Fearless Writing

Crescent Dragonwagon

Jan 29-31, 2010

Working writers, “blocked” writers, would-be writers,
even people who don’t think of themselves as writers:
all will be energized by Fearless Writing’s™ unfailing, exuberant, working map of the creative process.
Human beings find themselves stopped at times — by doubt in their own abilities, uncertainty about the future, overwhelming or changing economic or personal conditions. Here, we stop being stopped; we transform seemingly insurmountable obstacles into the material from which we write, and through which we can thrive. We work, and play, with anxiety, instead of being immobilized by it, or waiting for it to end.

The Fearless Writing workshop is:

practical (filled with clear, useable practices to take home, many suited to individual writing and life-challenges)
playful (fun; who knew that was there, waiting to emerge?)
tough (cuts through dancing around issues like waiting for “things to get easier” or “more free time”)
tender (compassion and collegiality form the atmosphere)
serious (writing and the creative process are respected, their difficulties understood) form the atmosphere
goofy (melodrama morphs into insight, creativity has its way with us, with often hilariously off-the-wall results)

Built around twelve precepts to which you’ll return time and again, the Fearless process is individual and private at its core. But it’s enhanced and strengthened by the group, in which writers and would-be writers at varying levels of experience help each other. This adds to the workshop’s power, underscoring the universality of life’s inherent difficulties, setbacks, and losses — and the joyful possibility of soaring above them.

Fearless Writing’s practices and principles spill over, cornucopia-like, from writing to creativity, from problem-solving to personal, business, and community life. Your Fearless Leader — Crescent Dragonwagon — has developed this approach over 30 years. She will listen closely and push you, respectfully, using the group (and your own wiser self) as her co-teachers. As you discover that your own stories want to be told, effort will seem more like play and less like labor.

You’ll leave inspired, recharged, and eager, with greater trust in your own abilities and a much-enhanced experiential understanding of how creativity works. With this understanding, and reliable writing practices to get you through the inevitable periods of malaise or doubt, Fearless will reinvigorate not just your writing, but your life.

Crescent Dragonwagon is a “trans-genre” writer. She sold her first book when she was sixteen, and now has over 50 published books, including novels, culinary memoirs, and children’s books. The winner of a Coretta Scott King Award (Half a Moon and One Whole Star) and a James Beard Award (Passionate Vegetarian), she’s taught at innumerable writing conferences, conventions, and book festivals. Her book on Fearless Writing will be published by Ten Speed Press in 2011. Google “nothing is wasted on the writer,” to read her blog. Rowe welcomes her on her third visit.