HELPING OTHERS SAY WHAT THEY WANT TO SAY

On Tuesday, November 13th, I will embark on a project to directly practice the "helping people say what they want to say" part of my mission. I've volunteered to lead a seven session workshop series about creative writing for members of Center for Active Seniors, Inc. (CASI). It is a partnership between CASI and the Midwest Writing Center (MWC). A CASI member who I know through MWC came up with the idea after interacting with fellow-CASI members dealing with the loss of a spouse or other issues. He thought, as it had him, it might help them to write about it and perhaps seeing their words in a publication might help them as well.

I was excited to help so we met with CASI and decided to put together the program: two seven-week sessions, one this fall and one next spring, leading to anthology publication early next summer. I would teach the first three sessions about creative writing basics; invite guest speakers for fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; and then end with a summary session also focusing on revision and editing in preparation for putting together the anthology.

I am excited about the project and a little nervous, as I usually am when taking on new projects. Will I measure up? Will they believe I know what I'm talking about? Will they be bored? Will they think I'm a hack? And the list goes on and on. This is my "self confidence problem" peeking its ugly head into my sense of excitement. To combat it, I've re-studied my writing books and put together a slide presentation complete with you-tube videos to reinforce what I'm saying. At the least, I hope I can share my passion for writing by telling them what I've learned about the process over the years. At the most, I hope that by inspiring them to get into creative writing and giving them some ideas about how to do it, I will help them say what they want to say.

I also hope over the next seven weeks, I'll get some interesting material I can share here on this blog.

-The Wordsy Woman