Sample Workshop Descriptions

WRITING INTO THE SILENCE

Cynthia Huntington

Writing Into the Silence

9-12

Silence precedes, surrounds, and follows speech. In the space between objects, thoughts and breaths is the silence from which everything arises. No matter how much we are filled with noise, silence is always present. Empty of sound, it is at the same time filled with presence and possibility. When we go toward this silence our thoughts widen and relax and our efforts can open into exploration.

Exercises, readings and optional take-home assignments will offer ways to find new passageways into deeper places in the mind where inspiration begins, before the noise in the world and inside the mind makes it hard to hear.

This is a generative workshop; exercises suited to both poetry and prose forms will help us learn to move deeper into the work we are already doing and stretch beyond self-imposed limits. We will write daily and prolifically, and share what we’ve written with generous curiosity. Open to all, from beginners to advanced writers looking for new directions; you will need to bring a notebook and an open mind.   

Weekly Writing Retreats, Sundays 1:30-4:30, September 21 – November 23, 2014

Ten weeks, $300. Limited to 6-8 writers.

Join me in my writing studio in the Clock Tower of the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction for a series of generative workshops for experienced and beginning writers. This is a perfect chance to make space and reconnect with your creative self and jump-start your writing process. Meditations, guided writing sessions, and exercises will provide structure from which you may launch your newest inspiration.

My writing workshops focus on processes geared to helping you write from the images, memories and imagination already awake inside you. We will write in response to exercises I will lead you through, and gather to read aloud and respond to one another's work. Comments are generative and provocative. (You are invited to read, not required.)

Tell your inner critic to take a hike and sit down with other writers in a supportive and stimulating space for ten Sunday afternoons.

Contact: Cynthia Huntington  loveandsalt@gmail.com


Individual mentoring:
Tutorials available one on one or by email. Limited availability, I work with only a few writers at a time, but tell me what you have in mind and we'll see.

1.  12 weeks, 6 meetings or email exchanges approximately every two weeks.. 6-8 poems (10 page max) or 25 pages of nonfiction prose* per exchange, along with a letter laying out your questions and current challenges in your writing. Substantial written comments and response to your questions and revisions. $2000.

3. 6 weeks, 3 meetings or email exchanges approximately every two weeks. As above. $1000.

4. Slow option for busy folks:
               24 weeks, 6 exchanges as above, but every month rather than every two  
               weeks. $2000.
               Also 12 weeks, 3 exchanges, every month rather than every two weeks. $1000.

5. Coaching: individual coaching in person or by phone to address issues with your writing life, strategy, special projects. $125/hr.


Contact: Cynthia Huntington  loveandsalt@gmail.com

(*I don't critique fiction.)