Workshop 4

Today's workshop had five participants. We wrote on the prompt, "Write about a first love." I instructed participants to not write about a person. Participants wrote for a little over fifteen minutes. One participant gave his story orally to Karen. After we had written I talked a little about the difference between concrete and abstract language. Concrete words are the words you experience with your senses— the stuff you can see, smell, taste, etc. Abstract words, on the other hand, are words we experience only in your mind. Like Freedom. "What does freedom smell like?" I asked. "Freedom smells like potpourri." He said. "Exactly!" We use concrete words, like potpourri, to explain or show abstract concepts, like freedom. Participants read their stories. We gave each other positive feedback.

First Love
By Nancy

My first true passion when I was 14 years old was gymnastics. My father encouraged me tremendously—private lessons. Then my love of horses—my father bought me a mare and encouraged me with private lessons. He wanted to steer me away from things that would not be positive and tried everything he could think of.

Unfortunately, it took me til when I lost him to know how hard he tried and truly loved me. I never can forgive myself but I know we forgive each other. My father was a police officer—a narcotics detective. He saw what happened to others and tried to protect me with a broken heart.

Valentine's Day Special!

In honor of Valentine's Day, we had a special Sex Writing Workshop for individuals interested in writing about experiences related to our bodies, with an emphasis on sexual experiences. We started with an icebreaker, make a list of "sexy" words. As we made our lists, we had some discussion of what it meant to say a word was "sexy." People read their lists, and we continued to notice how how some words are sexy in some contexts, and not sexy in others. "Today we're rewriting about experiences related to our bodies- good, bad and everything in-between." I said that in a bit we'd be writing our own memoir, and that great memoir relied on using sensory details to create an emotional experience for the reader. After this, three workshop participants read three different mentor texts, each by a different author and portraying a different sexual experience. Afterwards, we reacted to the texts and to the process of reading other people's memoir. Then we spent 10-15 minutes writing our own. Afterwards, participants read their work.

The Box
By Synn

I remember I kept seeing that metal box thing in the women's bathroom and it always had a pile of paper bags on top. Finally I asked my mother what they were for. They were in the bathroom of some restaurant on the highway— a road trip somewhere. My grandparents maybe. When I asked, all the other women in the bathroom stopped what they were doing to listen, so I knew it was important. Or that I had made a mistake, like the time at dinner I'd asked if my tongue went all through my body because I could see it on both ends and my brother laughed milk out his nose. My mother explains about the blood for a baby and how if you don't get a baby you lose it so you can have new blood next month. Because I'd asked about the paper bag (I had no idea what was actually inside the machine), I spent several years after that knowing— in the way that only children do— that that was why women wore skirts. That all grown women walked around with paper bags between their legs and wore skirts so no one could see.

Workshop 3

Today's workshop was quiet. We wrote on the prompt, "Tell a story that involves a phone call." First, we talked about recreating scenes— moments from our experience that are full of sensory details and description. One participant wrote about a call he had just made to his sister. After we had finished we told the writer what more details we were curious to hear. Another participant told a series of stories from his days stealing cars. Karen wrote as he talked.

Whatever
By Twin

I don't feel like writing no type of story right now. My mind is racing, 100 miles a minute. I'm full of malicious thoughts. Thoughts that I know are not detrimental to my behavior. While I'm feeling this way I have to realize how I'm going to handle the pressure. Positive thinking brings positive results. Negative thinking will lead me back to upstate prison, which I don't ever want to revisit. So for every action is a reaction.