Yukon Science Fiction Writer   Jerome Stueart, the Yukon, and science fiction in wild places

WRITING ABOUT YOUR FAITH  Writing Workshop, Fridays 5-8, Whitehorse United Church

How do you write about your “faith”?  How do you describe the indescribable, the ineffable, the otherworldly? the grief or joy or miracle or peace or disappointment that you have because of your faith?  Everyone can argue about the value or lack of value in “religion”–and it’s an easy connect-the-dots to create your own pictures of what organized religion has done in the world.  It’s harder to write about personal faith or your personal interactions with religion–what keeps you going, what happened to you that you know no one would believe, about the anguish of trying to live in a real, faulty, fragile world, when others ask you to strive for peace, patience, happiness, even joy.

This writing workshop will explore how people write about these very personal experiences, or their thoughts about faith and religion and its very real presence in their lives, or the lives of those around them.  We’ve had students write about their relationships with their parents, their children, their grandchildren, experiences in nature, in confronting others who aren’t on the same page.  We have had students who are believers, non-believers, unsure, people of various faiths.  All faiths are welcome–come with what’s important to you, open to what is important to others. This isn’t a dogma class.  It’s not a class to teach you from the top down.  It’s for you to teach us from the ground up through your experiences, your writing.

What you can expect:

While this is a 13-15 week experience, it’s done in modules, so that you can come and go as you have to.  We’d like to see a committed group of 15-20 people go through the writing education and the writing workshop so that we can have a core group.  However, this class has been taught before at WUC with a core of ten and some of them will be joining us again.  My hope is to build trust in the group, so that you will trust us with looking at your writing.

This will be my third time teaching this class–and it is always one of my favorite courses.

WUC is asking for a $50 course fee if you decide to take the course to reimburse the Herb and Dorreen Wahl Fund, a generous fund that allows WUC to bring affordable, creative experiences to the church and the surrounding community.

The first six or seven classes will be focused more on writing technique with fun exercises to get you writing and trying different methods.  We will read works by contemporary writers like Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Marilynne Robinson, Jhumpa Lahiri, Andre Dubus, Stephen Gould, John Updike.  (These are all inclusive writers, but for the most part seekers with an inclusive Christian background).Gradually, we will be looking more and more at your writing–as we hope that you will begin to share your stories, fiction and nonfiction.  In March, there will be Saturday afternoon opportunities for longer workshops for those who are ready to submit works to be workshopped.

Come Friday, Feb 10, to the Whitehorse United Church for an orientation meeting, with food.  We’ll have some brainstorming sessions, you can chat with prior participants, and get to know what the class will be like.  The official class will begin Feb 17th and run through Mid May.  A fully detailed schedule will be available that night.

Jerome Stueart (the instructor) has his PhD in English (Creative Writing) from Texas Tech University, over 15 years experience teaching writing workshops, and this is his third time teaching Writing Faith.  His publications can be found on this website under Written Work.  If you have questions about the course, feel free to write him at jstueart@yahoo.com with the subject heading “writing faith”–or come Friday, Feb 10, at 5pm to the Whitehorse United Church for more information.

ARCHIVED CLASSES:

2011:  WRITING FAITH, United Church January 21-April 15— FREE

What is Faith to you?  How do you think about it?  How do you put it into words–to tell someone else what it means to you?  Does it only appear when you are going through struggles?  Is it constant like gravity?  I like this photograph by Grigory Kravchenko.  The woman looks up, but it looks as if she’s giving God a good talking to.  Faith seems to take place over coffee, and in a gritty real-world setting.

Starting January 21st, the Whitehorse United Church and I have teamed up to offer a class in Writing Your Faith.  How do we put into words what is ineffable?

We’ll be looking at a lot of writers who have done just that.   Some you will find more effective than others for your style of writing.

While the majority of works that we look at will be of the Christian variety, they will not be texts that marginalize you.   They will be authors who struggle with the same kinds of questions that most people do when they are talking about a greater being in the world and how they interact with that being.  We’re not reading the selections to pick up content—it’s not an evangelical endeavor.  What we’re doing is looking at how people talk about their Faith, whatever their Faith might be.  So we’re picking up tips.  And those tips are good to use whether you are writing about yourself as a Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish or Agnostic.

Some people’s writing that we’ll be looking at include Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Krista Tippett (who does the NPR show called Speaking of Faith), Diane Butler Bass, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Donald Miller, Lauren Winner, Andre Dubus, Flannery O’Connor, Thich Nhat Hanh, Kathleen Norris, Philip Yancey, and others.  We’ll look at the impact of faith on social justice, on the environment, on making changes in society.  We’ll ask the question about when is a good time to write knowledgably about faith–is 16 too young?  Is 70 too late?  Can you write about it in fiction?  How do you not hit someone over the head with doctrine or belief?  How do you escape being labeled a “fundamentalist” or a “weirdo”?  And what if your faith did not sustain you in the hardships you faced–are you allowed to talk about this too?

If you’ve had experiences where your faith was affected in any way, come write about this with us.

It’s free.  Fridays, Starting January 14, 5-8; BYO Food.  It’s a 14 week workshop class, but we’re teaching it in modules.  So you can miss a few and still know what we’re doing.  You’ll receive handouts for reading a week ahead of each module. (If we get more than 16, we’ll make arrangements)  Even if you aren’t planning on attending the whole thing, come the first night to see what it’s all about.  We’ll go from there.

We would like people to commit to as much as they can because you’ll get the maximum effect out of attending all the classes.  Workshops also thrive on “committed vulnerability”–aka Trust.  That means if you keep attending, you can submit your stuff to have people read.  But you won’t be trusted as part of the workshop if you just come for one day and then drop off something for everyone to read.  To submit work, you’ll need to be a regular attender.

People should be aware that folks from multiple denominations, multiple faiths, multiple beliefs will be attending, and this is a safe space for anyone who wants to write about faith of any kind.  We are all challenged by the things that happen to others, the ways they encounter faith.  It is all mysterious and deserves to be discussed and written about for others to experience.

You may just want to write something for your family.  You may have larger aspirations.  You may be writing history, or memoir.  Come whatever you are writing, whatever you want to do with your writing.

A big thank you to the Whitehorse United Church for sponsoring this class free of charge for anyone who wants to come.  Their ministry to you will be a ministry to so many others through your writing.  Thank you, WUC.

The Little Girl and her Giant Crocodile, Mauro Lira

2011 AFTERSCHOOL WRITING PROGRAMS

I am offering two classes for teens, one at FH Collins and one at PC Secondary school.  The FH class will be on Wednesdays at 3:30-5:00, and the PC class will be on Mondays from 3:30-5:00.

The FH Collins one is a Science Fiction and Fantasy writing Afterschool program and the PC class will be a Creative Writing Class for teens, both available through the City of Whitehorse by calling 668-8325.

Cost is relatively small for 8 to 13 weeks of instruction, games, workshopping and writing—oh and did I mention FOOD?

Come and join us at PC or FH for some afterschool fun.  All are welcome, as long as you like to read and write either fiction and poetry or science fiction and fantasy.

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ARCHIVED CLASSES I HAVE DONE IN THE PAST.

Yukon College: Winter 2009–two courses

CRWR 241-001

NOVEL WRITING WORKSHOP–Track 1: Realism/Mainstream

Recommended for those who have a first draft of their novel completed-or more than half done. Students who did not take the Fall Novel Writing Course can jump in the class by permission of the instructor.

JAN 5-April 6 (or 13)–Yukon College

In this class, we will begin the process of revising chapters of a novel in a workshop format. We’ll begin in January with a summary and synopsis lesson which will be  turned  in to the other members of the class so that everyone knows what you are writing and what you want to do.  This will help them make informed choices to help you get to where you are going. The semester will be mostly workshop.  Each student will workshop three chapters. You will be asked to comment on others work in a written format (a paragraph or two) which is why we do workshop–to get feedback.

We will also look at other  novels and pick them apart as well.  Novels will include the following: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, Plainsong by Kent Haruf, and Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.And Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell–which you might own if you took the Fall course.

By the end of the semester, you should know three things strongly: what it takes to complete a first draft of a novel,  techniques for revising novels, as opposed to short fiction, and how to critique writing to help others.  You will know your novel well–and be able to talk about it to others.   Speaking of others:  We might have the opportunity to show our three chapters and synopsis to editors in April, as part of a Yukon Writing Conference.  It’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss!!

If you wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo, come join us for the next steps!  If you have been working independently, or have a novel mostly written just sitting in a box somewhere, come join us!  This is the time to dedicate to getting that novel more polished and ready for people to see it.  Come join other novelists in their journey!

Class will be limited to 20 people committed to sticking through at least a semester of enjoyable work.

NOVEL WRITING WORKSHOP–TRACK 2: SPECULATIVE/GENRE

This novel writing workshop, modeled on the other one, is for those writers with novels containing any speculative, non-realistic elements.  Time travel, fantasy, science fiction, horror, anything that constitutes a break from reality.  These writers will find a good workshop of folks who understand how to deal with non-realistic elements.  We will be workshopping three chapters of a novel or novella, putting together a synopsis, all while reading books that are designed specifically for speculative writing.

Come join us on Tuesday nights for this course.