Writing for Survival Webinar with Terese Marie Mailhot

WHAT: A two-hour online webinar AND a 4-week online workshop

WITH: Terese Marie Mailhot

WHEN: WEBINAR: Saturday, July 11th 1PM-3PM PST

WHERE: ZOOM! (But of course.) Meeting registration and access details will be provided in advance.

HOW MUCH: WEBINAR—$100. One hundred total capacity. Payment plans are available, contact Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com

SCHOLARSHIPS: Fifteen full scholarships are available for BIPOC writers. Click here to apply.

WEBINAR—July 11th—SEATS AVAILABLE!

Our stories can be medicine for ourselves and others. When we retrieve stories people wish we would forget, we can re-shape the narratives of our lives and make art of it, too. Terese will be discussing ways you can piece together a fragmented life, and ways you can utilize metaphor and draw out ideas to connect points in your story you might not think go together seamlessly. We’ll talk about self-care in writing about trauma, and how to enter and exit work with intentionality. We’ll also have some fun discussing how to cultivate spirit and personality in our work to take our stories beyond what we experienced. You’ll explore ways to cultivate generosity and kindness toward yourself to carry you forward in your work, and we’ll also talk about artistic integrity.

This two-hour webinar will include opportunities for Q&A.

4-WEEK WORKSHOP BEGINNING July 12th—This offering is SOLD OUT.

Click here to add your name to the waitlist.

In addition, a small, intimate 4-week workshop with Terese is available that will begin the following day, Sunday July 12th. This workshop will consist of four weekly lessons and assignments, and include a once-per-week happy hour with Terese over Zoom. Writers will be expected to provide feedback each week for at least two other writers in the group.

• Week One ::  How can we center our stories and honor our voices? What’s your aesthetic as a writer? How do you cultivate style? You’ll be able to see a few different voices as examples, and Terese will discuss ways to build style and structure. We’ll talk about different narrative structures, then you’ll be given an assignment to further develop your style and artistic vision.

• Week Two :: We’ll talk about intentionality as a practice: how to enter and exit an essay or chapter of your life. We’ll discuss how to pull a beginning and end from an unfinished life, and how to cultivate a reader experience, where we come out real, imaginative, and unexpected on the page. How can your voice kick down a door? Terese will discuss a few ways to cultivate a dynamic essay, and talk about how to write dialogue when you don’t remember events in their entirety, and how to fold image and metaphor to bridge passages between periods of your life. We’ll talk about method, and you’ll be given a rough-draft assignment.

• Week Three :: Terese will discuss writing and revision, and ways to comb work for tense, detail, exposition, dialogue and metaphor. Terese will discuss structure in revision. We’ll also talk about ways to protect yourself as you write, and how to write about people you still want a relationship with, since this (revision stage) is the best time for those considerations.

• Week Four :: Terese will talk about ways to celebrate and honor your work as you’re doing it, and when it’s done. Terese will talk about publishing journeys, and how no two are the same, and how to pursue publication, while honoring your integrity as a person who’s experienced trauma, and as an artist whose voice is individual and necessary. It’s important to honor the work you’ve done in seeing yourself, and letting yourself be seen. This work is not thankless and stripping away the untruth of that can make writing less painful.