Writing Workshops

LINK TO HERE FOR A SCHEDULE OF WORKSHOPS

My writing workshops are always designed to fit the needs of participants:

I bring to my workshops more than thirty years of experience in publishing as researcher, writer, editor, and instructor in a vast array of subject areas including food, travel, essay, memoir, fitness, health, mind/body/spirit, creative non-fiction, fiction, and more. My work has appeared in numerous publications, including Islands, Country Living, Yoga Journal, North American Review, Vegetarian Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, and the New York Times. Read some of my Published Articles here.

This past year I taught workshops in Buenos Aires (to expats) helping novices get published. My classes are small enough that I tailor my teaching to the individuals—we work as a group with one-on-one time for everyone, and a follow-up consultation, whether days or weeks after the workshop is over.

What participants say about the workshops

I work with novice writers who just want to get their piece or book out and with talented, experienced writers who want to ramp up their publishing opportunities. I am big on encouraging all my students of all levels to look toward publishing, and I help them research their options. I help them grasp the ever-morphing markets in books and all pubs, guiding them through the big divide: between the Net's "social media" (what is respectable, what is exploitative and not worthy of their prose) and the bastions of journalism.

I teach that artful writing is not enough today, that one needs to know craft. I tell the meek and timid that getting their writing published is not about the ego, although it is always a blissful boost, but about their being heard, validated, having their convictions aired, and advancing the great dialogue of humankind. So, I have them each aim for three markets: easy-to-get-into, mid-level (a challenge), and the Platonic Ideal. Even if they are working on books, I encourage incremental writing of pieces they can publish. This helps them activate what I call their "autonomic writing system"—where writing becomes as automatic/necessary as breathing and you can't NOT do it.

I guide writers through the book-proposal process for non-fiction. I've done work with novelists, guiding them through the chase for an agent, a hugely different process from non-fiction books. I teach that the inner critic is our friend, and tell how to cultivate that friendship. Besides experience and passion, I bring knowledge, fun, and entertainment (twist my arm and I'll give a tango demo to the class), and I can't help but, here and there, allude to how my years of Zen meditation has enabled my writing life.