is for working writers, "blocked" writers, would-be writers,
and even people who don't think of themselves as writers
As writers and as human beings, we all periodically find ourselves stopped cold.
By doubt in our own abilities.
- By uncertainties about the direction or style of particular piece of writing (or other project) we're working on.
- By unexpected change, demands on our time, illnesses (ours or those of someone we love), or unfamiliar economic, technological, or social conditions.
- By fear of the audacity of what we hope and wish to achieve and the gap between where we are.
Fearless Writing offers a way to stop being stopped.
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UPCOMING FEARLESS WRITING WORKSHOPS & RETREATS
January 29-30, 2010 / Massachusetts
(Friday night, all day Saturday, Sunday morning)
Rowe Conference Center, Rowe, MA (413) 339-4954; retreat@rowe.org
February 12-14, 2010, President's Day Weekend / Arkansas
(Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, Monday morning)
Located on 30 mountaintop acres in the Ozarks, Mount Sequoyah Conference Center
is just outside of Fayetteville, Arkansas; close to town, but with a quiet, out-of-the-way feeling. Our Fearless group will have the Yancey House, with 12 guest rooms and a sun-room in which we'll meet. The link above will tell you only about the facility; registration information (including full schedule and costs) will be posted here on October 15th, 2009.
March 7-13, 2010 / Mexico
(one session daily over a week's time at Rancho la Puerta, Tecate, Mexico)
Registration information (including full schedule and costs) will be posted here on October 15th, 2009.
September 3-6, 2010, Labor Day Weekend / Vermont
(Friday night, all day Saturday & Sunday, Monday morning)
The second annual "Fearless Writing: the Whole Enchilada" takes place on Crescent's home-ground: literally at her home & garden on 35 acres of Vermont hilltop, just outside the small village of Saxtons River.
Registration information (including full schedule and costs) will be posted here on November 25th, 2009.
Here is a captioned photo-album which tells all about this particular Fearless, and how Crescent came to develop the workshop.
Some of us perceive the obstacles
which stop us from writing as interior --- doubts, inabilities. Others see the difficulties as primarily outer and circumstantial: if only there were more time, spouses or children or elders who were less dependent.
In either case, Fearless teaches students how to harness the anxiety generated by chaotic or unknown conditions
or apparently immutable limitations as a powerful creative force.
Instead of being stopped by fear, students learn to work with it --- to increase their tolerance level and act anyway, instead of waiting for the uncomfortable feelings to end.
a working map of the creative process
Built around twelve percepts to which writers will return time and again, the workshop itself is
- practical: you'll recognize common patches of psychological quicksand
- effective: you'll have myriad techniques to avoid getting stuck
- creative: you'll be eager to try them, because they work a little differently each time
- serious: you'll start giving your work and its process the respect & time it needs
- playful: you'll have fun --- truly! --- and be surprised by what happens next, over and over, long after you return home
- tough: you'll quit dancing around your stuff
- tender: you'll be in a compassionate, attentive, collegial atmosphere
All Fearless Writing workshops and retreats are grounded in the same luminous and transformative approach, but each is structured a little differently depending on location and schedule.
The basic material can be covered in three hours, and it will have an effect. But for students to develop a fully fleshed-out writing practice, and to experience first hand how its principles work, allow at least a weekend. Here is information on the next upcoming Fearless.
No matter when and where you take a Fearless Writing workshop, one thing you won't have to worry about is "Will this be a waste of money?" Fearless is the only writing workshop that offers an unconditional, no-hassle, complete money-back guarantee:
Crescent fully and unconditionally guarantees Fearless Writing. If, after attending
all sessions, I am not replete with satisfaction, insight, and the ability to write with greater ease and pleasure, I will email her a request for a refund, with the address
to which a check should be sent. She will gladly refund my registration fee in full
by check.
When you register for a Fearless, you'll see that guarantee in writing, right there, before you commit one single cent.
Why? Crescent is that sure of Fearless's power to deliver: to help you discover your next step, taken from and towards your best self and your true writing voice.
(For the a list of further upcoming Fearless Writing workshops, see public speaking calendar.)
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So what about fear?
To truly use your misgivings, doubts, and fears--- to actually be powered by them instead of avoiding or being paralyzed by them --- takes not just abstract understanding but experience. That is why a longer Fearless is better: there's more time to experience, and watch others experience, the remarkable shifts that come through perceptual shifts and writing practice.
The group travels to this --- mostly joyfully and with a sense of surprise and delight --- in a variety of ways.
A Fearless Writing workshop includes:
- twelve percepts which will change the way you write, and understand writing, forever
- irresistible in-class writing practices, including
- scavenger hunt writing
- found & fortune cookie poems
- free-writing
- dialogues & acrostics
- fan mail & hate mail
- and many, many more, each of which prove "the story wants to be told"
- student-centered discussion and interactive lecture
- optional reading aloud, and being read aloud read to
- a little improv and movement (in some retreats, guest instructors teach classes in yoga and NIA).
Varied but simple techniques; powerful results.
Your Fearless co-writers will be
the perfect group for you
The process is individual and private at its core, yet is always strengthened and enhanced by the unique make-up of the group. Each Fearless is made up of writers, would-be writers, and non-writers, all at varying levels of experience. This mix adds to the workshop's power.
You can be sure that your Fearless Leader --- that would be Crescent Dragonwagon --- will push you and everyone else in the workshop.
You can also be certain she'll do it respectfully: She'll listen closely, working with you where you are as well as where you want to be (sometimes including discovering the later). You'll move decisively towards your next step.
Her respect extends not just to individuals and the group, but towards the process itself. The result? You'll leave inspired and recharged, with
- greater trust in your own abilities
- an eagerness to get to work
- many writing practices to help you through your individual sticky spots
- greatly enhanced individual clarity
- a renewed or rediscovered sense of purpose and direction in writing
Fearless avoids "workshop syndrome" (you get it until you get home, then it fades). Instead, each student is helped to to develop lasting skills for self-mentoring.
owning our stories, expertise, voices
Though Crescent has taught Fearless for years (in part because she still learns from it every time) she's still amazed --- as are her students --- that something so much fun also turns what look like insurmountable obstacles into the material from which we write.
And not just write, but become more and more able build all-around thriving lives. Over and over, at the end of each workshop, Crescent hears, "It's not just Fearless Writing, it's Fearless Living!"
From writing to creativity; from creativity to life as a whole, Fearless is an overflowing cornucopia.
Crescent:
I just read your article in Soire, and was touched by your words and my own memories of you, Ned, the Dairy Hollow House, and reading your books to my children who are grown now. What a magical evening we had at dinner in Eureka Springs on Valentine's night years ago! We stayed at your B&B several times, and always felt that the experience was worth ten times what we paid. You are an unforgetable lady. Thanks for the memories.
Dr. Carol Meadors
Little Rock
Posted by: Carol Meadors | April 30, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Can you add fearless cooking to the mix?
Posted by: Tracy Young | July 16, 2009 at 11:43 PM
Tracy, it's there... just kind of informally. When I tried to actually put it in as such, couldn't make the schedule work, and my main focus IS writing.
However, if this one works as I expect to, I'll do it annually, and I'll find a way to incorporate this piece as I'd first envisioned. It takes a slightly longer retreat, too, since I use a different part of myself to teach cooking than to teach writing... But thank you for asking!
cd
Posted by: CD | July 17, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!
Posted by: Masters Dissertation | November 07, 2009 at 03:27 AM