Creative Writing Courses, Writing Classes and Workshops Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Francisco Bay Area

New! "Writing Open the Mind"

Teacher Training Certificate Course

Writing Classes in Oakland and Santa Cruz

Learn:
* How to create a nourishing, enthusiastic group culture
* Dozens of useable, effective writing exercises
* How to teach improvisation, organization and revision
* A strong theory base from which to ground your teaching

100-hour course: one weekend a month:.Santa Cruz, CA [Weekends only: non-residential] NEXT START DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED

(Below is a short description. Please email us at andy@theopening.org for a full informational packet and registration materials. Feel free also to call to 831-728-9983 if you have any questions.)

Using insights from consciousness studies, improvisational theater, Buddhist practice, brain research, ecological awareness and holistic healing this 100-hour certificate course will teach you to inspire and professionally guide a new generation of writers (your students!).

How do we approach teaching writing?
Instead of teaching cookie-cutter, formulaic techniques (such as the standard "concrete description, character development, plot structure" etc.) it is more important to help your students access the tropical richness of their own consciousness, learn how their own minds work, and build unique writing naturally from there. (Otherwise it isn't really "creative" writing.)

By learning how to use exercises that help your students access their own interior territories--that is to say distinct and different parts of their brains--you will help them find out for themselves how they uniquely write well. By giving precise and supportive feedback (not "critique") that neither hijacks the piece of writing nor spoils their enthusiasm for continuing to work on it, you will create a nourishing environment for each student to understand their own mind.

Over the six month period, you will learn how to lead writing groups or classes, or use writing to guide clients in whatever practice you already have. When finished, you will have a certificate of completion, confidence about your abilities, and the skills to build this as a business for yourself, if you want to. Then you can also make your living while helping people liberate themselves by means of their writing.

DATES AND DETAILS: NEXT START DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED

Some assistance with finding accommodations will be given to out-of-town students when possible. (This is thus a "low residence" program, suitable for people living in other cities or states).

SCHEDULE: On Friday nights: a writing group for you and your classmates taught by the instructor, Andy Couturier. On Saturdays and Sundays: 10-6, all day: curriculum development, skill building, lecture and presentation by the instructor, discussion with other classmates.

COST: $1800, payable in installments. $800 pre-registration is required by in advance.

If you are interested in receiving an information packet with a registration form, or in finding out more please email with your interest, including your postal address and telephone number. You may also call 831-728-9983 if you prefer. Class size will be limited.

LIFE STORY and CREATIVE NON-FICTION Book Completion Group in Oakland and Santa Cruz
Access the places in your mind that produce powerful writing, naturally. When you let go of formulas and rules taught by schoolteachers and writing books you can find the voice that sounds like you. Once you break the habits given to us by society and stumble upon your own way of putting words together you not only have more fun, the writing itself comes alive. You can then organize your piece from that same improvisational place in the mind. Even revising can happen from the same exploratory mind that you compose from.

In this course you will learn how to :
• Find the place in your own consciousness that produces powerful, surprising writing
• Create anticipation through innovative ways to arrange the pieces of your writing
• Craft and hone your work without the suffering
• Receive useful feedback that keeps you writing

Time in the course is equally balanced between:

(1) innovative, usable exercises to get at the part of the mind that creates good writing,
(2) discussions of topics that arise in your writing process, and
(3) precise, useful feedback on each person's writing.

The Life Story course helps you start, continue and complete writing on a topic you want to explore. This format works great for fiction and poetry writers as well.

SANTA CRUZ COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Wednesday nights, 6-9 PM starting May 9 (4 spaces left)
[no class meeting 5/16]
Course Fee: $390

Call 831-728-9983 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan.

OAKLAND COURSE:
EIGHT WEEKS: Tuesday nights, 7-10 PM starting May 22 (6 spaces left)
Course Fee: $390

Call 510-594-1905 for more information, or to ask about our installment payment plan.

BOOK COMPLETION GROUP and WRITING PRACTICE SESSIONS

Book Completion Group in Oakland and California

This class is designed for people who are working on a larger project who want focussed, individual coaching, the support of a group, and precise, useful feedback on their work. ( Yes, it's OK if you are just starting on it, not finishing it. )

Each week you will get:
• An individualized coaching session of 20 minutes or more.
• 2.5 hours, at least, in-class writing time.
• Feedback on your work and connection with other writers.

APPROACH: Each person has different blocks and different strengths, so there's no "one formula" to getting your project done. But with a spirit of inquiry and experimentation, and much practical optimism, you not only write your book, you learn how you uniquely write well. Thus you write a better book in the end. The help of a personal coach and the community of other writers will give you the strength and inspiration to resist the 10,000 distractions.

The one-on-one coaching has made this our most popular course. Your individual session with the instructor could help you work on overall organization, revising, the sense of overwhelm, doubts about your project, style and voice, finishing a book proposal, or even on how just to get started. It's up to you.

This class is also appropriate for people just getting started on their book project.

OAKLAND COURSES:

EIGHT WEEKS: Monday Evenings 6-10 pm
Starting July 9 (7 spaces left)
Course Fee: $475 (4 hours a session plus availability for weekly coaching by phone.)

EIGHT WEEKS: Tuesday Afternoons 11:30 am -3:30 pm
Starting July 3 Note: This class was full last round

Call 510-594-1905 for more information or to ask about our installment payment plan.

SANTA CRUZ COURSE:

EIGHT WEEKS: Thursday nights, 6-10 pm
Starting May 31 (6 spaces left)

Course Fee: $475 (4 hours a session plus availability for weekly coaching by phone.)i

Call 831-728-9983 for more information or to ask about our installment payment plan.

WRITING FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Accessing the Intuitive Mind

Experiment with consciousness and play with the texture of language and your words will emit from a space of unpredictability and surprise.In Writing from the Subconscious, each time we meet we experiment with two or three freewriting techniques such as:

• Scrambling and splicing: the power of fragmented meaning
• Playing with the many pleasures and resonances of word sounds themselves
• Associative listing and intuitive juxtapositions
• The surrealist technique of "automatic writing" to write what you don't know
• Dilating the mind with image, scent and sound

Throughout the process, we emphasize play, surprise and connection with others, and finding the startling and hilarious power of our own minds.

This is unlike any other writing class you've ever taken.

Not Currently Scheduled: Email with your interest to andy@theopening.org

LOCATION

Oakland courses are held in a cozy private library near the corner of Alcatraz and Telegraph. Details upon registration.

Santa Cruz courses are held near downtown Santa Cruz in our new courses center near Union and Center Streets. Details upon registration.