Classes at the Attic

You're invited to schedule a free 15-minute conference call consult to describe your writing situation and focus. During the call, we listen to your writing situation and help you out -- sometimes writers will register for an upcoming workshop. Other times, after a consult, writers will initiate a formal Introductory Consult through our Individual Consult Group to find a writing coach selected specifically for your project.

To initiate a Free Consult, e-mail us -- and when you do, please let us know specifically what you're working on and want to discuss. Then we'll get back in touch and begin to talk together about your writing.

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In this class, we’ll approach writing as an emergent process, using Gertrude Stein’s famous line, “And then there is using everything” as our guide and north star. Each session, we’ll work to connect with the inherent and subtle creativity of the body through exercises designed to help us cross the threshold to what is unknown. In the spirit of shared experiment, we’ll push our poetic inquiries further through selected readings from contemporary poetry and assignments geared toward exploring this new new territory of the interior. Through sustained experimentation, interaction and collaboration, you’ll find new fluidity in your work and open the potential for grace in the process. | Maximum 12 writers

“I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” ~ John Keats

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So much of the delight and depth of poetry comes from just paying attention. The most ordinary in the light of poetry reflects and shines with our inner life. What makes an image resonate? What tricks us into reverie? To write poetry is to take the mundane others dismiss for the inspiration it is always offering. In this session, we will see what moments and objects we can work loose from our day-to-day and lift up into poetry. In our exploration, we’ll  take our lead from great poems and the storehouse of our lives. Come prepared to read, scribble on generative exercises, share in a generous group, and take home potent drafts for your poetry practice. | Maximum: 12 writers

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This workshop is designed for writers who wish to deepen their understanding of the ideas presented in the “Coming Through the Crucible” workshop. We will use the text of The Writer’s Crucible as a starting point for an exploration of the emotional vulnerabilities we encounter in our work. Why the Crucible? Crucible is defined as: A situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new. Writers know what it is to go through the crucible. It is trial by fire and the joy of making something new. This is the agony and the ecstasy of our work. We will explore in depth, the psychological, emotional and creative aspects that interact in this dynamic process and move us to experience such a tremendous range of feeling. Writers will come to a better understanding of their own psychology and develop improved ways of providing self-support through difficult times. In particular, this workshop will delve into material related to emotional flooding, shame-based reactions to rejections and critique, managing and confronting negative self-talk and the ways in which trauma lives in the body and psyche. We will also look at spiritual methods of understanding the creative process and in short meditations to transform states of emotional constriction into states of openness. This workshop will offer both an intellectual understanding of the material and experiential processes that make what we learn personally relevant. Each class will include exercises designed to connect us with and accept our emotional life. We will use writing prompts to explore the psychological material and have small group sessions to share insights and experiences that come up in the course of the program. There will be ample time to question and comment on the readings and class presentations.    

Schedule for the class:

Week One:  The Paradox of Self: We are one and many in the Theater of the Mind              

Week Two:  Understanding the Psychology of Vulnerability: Dealing with insecurities

Week Three: Trauma and the Problem of Shame: The epidemic of unworthiness

Week Four:  Internal Self-Attack: Three approaches to standing up to the inner critic

Week Five:  Writing as Spiritual Practice: The challenge of getting out of our way 

Maximum: 12 writers

[no class Memorial Day Weekend

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This workshop, led by Attic Institute founder David Biespiel, is the kind of study every writer needs, from beginners to the most advanced. It's an opportunity to write from studying your own self-portrait via photos, drawings, snapshots, b&ws, candids, distortions, &c. The workshop approach empahsizes the concept of obseravtional writing as a direct route to achieve new imaginative possibilities, whether you're writng fiction, memoir, or poems. The approach demands careful observation and the translation of those observations into clear and precise notes, jottings, and studies. Self-portrait writing is one of the foundational skill sets that all writers should practice. It hones your concentration on details and the language that comes from those details, and it releases you into new zones for your memories and projections to emerge. Our focus will be almost entirely on making new pieces of writing with hardly any time dedicated to critique or revision. Included in your tuition is a signed copy of the tenth anniversary edition of David's book, Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces, with a Foreword by Chuck Palahniuk, which we will use as a "textbook" for the workshop.

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THE LUMINOUS DARK - EXPERIMENTS IN POETIC REVISION

Through experimentation with radical revision and embodied writing exercises, we'll tap into our inner knowing to find more wildness in our work and more freedom in the creative process. Come armed with 10-20 unfinished poems and an openness to pursuing intuitive pathways in this dynamic class. | Maximum: 12 writers

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