Raw Writing: A Class for Generating New Material

In an interview on Salon.com, Grace Paley—finalist for both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award—told A.M. Homes that every single time she sat down to write, she thought, "How come I thought I could write? How am I gonna do this? How am I gonna write this ****ing story?"

"The way to write," says instructor Jenny Pritchett, "is to put pencil to paper and start moving the pencil. Plot development, character development, language, and revision are crucial to writing well. But we're not talking about writing well—we're talking about writing, period. We're talking about writing yourself out of the rut of not writing.

"For five weeks, we will practice freewriting out the thoughts that blockade us, and opening ourselves to creative possibilities we've been sublimating, postponing or that we have simply been blind to. Each week we will respond to writing prompts and exercises, some simple and some multilayered, and examine the bejeweled sludge that emerges.

"This is a generative class that will switch things up enough that ideas will start coming like cluster bombs, and we will celebrate the oddities and epiphanies that shake out. We will shuck the idea of perfection and precision, focusing instead on the inherent joy of creativity and discovery. We will take inspiration from ourselves and each other, and seek to remain present in our cocoons of creativity and discovery. We'll fling literary mud at the page—not only because it's fun, but because it yields riches. You'll learn to think differently about language, perspective and voice, by reading examples from flash fiction, novels, stories, and poetry. The class will also incorporate art forms including music, art, and video, as well as found objects—anything to get us going.

"Although you will share a couple of your exercises during each class (if you desire), this is specifically not a workshop, and feedback is minimal. We're focusing our attention away from the internal—and external—editor and looking inward toward our writing practice."