Creative Writing Classes Winter 2010
with Patricia Dove Miller
Birdsong: A Writing Practice Group
Learn how to do “Writing Practice” (based on Natalie Goldberg’s books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind), a cumulative series of short, easy exercises. This technique will help you quiet your inner critic, delve into your unconscious, go deeper into your writing, and increase your creativity. Writing Practice can be used for beginners to learn to write, for a daily warm-up, to improve your writing, to overcome writer’s block, or for experienced writers to work out specific issues in their current project. Please bring plenty of paper and pens, and a firm writing surface. For both beginning and experienced writers.
Dates:
Session 1: Thursdays, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m., February 4 to February 25
OR Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.–noon, February 4 to February 25
Session 2: Thursdays, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m., March 4 to March 25
OR Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.–noon, March 4 to March 25
Fee:
$50 per 4-week session Class size is limited, so please register early.
The Art and Craft of Memoir: Creative Writing Class
Begin your story or work on a draft-in-progress. Learn how to access your memories, to use specific craft techniques to bring your story alive, and to shape the story into a work of art. Class will include in-class exercises, gentle feedback, and optional at-home assignments. For beginning and intermediate students.
Dates:
Session 1: Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. – noon, February 3 to February 24 (4 classes)
OR Wednesdays, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., February 3 to February 24 (4 classes)
Session 2: Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. – noon, March 3 to March 24 (4 classes)
OR Wednesdays, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m, March 3 to March 24 (4 classes)
Fee:
$90 Please register by January 27 or February 24.
Polish the Moon: Advanced Manuscript Workshop
For fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir. Work on revising your current work-in-progress. Learn how to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your writing, and how to give and receive useful feedback. A structured workshop format where you will receive gentle in-depth critiques from your fellow writers and the teacher. Class will include homework, exercises, and discussion of specific writing techniques (for example, dialogue, scene, character, setting, metaphor), in order to improve the art and craft of your writing.
Dates: Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., February 6 to April 17 (six classes; every other week)
Fee:
$200. Please register by January 30.
Private Lessons or Manuscript Consultation
Individualized instruction to meet your own writing needs. This can include coaching, editing, exercises, discussion, critique, or manuscript consultation.
Patricia Dove Miller taught writing and meditation residential retreats at Zen Mountain Center in Idyllwild for six years. She also taught at the San Diego Writing Center and the Shiho Center for Creative Arts. Pat has attended four week-long writing workshops with Natalie Goldberg in Taos, and has participated in the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and other writing conferences. Her work has appeared in Tidepools, Fallbrook Haiku Society Anthology, Into the Deep End, and other anthologies. She recently completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Vermont College. She now leads creative writing classes in Nevada City and Grass Valley, is co-leader of the Women’s Writing Salon, and a member of the Literature Alive Council.
For more information or to register for classes,
contact Patricia Dove Miller, dovepat@oro.net, 530-265-516