“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” Joan Didion has famously said. Don’t we know it. We tell ourselves stories to find order in chaos, to make sense of what may otherwise feel too big or incomprehensible to bear. 

Have you been on a wild ride lately? Maybe you’ve faced an unexpected or unprecedented event. Or perhaps you’ve experienced a hardship that brought you right to the edge of what you imagined you could handle. Or maybe you’ve found yourself questioning who you are and what you stand for in a new and unfamiliar landscape. You don’t know what just happened. You don’t yet know what it means. You have questions. And not just a few. 

Good! That’s a perfect place to start. 

This course, for writers of all levels, is part writing workshop, part philosophical inquiry, and part creative playground. Daily prompts and exercises will help you externalize your thoughts and emotions and transform them into prose. We’ll place a strong emphasis on stories as vehicles for meaning making, and even dip into the psychology of what’s called “sense-making” to help you understand your own narrative impulses. 

Arrive with your half-formed thoughts, your confusions, your unresolved conflicts, and your existential questions. Expect to return home with at least one new piece of work in progress. As we generate new material, we’ll allow our minds to explore big ideas on the page, and we won’t force phony resolutions. Honesty and authenticity will be our guides. 

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.