WRITING YOUR TRUTH WORKSHOP FOCUS
We’ll focus on writing deep, sometimes traumatic, emotional truths and navigate ways in which to decide how best to work with both subtlety and starkness when revealing difficult truths on the page. This class is aimed at both fiction and non-fiction authors who are looking to weave personal experience into the narrative in a way that is not self or community harming. We’ll explore successful examples in both fiction and non-fiction as case-studies on the journey to writing your truth and sharing it with the world in the vessel that best works for your story! This class allows time for live Q&A. All participants will have access to download the recording and worksheets for a month after the class finishes. This class will be conducted over Zoom on Saturday, March 20 from 10-12noon CST.
This course will cover the following topics:
- How to write about deep or traumatic emotional truths
- Explore your individual truths as a writer
- Look at how a variety of authors from a variety of cultures handle personal experiences in both fiction and non-fiction
- Dive deep in exploring how your voice can talk about difficult truths without causing harm
- Using fiction techniques and “event merging” in non-fiction
- Using non-fiction techniques in fiction to allow your personal experiences to merge with the experience of your characters to create greater dimensionality in your characters
Who should take this course?
- Writers of all genres who are looking to tackle difficult, unconventional or personal topics in their writing
- Writers looking to expand their repertoire to deeply held personal beliefs without harming the community they come from.
- Writers interested in taking a live, online course with a focused group of peers.
- Previous experience is not required. You can be at the beginning stage of your writing process or very experienced. This workshop is designed for all levels.
What does the course include?
- All digital handouts (usually sent 24 hours before the workshop starts)
- All course readings
- All questions answered from the Q&A (even if we run out of time during the live class, all questions will be answered in the follow-up e-mail with the class recording, handouts, etc..)
- Exercises that could spur up to 500 words or more of new material.
- Explorations you can use in your writing again.
- Access to all the slides (in pdf) after the course concludes.
Deliverables for Students
- Digital handouts
- Course recording
- Class slides
- Q&A answers
PRICE $25 (Register by March 17 at 5pm CST)
How do I know if the course is worth the cost?
This is a difficult question to answer, as live, online classes (with access to all of the above after the course concludes) can range anywhere from $25-175+. A few important gauges in comparing costs are the two important features of this course: you meet live, online in real-time with the instructor and fellow students for two hours (and if something comes up and you cannot attend the live class, you have access to the recording later). When you factor in the opportunity to meet and talk with other writers, share your work in progress (if desired) and receive both instruction and informal feedback, this course is priced for a variety of budgets so that individuals from around the world can participate.
However, ultimately you decide if this form of investment in your writing is best for your budget, writing goals, and work. We hope that you will find value in Britta’s instruction (you can read more in her bio below).
About the instructor:
Britta Jensen has spent seventeen years in the literacy education and publishing world. She is the award-winning novelist of the Eloia Born series. She has also received numerous awards, including the General Sharp Award, for her teaching of creative writing and literature. Many of her stories explore themes of persevering through disability, parental separation and the intersection of various cultures in new worlds. She holds a BA in Acting Performance from Fordham University and an MA in Teaching of English Literature from Columbia University. Friends often refer to her as a polyglot—which is a product of living twenty-two years overseas in Japan, South Korea, and Germany before settling in Austin, Texas. She enjoys mentoring writers and editing books with The Writing Consultancy and Yellowbird Editors and teaches first-year writing at St. Edward’s University.
Testimonials from Previous Students
“The class was so rich with ideas and wonderful exercises…I also loved the advice to not focus so much on rewriting the beginning (which is something so many of us do!) but instead to try to finish a draft and then go back to rework the beginning.”–Maureen Turner Carey, author & librarian
“I like the way you provide a mechanism to explore what a character might do, not necessarily in the context of the story, but just behave if I extracted them from the story and watched them go.”–Sam Ritter, author
“So much revealed in so little time!”–Roanna Flowers, author of Dramedy Au Contraire
