OPEN CLASSES
Feeling lucky? Regardless of your answer, this March Rockaway Writers’ Workshop offers you the chance to take matters—or, at least pencils—into your hands, This month’s exercises, lessons, and feedback on lengthy work touch on the deceptively complex element of luck. Our writing will challenge us to consider narrative causality, weighing the power of fate against free will.
OPEN CLASSES meet online Saturdays from 12pm-1:30pm and Wednesdays from 6pm-7:30pm (all Eastern Time). RWW workshops are open to writers of all genre skill levels, and areas of interest.
POETRY
Rockaway Writers’ Workshop is thrilled to announce that we will be offering weekly workshops specifically focused on the craft of poetry. Rockaway Writers’ Workshop approaches the technical elements of formal writing from a perspective that sees poetics as a basic grammar of expression, making this workshop ideal for both seasoned wordsmiths and poets-who-don’t-know-it…yet.
Poetry Workshops meet Mondays from 6pm-7:30pm (Eastern Time).
RWW workshops are open to writers of all genre skill levels, and areas of interest.
past workshops
april theme: FOOLS’ PARADISE
Fooling around is no joke; it takes courage to tilt at windmills, timing to crack wise, and a bit of truth to back up every jest. Fools do not fear the blank page; they start fresh—open-minded and ready to write the road untraveled.
This month, our workshops demonstrate that there is no such thing as a false start—to see that practice is perfection, because every line we put to paper plants the seed for future projects and helps us grow as writers.
In addition to generative exercises, April inspires some creative spring cleaning. Rather than fearing past foolishness, we’ll dig out the unfinished business of our past writing, delighting in the brilliant ideas mixed in with all our baggage.
Embrace new beginnings with Rockaway Writers’ Workshop!
RWW workshops are open to writers of all genre skill levels, and areas of interest.
march 2021
BRIGHT IDEAS
Rockaway Writers’ Workshop invites you to join us as we draw on the natural narratives and mythic modalities that make March the “Month of Expectation.”
This liminal month evokes images dear to the in-between places of folklore and fairy tale—from the four-leaf clover to the sinister serpent to the incredible indelible egg. This mobius month will further motivate us to refine aspects of literary craft such as flashback, foreshadowing, and transitional devices.
RWW workshops are open to writers of all genre skill levels, and areas of interest.
february 2021: THE HEART
OF THE MATTER
Have you been flirting with the idea of telling a story? Do you have files full of old flames that need to be rekindled?
Rockaway Writers’ Workshop invites writers of all genres, levels, and areas of interest to join us this February…regardless of whether you want to get serious or just fool around. We will use a combination of prompted free-writing, directed exercises, and experimental revision to help us as we open our hearts, having one-night-stands with low-stakes exercises, giving old inspirations a second chance, and taking the risk to commit to projects that just might become the real thing.
RWW workshops are open to all genres and skill levels.
turning points
All genres of writing—from jotting to journaling to epic journeys—hinge on moments of tension and change. This workshop will focus on how to create vital moments that stand the test of time. We will use personalized generative writing exercises, dynamic discussion, and literary influences to develop ongoing projects and/or inspire new work.
THE OBSESSION SESSIONS
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul…. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. ~Franz Kafka
Our “present tension” is an ongoing tug-of-war between the rat-race reality of big-city survival and a virtual world paved with rabbit holes of limitless possibility. Both extremes challenge us to retain—or, at times, to revise—our sense of self. Whether we order the chaos by looking outward or turning our gaze inward, we can’t help but seek out patterns…and, in their absence, to impose patterns on our lives through conscious routine, consecrated ritual, or rationalized compulsion.
In The Obsession Sessions we will use journaling strategies and creative techniques to put our preoccupations to work. This workshop series will explore topics including but not limited to the psychology of everyday obsession, the art of active indulgence, the use of motif to deepen meaning, and the “complex” function of literary forms.
telling time
Timing is everything. We all know it, but the punch line is that our experience of time is rarely in our control. We may try to live in the moment, but our busy lives parcel out our time from alarm to alert to text to tweet and on and on and on... That said, our experience of the past belies this present tension; for better or worse, our memories are momentous, exposing the action behind the scenes of the schedules and scripts of every-day life. All writing requires us to consider past, present and future. So how should we go about telling time?
cover to cover
This workshop is meant for writers seeking to make real progress on book-length projects. The tuition includes 6 150-minute sessions, feedback on up to 8 pages per week, unlimited access to all RWW classes and events during the session, AND a one-on-one 60 minute session with your teacher. One-on-one consultations will be scheduled at the first session. Students will be encouraged to share work weekly, using Dropbox for collaboration and commenting.
no strings attached
When you write, what is it that moves you? Whose hands impress upon the body of your work? Is your heart the one your readers hear beating in the meter of your prose and verse? How attached are you to your original ideas…and how willing are you to let them go?
In No Strings Attached we will use journaling strategies and creative techniques to identify our motivations, exploring the influences of cerebral concepts, personal experience, informal feedback, and marketability on our efforts. We will use critical thought to help us as we open our hearts, practicing a range of approaches to our work—having one-night-stands with low-stakes exercises, giving old inspirations a second chance, and taking the risk to commit to projects that just might become the real thing.