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"Write What You Feel, Feel What You Write" workshops help people develop their creative voices in a supportive and high-energy environment. They are open to everyone who writes - either as a means of personal expression or as a career. I see myself as a coach, and try to help people explore their personal journeys through writing. One participant said that the workshop "helped me get in touch with authentic aspects of myself, express them, and unlock my natural style of writing." Another graduate described the workshop as a "unique and very rewarding combination of media, music, humor, and creative exercises." I developed this approach towards personal exploration by looking at my own writing. I found that I wrote best when I was freed from the tyranny of structure and spelling. While good writing demands structure (and grammar and organization) it equally needs creativity and freedom. From an early age, many people are conditioned to equate writing with hard work. This is because our learning experiences generally promote the notion that writing should be controlled by the adult/editor/grammar-oriented left-brain. The result is that the emotional/creative/child-like right brain atrophies. One of the ways I break through the adult-tyranny is by using music as triggers (Verdi, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tina Turner, Beethoven) to stimulate emotions that we explore in expressive writing exercises. A bit about my background. I used to live in Southeast Asia (Peace Corps, advertising, journalism), and then took a job with WWF International where I managed the international public awareness and fundraising campaigns. I've written since I was a kid - the earliest piece I remember writing was a third-grade play which featured flying bears, spaceships and a fearless third-grade boy. I write now for the International Herald Tribune, Asian Wall Street Journal, BBC Wildlife, GQ, and other publications. Sometimes I still write about flying bears and fearless kids. |
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