ADVENTURES IN CREATIVE WRITING - WEEK ONE

I have to say I think the first week of the CASI (Center for Active Seniors, Inc.) and MWC (Midwest Writing Center) creative writing classes went pretty great. There was just one tense moment when I forgot I'd had my laptop on mute so the audio from my video wasn't coming out of my speakers, but that was about it. Ten people ended up attending the session, a good crowd.

I have to admit, also, that I was nervous. My inner critic, which we talked about, was all over me. She told me I didn't know what I was talking about, that I was not qualified to teach anyone anything, and when she ran out of everything else, she jumped to her go-to critique, "You're a hack." But I followed my own advice and just told her, "Maybe so, but I'm doing it anyway." And I did. And everyone seemed to enjoy it and learn something. And my great lesson for today is: You Tube is a workshop instructor's lifesaver. Showing videos gave me a break from talking, took off some of the pressure of making sure I said everything to say about the topic, and hopefully reinforced my message by showing people saying the same things in different ways.

Today, I tried to help people say what they want to say by getting them in the habit of writing. We talked about what creative writing is and what it isn't. I assured them they all have what takes to write and even if they never do anything with it, it's still a worthwhile endeavor. We talked about carving out the time and space for writing and how to deal with the inner critic. Everyone had great comments and questions. Hopefully they left inspired to write something...anything...and to return next week. We'll be talking about idea generation, prompts, free writing, and introducing the various creative writing types.

Until then... Happy Writing!!!

The Wordsy Woman