty of your story with ease.
In the season of Maine’s magical autumn be inspired, and educated to infuse courage, intimacy and joy into your writing. This week is designed for all stages of writers to enjoy in-class writing, constructive feedback and one-on-one consultations.
Each morning we will start with mindful meditation and writing practice to establish the daily ritual of bearing witness to our inner and outer life.
We will share the theme of the day – a topic of craft. For instance: Character. How do you show yourself as a character on the page?
You will be given a reading and writing prompt to practice implementing the craft and see your work reflect unforgettable idiosyncrasies of you and your story.
Ample time will be given to voluntarily read your writing out loud. You can receive constructive feedback on work either generated in the class, or from a memoir-in-progress. You need not have started writing a memoir to be in this course.
By the end of the workshop, you will uncover key details for crafting your story, have several new pieces, writing tools, and affirming practices to bring home.
We will explore topics such as:
- Where to begin and end a story?
- How to identify the acute hope or wish of the protagonist.
- How to identify and show pivotal moments on the page.
Our goal: To thrive as writers with sage practices and tools, craft art from life, while surrounded by a safe, kind, gracious community.
All images by Fairfield Porter.
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Instructor: Jennifer Schelter
Jennifer Schelter is an actress, playwright, memoirist, painter, meditation and yoga teacher who adores offering safe space to affirm creative living and writing. Students experience ease in showing truth on the page; shadow and light as Beauty.
Jennifer has written and performed several one-woman shows, including Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib performed at the Philly Fringe Festival and InterAct Theatre to sold-out audiences. She shared the Tony Award at the Denver Center Theater Company.
She writes newsletters about daily rituals for inspiration, ease and creative living. Her short stories have been published in the Wild River Review and The Schuylkill Valley Journal. An author of flash-memoir, her work has been featured in Our Bodies, Our Selves exhibition at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Unspoken at Instruments of Memory.