Invite Your Muse to a Relaxing Day in the Country: A Writing Retreat (Deborah Prum)

This one-day retreat will meet at the instructor's home on Saturday, February 21 from 9:30 AM to 4 PM. Lunch will be provided.

Description:

"The first step toward being a writer is to hitch your unconscious mind to your writing arm."

Dorothea Brande

Are you feeling stuck? Is your muse out somewhere doomscrolling in a dark, dank cave? Consider retreating to the countryside to spend a day exploring the nooks and crannies of your imagination. Three times during the retreat, participants will choose a writing prompt from fifty images of Carol Aust’s artwork. Please check out her website. Her paintings evoke a wide range of emotions and thoughts, many of which form the basis of stalwart works of literature. Each time, the process will include a craft talk followed by twenty minutes of writing time. People can write inside in various rooms or outside, weather permitting. Twice during the day, students will read excerpts from their work and receive group feedback. Lunch will be provided. The day ends with a discussion of takeaways and Q and A. This retreat is designed for fiction and creative nonfiction writers who want to kindle their creative spark.

About the Instructor:

Deborah Prum hoped for a career in professional basketball. However, the growth spurt her pediatrician promised never materialized, so she had to turn to writing. Her fiction has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review,Across the Margin, The Virginia Writers Centennial Anthology, Steam Boat, McQueen’s Quinterly, Literally Stories, and Streetlight Magazine, includingmany other places. Her essays have aired on NPR-member stations. Her non-fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, Southern Living, Ladies’ Home Journal, BuzzFeed,and Huffington Post. Her articles on the craft of writing have been published in Brevity, The Writer, The Writer’s Handbook and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Bulletin.