Write-a-Thon: Stop Talking, Start Doing, Have Fun!

Mondays, April 22-June 24 (9 weeks) 7-9:30 pm 
$365 members/$395 others    Berkeley

Up and at ’em! It’s time. For you. To get going. Now. You’ve read about writing. You’ve thought about writing. You’ve talked about it, dreamed about it, bladdity bladdity blah. But when are you going to bite the bullet and just do it? Not merely once in a blue moon, but regularly, with — you know — some modicum of discipline and determination.  How about now? Or if not right this minute, how about Monday night, April 22nd, from 7 to 9:30 pm? Sure, it’s not easy to commit. But do it anyway. What the hell. You only live once. (And if you get more writing practice, maybe you’ll do better at avoiding clichés such a “bite the bullet,” “once in a blue moon,” “what the hell” and “you only live once.”)

Here’s how this will work: Every Monday night for nine weeks, you’ll show up at the classroom, ready to write . . . or not ready to write (the point being to show up whether you’re ready or not). You will be met at the door by a different Writing Salon teacher each week. We’ve lined up nine stellar Writing Salon teachers, each of whom will do their utmost to inspire and spur you on by providing writing prompts for you to plunge into. You won’t be writing every minute you’re there, of course. But at least half the class time will be allotted to in-class writing. The rest will be for sharing snippets of what you’ve written (although not for feedback or critique).

The main goal is to get you writing, in class, and generating new material. It is not a typical “instructional” class about craft. But it will be instructional in the sense that you are very likely to make discoveries about craft, on your own, as you write.

The other great thing about this Write-a-Thon is that it’ll give you the chance to meet so many of our teachers in a relatively short amount of time. Speaking of the teachers, here’s who they’ll be, in order of appearance: April 22: Ruth Schwartz, April 29: Ben Jackson, May 6: Cary Groner, May 13: David Rosenthal, May 20: Alison Luterman, June 3: Jenny Pritchett, June 10: Terrel Seltzer, June 17: Samuel Sattin, and June 24: Elaine Beale.