Class

The Writing Process, Identity & Technique: How to Unlock Your Creative Potential

"Why can’t I finish this book? How can I maximize my own creativity? How do I sustain my writing over the long haul?" There is one answer to these questions: we are not taught the principles and practices of creativity in school or even in writing classes.

Using these principles and practices, this class will examine ways of getting you to explore new avenues and approaches to your writing. It will explore how the process of questioning identity can help sustain the creative impulse for a lifetime. Finally, this class will delineate how writing techniques, such as form in poetry or the principles of narrative, are linked to the principles of creativity. Sources for this class will include both literary sources and books such as music producer Rick Rubins’ The Creative Act. Adam Grant’s Hidden Potential and Jungian psychologists like James Hillman.

In the last third of the class we'll have a discussion of some material on identity, particularly racial identity. Depending on their individual experience, white writers may sometimes face slightly different challenges in writing on race than BIPOC writers. This class will explore what this difference might entail and how white writers can begin to approach the issues of race.

All Classes listed on the Loft website take place in Central Time.

Please submit this request form at least two to three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this class. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.