Workshop

Workshop: Writing Life Stories

Writing Life Stories helps people document their personal journey and share it with others. Students take this class primarily to leave a legacy for their loved ones and to know more about themselves.

Unlike memoir writing classes, students don’t need to write hundreds of pages based on chronology. Participants write simply 1-2 pages each about carefully chosen themes. A trained instructor offers priming questions to participants that will evoke memories of pivotal events in their lives. After writing at home, they return to class to learn more about the topic and read their stories aloud to a small, supportive group. Rather than offer critiques, fellow students give only encouragement.

This landmark method is based on guided autobiography, which has been taught at USC and UCLA for over 30 years and has been used with thousands of college students, professionals and retirees. Extensive research has proven that while on this exploration, participants gain increased resilience and self-confidence, compassion for others and a greater appreciation of their own lives.

About This Workshop

Come to Cafe Jax on the Upper East Side for 1-day workshop (3 hours), on Writing Life Stories. You will gain insight about how the process works, do a short exercise, write about a significant event in your ilfe, and then share your story with the rest of the group. $150 per person.

Barbara Field is an award-winning writer, editor, marketer and speaker. She worked on staff for prestigious institutions including CBS, Harcourt Brace and UC San Diego. She also freelanced for Microsoft and Young & Rubicam. Barbara published in newspapers, magazines and online. Her novel, The Deeper, The Bluer  won 1^st Place for Mainstream Fiction, Writer’s Digest Book Awards and garnered attention from Miramax and HBO for a nanosecond.

Barbara was an instructor, ghostwriter and keynote speaker for audiences of close to a thousand. She’s member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and graduated from Barnard College/Columbia University with a BA in English.  She will be offering Writing Life Stories workshops (1 day, 3 hours), Writing Life Stories I Classes (4 wks, 2-3 hrs per week) and Writing Life Stories II Classes (4 wks, 2-3 hrs per week) as well as Intensive Retreats (3 days) in San Diego and Palm Springs, CA.

For more information, contact Barbara at writinglifestories.com or thewritingfield.com