Words In the HIlls Spring Campout

Start the morning with a short hike and write in the woods.  Megan Bee will guide you as you wake up your senses to the environment around you and practice observation writing.

To remember food is to remember place and people. In this discussion and writing workshop we will use a multi-step writing exercise to explore the connections between food and memory, which are also connections between setting and character. Through this writing we’ll circle around how to accurately describe taste, which has more to do with experience than taste buds. Eating is a big web of community experiences that we’ll nibble, write about, and discuss. 

Do you ever get stuck?  Don’t know where to start?  Feel like you’re just writing the same thing again?  We’ll dive into writing exercises to get us started and shake it up.  This is a perfect workshop for a beginner writer or a seasoned veteran who just wants to mix it up and try something new.  We’ll write together and you’ll leave with a list of resources to help you stay motivated and writing.

In this break-out session we’ll explore the idea of compression in stories, a technique that can help any kind of writer. How can we smoosh a character’s lifetime into less than 1,000 words? How do objects help a piece of flash fiction? How can we quickly dive in and out of a story’s timeline? We’ll use inspiring examples and writing exercises to draft some little stories and discuss revision strategies participants can take away from the session. 

In this critique session, limited to 8 people, participants will submit up to 5 pages of fiction in advance of the retreat. We’ll look closely at the micro and macro structure of the writing and help give each writer in the group ideas to move the story to its next stage. 

Molly Jo's classes have been described as Mindful Vinyasa; they are designed to deeply connect with the foundations of Yoga; by bringing full attention to the breath, thoughtful, dynamic movement follows to create strength, flexibility and simultaneous stillness and peace within.  Jo's teaching is rooted in the belief that this is practice meant to be accessible for beginning and seasoned practitioners alike. Classes are designed to include a harmonious union of centering meditation; pranayama; engaging, mindful movement; joyful expression and transformational challenge.

Explore writing inspired by birds, observe the unique beauty and stories of the birds that live at camp, and discover what words they might spark for you.

Saturday night open mic!  Bring your guitar, your poem, or your story to share.  

Of course, our retreat wouldn't be complete without music, poetry, and stories around the campfire.

Adam Remnant will lead participants through a series of prompts that will use setting as a driving force to write a song. How does sensory description of a time and place create mood and set the tone for a song? How does the scenery of a song connect to the song’s message? Adam will help participants use this technique as a way to bypass writer’s block and create a strong impression on their listeners.

In this workshop we will get into the following topics:

•  the possibilities and limitations of naming
• investigating relationships between regional histories of extraction and writing
• playing with linguistic function towards deeper ecological and poetic relationality
• community phenology through poetry as a tool for navigating grief and future-building in an era of intensifying climate and social change