5 Sundays, May 15 – June 19, 7-9:30pm Berkeley 
To write our best, we must write from the heart. But finding what subjects mean the most to us can be difficult. Each week, Jay Ridler will lead you through a series of fun, engaging, and effective exercises to help you discover and explore the deep and most compelling themes in your life. “And each week we’ll spend time exploring those themes in story and other forms, all the while giving and getting feedback to each other,” says Jay. “We’ll explore the people and things we love (or hate) and consider why we need to embrace them in our work. We’ll examine our fears and discuss how to face them, then how to shape them into art. In short, we’ll explore how to dig deeper into matters of the heart — joyful or terrible, mad or sad — and learn to see them as powerful story catalysts.”
“We’ll also talk about less conventional ways of plotting, which can speed up your efforts to learn about your own dreams and fears, and develop what I call ‘the personal mythology that most great writers create in their work.’”
“It takes courage to write from the heart, where the things we care about hide. This course is designed to be a safe, fun, encouraging place to start the process. It’s geared towards writers of fiction, but those who wish to write memoirs (or fiction rooted in personal experience) are also welcome to join in.
Jason S. Ridler is a writer and historian. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, he’s published five novels, over sixty short stories for such venues as The Big Click, Fireside, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and dozens of articles, reviews and more. He teaches for Norwich University and Tilden Preparatory School, and performs improv every weekend at Pan Theater in Oakland.