Love is Critical to Every Story

Love is the most powerful, all encompassing human emotion, and yet so often difficult to capture in story. It’s a primary as oxygen to our survival and as expansive as the ocean. As writers, we are Love Warriors – and it’s our duty to bring love into our stories – not just romantic love, but love of earth, love of self, love of our animal families and love of each other. Without love, we have no hope – without hope, we have no story.

In the next Second Saturday montly series, we will be writing about all aspects of  love – romantic and parental, even love of self. During our first class, we will explore writing love’s beginning – with a partner, a friend, a loved one or a child.   This could be a birth scene, a flirt scene, or the beginning of a long friendship.

If you are working on a book, or any story that has all the aspects of Love’s Journey (the glory, the sorrow, the adventure, the letting go, love again), talking this whole series will help you write into all elements of the story line.

If you are practicing at writing, there is no better topic to practice with than love. Beginners and advanced writers will all benefit from the inspiration and exercises in this series.

“A generous heart is always open,

always ready to receive our going and coming.

In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment.

This is the most precious gift true love offers the experience of knowing we always belong..”

-Bell Hooks

Inspiration From Memoir & Poetry

In this next workshop, students will receive work from memoirists and poets around each theme in the course – and writers will also learn to play with craft exercises to enrich their stories and enhance the connection between author and reader. There is nothing more daring than writing about love –  inside love we find our sparkling truths and our fears become so small they are a marble in our hands, then slip through our fingers and are gone. Writers will create their life and love stories using a fresh, new perspective, pulling inspiration from poetry, philosophy and contemporary writers who are changing the literary landscape.

The wind was shaking me all night long;

shaking me in my sleep

like a definition of love 

saying, this is the moment,

here, now.

-Ruth Stone

Literature used for this course include the following books:

Love Topics explored in the next six-week course include*:

NO TURNING BACK – IN LOVE – Saturday, June 8th 

In this class we will write to the moment is when you are all in, you know there is no turning around – you have given your heart, your time and your attention to the person or thing that you love.

THE BODY & LOVE – Saturday, July 13th

We inhabit bodies, and bodies are part of love. How do we write to the body and incorporate it into our stories?  Bodies are awkward, sexy, and they break and age. If we are women, we might carry another life inside of us. This week we will learn how to incorporate the body into all our stories – the sexy, the awkward, the broken and the aging, what do our bodies say about love? 

SMOULDERING – Saturday, August 10th

The body craves – it smolders, has fire, and that fire can ignite or burn. Our smoldering selves sometimes rage, sometimes make bad choices and sometimes slip and slide through sexuality. This class we will explore sexuality in story, passion in relationships, and the fires in us that lead us to our passions in life.

BREAKING – Saturday, September 14th

Love breaks us and love heals us, and when it breaks, it can break through death of a partner, death of a relationship, or death of a way of life with the person we love.  It’s hard to see breaking has its gifts in this moment of the journey. In this week we are learning to write about the scenes and moments when love breaks.

LOVE AGAIN – Saturday, October 12th

If we bypass the grief, we won’t learn to love again. In this class, we will explore any return to love, including the return to self love and self acceptance. Life and Love always finds us again, even though we think we aren’t ready, the time comes when we take life back into our hands and love Again.

*Topics subject to modification