Writing workshops can feel intimidating and competitive, and can create a kind of "heartbreak," where writers feel afraid of sharing their voice. In these classes, everyone’s voice is respected and equal. Your inner genius will feel safe to appear on the page. You’ll find yourself writing more and more like “you.” Join us live or on Zoom, from anywhere in the world.
The Wee Writers Woodshed:
A sanctuary for creative exploration
"T0 woodshed" means any private place to practice without being heard by anyone else."
*For writers who play in any genre.
Join us in June 2024!
Every week, we’ll start with a mindfulness practice, and then launch, heads down and pens ready, into a deep, guided “Associative Writing” adventure. In the end, you will make connections between the various pieces, which will spark new projects and stories.
You’ll get a ton of writing done but in a whole new way.
We all need to woodshed. To play in our imagination. To sort through our lives and dig for the gold. So much of creativity is about associating, braiding, and threading one disparate element to another, and allowing a third to arise from the mysterious depths. We will do that in the Woodshed.
*We will also read and listen to each other and offer positive-only feedback on these delicate, fledging creations.
“A poem is like the meditation cushion. It is a field of discovery. It is not the record of something I already know. It is the record of the exploration of finding of the recipe for the alchemical transformation…”
~Jane Hirshfield
“If you consider yourself an experienced writer, I especially recommend the Woodshed experience. Prepare to have your usual vocabulary, sentence structure, comfortable character and nature descriptions tossed in the air. From one prompt to the next and the next, you will find new words combining and ideas you never dreamed of coming together and sending you off where you never thought you might go. Trust this class. Venture into the unknown.”
~Bonnie Schell
Dates & Times
DATES: Six Tuesday evenings, June 11- July 16th, 6:30-8:30 pm EST on Zoom.
*Want to be put on the list for upcoming Woodsheds? Email Nina through the contact page!
Materials Needed
You’ll need your favorite notebook and pen, a computer or an iPad, and access to Zoom.
Workshop Fee
$199 EARLY BIRD until 5/31 (Regular price $225)
“Nina manages to create one of the safest and most supportive writing spaces I have ever entered, and believe me there have been many! The worst was at college, where I left after one semester traumatized by the workshop process in an MFA in creative writing program. It is because of Nina’s emphasis on kindness and her understanding of creative trauma that I personally moved through blocks that have hampered my writing since the MFA program. I finished the four weeks with four complete pieces of writing that I am motivated to go deeper into and develop. I am no longer fearful of the empty page, but excited to continue delving into the infinite possibilities available through Writing From The Top Of My Head! I implore you to take the leap with Nina, and you will most certainly fly across that page like never before.”
Writing from the Top of Your Head
““It’s when you release control that the interesting things happen. That’s when your subconscious will start speaking in tongues, when you can’t articulate the words yourself, when your body has an intelligence and wisdom that you hand the reins over to. Creativity is more physical than we realize.”
~Riz Ahmed”
COMING UP at Story Parlor, Asheville!
"Writing from the Top of Your Head" is a one of a kind, life-changing signature program designed to free you from your blocks to creativity. The name is inspired by Emily Dickinson, who wrote: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, that is poetry.”
Participants will be guided, in a criticism-free environment of support and safety, to “open the tops of their heads” to access their inner voices without censoring or judging. Writers will learn to release control of the thinking mind and hand the reins over to another kind of wisdom.
Participants will also benefit from learning invaluable brain-training tools and strategies from creativity coaching that will help them move through their creative life with grace and resilience, and attain the freedom on the open page that they've been longing for.
"I feel I have opened something huge in just one module. 8 weeks of this? This is the best thing that has ever happened in my creative life."
F.L. - student
…a breakthrough workshop that helps heartbroken writers become resilient writers.
Dates & Times
Next LIVE 6-week workshop at Story Parlor Asheville starts Oct 1 - Nov 12, 2024, from 6:30-9 pm. Catch the early bird! For more information, click the link below:
https://storyparloravl.com/classesandworkshops/writing-from-the-top-of-your-head-fall-24
Materials Needed
You’ll need your favorite notebook and pen, or a computer
Workshop Fee
EARLY BIRD only $299 until 3/10 (Regular price $350)
““I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books...I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me.” ”
Listen to a typically loud and lively audio testimonial from one of Nina’s in-person classes. Unabashed glee, community, and creativity go together….
Writing from the Top of Your Head is…
“A magical space where we bring out our swords and eradicate our self-judgment.”
“Everybody has such a personality and style and the more you hear their work the more respect you have for them….”
“A place where my adolescent self gets to meet my adult brain.”
“I get to go to Goofball Island, and it’s not a place I get to go very often in my everyday life….”
I’ve been offering in-person workshops since 2013 in my beautiful mountain city of Asheville, NC. My deepest gratitude goes out to the many students I’ve had over the years, who have helped me develop Writing from the Top of Your Head into a truly transformative experience.
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