January 7, 10 — 12 pm CT via Zoom
why writing with brain and body?
This two-hour writing workshop involves a three-step practice. Naming, which alerts our conscious awareness to the senses. Describing, which engages our senses and bodily responses on a deeper, more emotional level. And engaging, which invites us to create a relationship with our surroundings, to make life meaningful.
Learn how the three parts of the brain correspond to the writing process by completing a series of timed writing exercises. The first level of awareness travels through our physical body. Information is sent to the brain by our sensory organs which trigger awareness of the most primitive urges. In the second step, emotion arises in the midbrain in response to what our senses bring us. The third step is when our sensory perceptions and the aroused emotions cause us to create associations between sensory information and our inner life. Meanings, memories, dreams, associations, fears or hopes. From these connections between body and brain your writing will flow.
what kind of writer should take this course?
Everyone is welcome. This is an opportunity to come together to write something new and unexpected. If you seek to enhance your skills in writing description and unearthing metaphors, this is a low-risk high-reward opportunity. This may be especially useful to writers who are interested in embodied writing but aren’t sure how to turn what their body tells them into words on the page. This exercise is a hard-wiring hack to get you on track with writing something new.
what are the requirements?
You will need to have a computer with a camera and audio and a good internet connection to join the workshop via Zoom. The writing exercise asks you to tap into all of your senses and focus entirely on your body and where you are in the world right now, so you’ll want to chose a place where you feel safe and comfortable for two hours.
how does this remote class work?
You will receive a link to join the Zoom workshop via email prior to the first session. You click on the link and this will be a live synchronous session.
what will writers take away?
You will leave having written something new and the muscle memory of connecting body and brain to your writing practice.
who is the teacher?
Jill Swenson is a developmental editor and literary representative in Wisconsin who earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from The University of Chicago and taught journalism at the University of Georgia-Athens and Ithaca College. She has taught writing workshops at The Loft Literary Center, Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, and the Grand Marais Art Colony. In July 2021 she completed a writing residency sponsored by the St. Croix Watershed Research Station (Science Museum of Minnesota) and was the featured writer-in-residence for the Red Shoes Lake of the Woods Writing Retreat in September 2021. She has recently completed a braided nonfiction narrative manuscript, Dispossessed, exploring on Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota the connections between her maternal relations and the Kakaygeesick family over seven generations and why we can never dispossess ourselves of the past, no matter how shameful or tragic or distant.
what is the cost?
Elephant Rock tuition for this course is $79 (non- refundable). Under normal circumstances, full payment is due at least 15 days before the workshop begins. Extended payment plans may be available in cases of sever economic hardship. Please email Jeannine to inquire.
what have other writers had to say about Jill Swenson?
"She provides a mix of guidance and inspiration sprinkled with a little tough love," Carolyn Porter, author, Marcel’s Letters: The Moving Story About a Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate (Skyhorse June 6, 2017)
"Jill is writing coach, advocate, and mentor all wrapped in one; she helped me find my voice. I know my work is in the best hands with Jill because she pushes and prods until it is the best it can be," Cathryn Prince, author, Queen of the Mountaineer (Chicago Review Press, June 1, 2019)
how do I sign up?
please click below to complete course registration and payment: