Free Workshop, Secret Prompt & More
Dear friends,
Let’s try not to be too sad about summer ending. I am sad, but hopefully not too sad. It’s hard not to feel the loss as everything fades and dies, even as the beauty starts erupting. The beauty is enough to swallow me whole, if I let it. Here’s a tip I didn’t even promise: every single morning, get outside as soon as you wake up and get a few minutes, like, 2 to 10 minutes, of morning sun in your eyes. Takes longer if it’s cloudy—more like 20 minutes. This will set your circadian rhythms to bring you greater happiness, better sleep, and overall more ideal hormonal balance. I got it from The Huberman Lab podcast and it seems extra important this time of year. Huberman says we have to do it 365 days a year. When it gets cold, I will be switching to my lightbox!
Several more reasons not to be sad!
I have another free workshop tonight. It’s our fourth of six free public forums in the Uncertain Together series (sponsored by the Project for Advancing Healthcare Stewardship at the U of M). Again, this workshop is tonight, 6-8 PM Central. During this free virtual forum on Zoom, I facilitate a narrative medicine writing exercise in which we explore the collective experience of the extended Covid-19 pandemic. This month, we will read and discuss Ada Limon's "What it Looks Like to Us and the Words We Use." Of the two-hour forum, we spend about 1.5 hours on the narrative medicine writing portion. If you are free tonight, I'd love to see you! You don't have to be a writer at all, but if you are a writer, you will leave with new material and some new ways of engaging with your current material. Again, the forum is free. You need only to register, via this link.
We have a handful of spots still open for this fall’s life story retreat, “Thriving Along Disturbed Edges” at Hackmatack Retreat Center, Oct 7-9. This unique intensive is for writers and anyone deeply curious about how narrative shapes your identity and opens (or closes) doors for your future. The idea is to clarify the narrative arc of your life, refresh (and release) old stories, and write better, more expansive new ones. You will come away having written (using powerful structured exercises and engaging principles of writing craft), at least 12 new, vivid, engaging scenes describing your past, present, and future—including your most vibrant imaginings of what's to come. It’s the most original memoir curriculum I’ve ever worked with! Philosophically, you come away with a blueprint for your next best chapter, both in life and on the page. I would love for you to join us! Tyler and Grant just expanded the retreat center with a whole new building on the pond (Pond House) and 20 more acres. How lovely it would be to write with you in this beautiful place! Details here.
We also have ONE last spot for our Radical Revision retreat in Troncones, Mexico at Present Moment, one of the most stunning oceanside eco-retreats you can imagine. Unbelievable, breathtaking beauty. This week-long retreat is for writers seeking to polish and a work-in-progress. Writers will benefit from a full, hands-on workshop devoted to their own work as well as generative writing sessions, craft talks, and seaside yoga & meditation every morning and night. ONE spot left!
Last but not least, a writing prompt for you! Let’s explore the astonishing power of secrets. Start by rolling around lots of ideas for secrets around which your piece can center. Secrets you've kept, secrets kept from you, secrets you've never told, secrets revealed, secrets regretted, and so on. Don’t settle on a single secret too soon! Once you have a good handful of possible secrets, read Brian Doyle’s Death and Peach Pie, and study its structure. Notice and underline each place at which he refers to, directly or indirectly, the secret. Look at the architecture of the piece. See how much space between the secret references. Study the use of repetition. We all talked about voice in the Doyle piece—make note of what creates the voice, what contributes to it. While you will not mimic the voice Doyle uses, you will use a voice, and will need to develop it. So, your piece will use three strategies/devices inspired by Doyle 1) a secret, 2) an architecture of references, which creates something of a frame in the story, and 3) a distinct voice. Make sure your piece is no longer than Doyle's. Finally, optional: try an ending that poetically delivers on a silver platter the meaning of your piece, as Doyle does in his last two sentences. But be discerning--does that make it better, or worse? If worse, then of course you won't use it. Though you could always try to write a better one. Be playful!
That’s all for now! Sending you much love for this special time of seasonal sweetness and transition, sad as it may be.
Love,
Jeannine
