From Notebook to New Work: A Writer's Journaling Workshop

Dates: Wednesdays March 28-April 11, 2012

Come jump-start your writing. Whether you journal or write fiction, poetry, memoir, or essays, you'll get tips, tricks, and strategies that help you keep the ideas flowing.
Every writer begins by staring into the same blank page. Together we will fill it:

• Outrun the inner critic with timed exercises that free you to describe with passion and intensity.
• Mine memories for buried treasures and uncover a wealth of subjects.
• Stimulate your intuition with inspiring exercises that use visual prompts, eavesdropping, collage, music, and more.
• Discover how professional writers transform their own entries into new work.

Throughout our time together we'll engage in group writing, share excerpts of our work, and discuss strategies to keep our pens moving in class and out.

How do you make sure the wellspring doesn't run dry? What are some good habits of great writers? Are there tricks writers use to stay motivated day after day? (Flaubert kept his lover's slippers and mittens in his desk drawer. Nabokov wrote on index cards, at a lectern, in his socks!) How do you identify the seed of a good idea and cultivate it into the core of a story, the start of a poem, or the heart of a memoir?

We'll also make writing plans, set goals, and work to keep them, all while balancing the pleasures of new work with the revelations of revision.

Expect to generate new material, get tips on staying motivated, and learn innovative approaches to notebook entries. You'll leave with a full bag of tricks to help you continue to revitalize your writing long after the workshop ends.

Student comments

"Small size, very personal. Writing in class. Informal and positive feedback with focus on working toward larger work. The handouts and reading lists were great."  ~ Mary Morton, Madison, WI

"The introduction of new ideas and actually doing the exercises. I've taken this course three times and found it useful each time."  ~ Molly Tull, Madison, WI

"Angela, you bring such passion and interest and enthusiasm to the class (that) it is inspiring and contagious! Thank you! I wish this class was ongoing. I would love to attend this class 52 weeks a year." ~ Jennifer Woods, Belleville, WI

“The class generated a lot of good ideas for me.  It opened new ways of thinking about journaling and freed me from ideas that restricted my writing.  We were able to stay on target and covered much material.  Thank you so much!” ~ Linda Flynn, Milton, WI

“I liked … the different techniques that Angela suggested and had us try that I was unfamiliar with. Many of them are great tools to keep the keyboard clacking and get a person in the groove to keep writing.  I think Angela did an excellent job of illustrating the concept of moving beyond the idea of a journal to something geared more towards a reader. Additionally, I felt the excerpts, many of which were inspirational and thought-provoking, did an great job of reinforcing these themes.”  ~ Doug Milks, Madison, WI

“Loved the mix of techniques and examples offered--interspersed with time to do our own writing.  Instructor Angela Rydell was excellent--real content and real encouragement.” ~ Marcia Bosscher, Madison, WI

Your instructor

Angela Rydell, MFA, has taught creative writing through UW-Madison Continuing Studies since 2006. Programs include Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat, School of the Arts, Writers' Institute, and Weekend with Your Novel. She has taught at Edgewood College, in the national program Senior Summer School, been a poet-in-residence in elementary schools, and is the lead judge for the 2010 Wisconsin People & Ideas poetry contest. She is a recipient of Poets & Writers' Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Sun, Alaska Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals.

For more information about this workshop, email Angela Rydell at ajrydell@facstaff.wisc.edu, or call workshop coordinator Christine DeSmet, 608-262-3447.

How to register

By phone: Call 608-262-2451 or toll free 800-725-9692

By mail: Print and mail the UW-Madison Continuing Studies registration form

By fax: Print and fax the UW-Madison Continuing Studies registration form

Online: Secure online registration is available for this program.

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