Session 1: Outline

Session 1

Writing: What and How?

In this first session, we take a broad brush and look at the what and the how of our own writing, in order to build self-awareness.

Self-awareness is very useful because, when we have it, we are far more likely to be able to step back from our work, jam on the editor's hat, and look objectively at what we've been writing.

What do we like to write? What are our obsessions?

These questions will not only be clarifying for us personally, but they also give us clues about possible genres for our stories. As we always need to be thinking of the reader when we're putting our story into an earthly Story Container, knowing the genre is a useful first step that can help us with the form of the story later.

How do we write?

This question will lead us to look at: the words we choose, phrasing, rhythm, topic, theme. And this is a good way to start to look critically at the mechanics of what makes up a piece of writing. (More on this in Week 3.)

Specifically, this week, we also look at how to give the right kind of feedback.

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We will look at:

• What are your obsessions? (Put this away as a metric check for later.)
• Why did you start writing? And/or why are you here to start or continue writing?
• Exercise: Writing and Self Awareness
• How to give feedback, with a live feedback session.