A Week in July

Here's our daily schedule for Around the Block in Findley Lake:

Please note: The following classes meet at Hazen Manor from 1 to 3 p.m.

Monday, July 19th with Tracy Robert
Confession: Creating Drama in Your Narrative

We’ve all committed crimes of a greater or lesser nature. (Oh, come on. You know you’ve at least contemplated them.) Learn how confession makes for compelling characters and narrative tension, and don’t worry. What happens at Hazen Manor stays at Hazen Manor.

Tuesday, July 20th with Sara Kay Rupnik
The Natural Approach: Using Nature in Memoir and Fiction

As readers, we expect memoir and fiction to include a visual world of trees and flowers and maybe a birdsong or two, but as writers we struggle to decide when the description of nature is too much or simply not enough. What bearing might an old elm tree, for example, have on the story you are sharing with your reader? Today we will discuss nature writing before slipping touches of nature into your own narratives.


Wednesday, July 21st with Liz Abrams-Morley
Honing the Image: The Process of Discovery

Many terrific poems and stories begin with a moment or picture that haunts us as writers and as human beings. We learn what we are thinking and feeling about that picture when we write it down, write from it, and see where it leads us. We'll work today from image to awareness, practicing a process which will help us to stay loose, to let the work unfold and to subvert the tendency we all have to cut off possibilities by over-controlling the movement of a poem or story.

Thursday, July 22nd with Tracy, Sara, Liz
Wooing the Muse, Part I

Do you have trouble getting started or being inspired?
Learn how Ad Copy, Words of Wonderment, and Writing What You Don’t Know can lead you into the composing mode. You may attend one or both of the “muse” classes (see below).

Friday, July 23 with Tracy, Sara, Liz
Wooing the Muse, Part II

Inspiration is tough; you need all the tools at your disposal.
Tools like Books of Questions, Epigraphs, and Greeting Cards are surprisingly complementary to the writing process. You may attend this class in addition
to Part I (see above) or exclusive of it.