WRITING IT UP IN THE GARDEN
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"Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it." — Goethe
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Weekly Workshops
Ongoing Weekly Workshops in Northampton
On Mondays , Wednesdays and Thursdays, Nerissa Nields holds amazing
writing workshops out of her home in Northampton. Write. Be
entertained. Laugh. Cry. Foster community. Eat cookies and drink hot
beverages. All kinds of writers are welcome. We are poets, novelists,
songwriters, memoirists, journalers and scribblers.
E-mail her at Nerissand@gmail.com to see what the fuss is about. The groups go for ten-week sessions.
- Monday Teen Group, ongoing 4-5pm
- Monday (10 week) 7-9pm
- Thursday (10 week) 6:30-8:30pm
$300 for ten weeks. Teen group is a $30 drop in fee.
The Summer
session begins may 12 for the
Monday groups and May 15 for the Thursday group.
The sessions run to late July. The Fall session will begin the week in October.
To sign up, write to her at Nerissand@gmail.com .
Retreats!! Writing It Up In The Garden Weekend Retreats
Nerissa Nields hosts and facilitates writing retreats
for all kinds of writers: novelists, short story tellers, songwriters,
poets, journalists, memoirists, essayists, doodlers and scribblers of
all kinds. She works with experienced writers and beginners alike.
To participate, email Nerissand@gmail.com .
Nerissa's Retreat Schedule
January 12-14 2009 Writing it up in the Garden Retreat Spaces still available!
Retreat starts on Friday at 5:30pm with registration,
dinner and a round of introductions. We will do writing exercises and
work on works in progress until 9:00. The next morning at 9:15, we will
congregate for coffee, tea and a short lecture, discussion and some
exercises, followed by individual writing. Break for lunch. Regroup in
the afternoon for sharing finished work or works in progress and
another writing session. We will have a group dinner on the porches of
the fine Victorian homestead we'll be using.
Sunday will be the same as Saturday, but we will end at
noon. On occasion, we may read works in progress at PACE (Performing
Arts Center of Easthampton) at 2pm.
Registration fee $150. Deposit of 50%.
The fee does not include accommodations, but there are
lovely and affordable places to stay nearby and we can help direct you
to them. Fee includes dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, abundant
coffee and tea, and light refreshments. Breakfast and lunch are catch
as catch can. The retreat is 1.2 miles from downtown Northampton, and a
half a block from the bike path, right on the bus line.
To register, write her at Nerissand@gmail.com. Cost is $150.
In an ongoing strategy to take your money, Nerissa now
accepts PayPal. Just click on the button to send in your registration!
(Be sure to specify in the Comments section during checkout which
workshop(s) you are signing up for.)
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| Ten Week Writing it up in the Garden Workshop |
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Participants write:
- “Before [the workshop] started, I was in a big
writing slump, and it was really good for me to be in that sort of
environment where I had to write, even if it was only for an hour a
week.” — JB, Creative Writing MFA candidate
- “I finished an entire first draft of a novel in three months, writing only during the workshop time.” — ND, novelist
- "It is such an incredible opportunity to come here
every week and walk away inspired, my soul recharged, my muse happier
with me, and full of amazement for what I get to
witness…[Nerissa’s] tending hands are sure; [she] know[s]
when to be gentle, when to push, when to guide, when to just step back,
when to encourage.” — MK, songwriter and painter
- “I can’t imagine my life anymore without this workshop. I hope you have them for the rest of my life! — CB, small business owner
- “It is [Nerissa’s] friendliness and
openness that creates the pallet upon which we, as the oils and
pigments, are splattered onto the great canvas that is the creative
process.” — MB, poet
- “It’s always like Christmas at
Nerissa’s house. I can practically smell the wrapping paper when
a writer gives us her new work.” — LH, retreatant
- One of the wonderful things I have noticed about the
Writing It Up In The Garden Retreats is the amazing after-effects. This
past retreat has left me with the boost of confidence that I needed,
and as a result I have applied for a job with my local weekly newspaper
which I have a deep respect & love for. It is not a writing
position per say, but my optimistic feelings are that if I do get the
job it could lead to some writing in the future. Getting paid for
writing is something I would not have even dared dreamed of in the
past. You know when something just feels right....right down in the
depth of your gut? That's exactly how I feel about apllying for this
job. I felt honored to have gotten to meet all of you ~ your courage to
write, share & sing is inspiring. Enjoy the after-effects! -AB, Habilitation Specialist
More testimonials
People take their shoes off here.
It is a safe space
The walls are welcoming, full of so many pictures:
Memories of white dress days,
Bathtub scenes captured in pencil,
Church steeples.
Most are in rectangled frame houses of their own, while others have roommates.
It is an artful geometry.
Outside the house is green:
Painted wood trim,
Prickly needles on bushes,
Hanging leaves.
I take a moment to appreciate the space,
glancing out at the world from inside the front door which, really, is
like glancing out at the world from the inside of a heart.
Something starts here-
The most precious of births
Minds twirl into action,
Communal inspiration bounces
Wall to wall
Head to head
Pen to paper
Fingers to keys
As though stuck in a poetic game of pinball.
The writing begins,
A tiny, barefoot heartbeat.
-Carolyn Jepsen
What the Heck is Writing It Up In The Garden?
Do you write? Do you love literature and stockpile
books? Do you long to make your creative work a more habitual part of
your life? Join Nerissa and the Muse and discover your own world of
creativity and joy. Writing it Up in the Garden is a method for
learning how to write through fellowship, patience and perseverance.
Nerissa, a writer herself for the past 15 years (see bio below),
teaches her workshop attendees how to make a space for their writing.
In her classroom, which she refers to as "the garden" (because so much
is constantly growing and being harvested), participants actually
write, right there, in the moment. "You don't go to a yoga class to sit
around and listen to a discussion about yoga," she says. "You actually
do yoga. Writing is my yoga."
Fresh material is treated with gentleness and respect, wonder and encouraging humor.
"We encourage the new shoots," she says. "We create an
atmosphere of safety and TLC. That's what fresh work needs. I like to
demonstrate to people that they have amazing wells within them, waiting
to be tapped. I like to think of myself as a big cheerleader and
encourager."
She is more than that. With a well tuned ear, honed for
years by collaborative work with her band The Nields, Nerissa has an
unusual way of detecting the sparkle of a fresh piece of writing,
finding the strength in her fellow writers and pointing the way to each
artist’s best work.
It is amazing what comes out of a person when she or he
is sitting in a roomful of like minded, earnest, scared, confused but
determined fellow writers. One participant wrote an entire play, some
of which has been staged at a local venue. Recording artists have
written fully formed songs in a half hour in the Songwriting Room.
Poetry has been pouring out of this humble house on Prospect Street.
Novels are being written, secrets are being told.
Workshops take place in Northampton, at an old Victorian
house nestled in a delightful garden (hence the title). Nerissa regards
these meetings as a means to fellowship, creativity, laughter, joy and
perseverance. Explore the amazing world of the word and the tune and
the muse. All levels of writers are welcome, and all styles: poets,
short story writers, songwriters, journalists, memoirists, novelists,
columnists, doodlers, you name it.
Teleclasses are a little different. Here is an
opportunity to work in a more critical way with your material. In
Weeding and Pruning, Nerissa works with no more than eight writers at a
time. Meeting weekly on a conference call, we discuss four manuscripts
which have been submitted ahead of time. Participants bring their
observations about what's working and what's not working in the piece
at hand, keeping up with each other during the week on line, if they
choose. Nerissa brings the full weight of her literary education from
Yale and her years in as a highly successful award winning songwriter
to bear in helping students produce the finest work of which they are
capable.
Private Work
Nerissa is available for one-on-one work with
individuals. If you are a creative writer, she will invite you to write
with her and then go over your fresh work. For other kinds of writing,
she can work on-line or by phone with snail mailed manuscripts.
Currently, she works with several creative writers and graduate
students. To enquire about fees and availability, email Nerissand@gmail.com.
About Nerissa:
Nerissa Nields has been a member of the band The Nields
since 1991. She has toured North America, been on major labels, minor
labels, had big fat publishing deals and moderate but very gratifying
successes. Between the Nields and her duo with sister Katryna Nields,
she has twelve CDs out. Her work has appeared in many compilations,
magazines and movies. Her first novel, Plastic Angel, is being
published by Scholastic Press in 2005. She is currently working on her
second novel, The Big Idea. She is an honored graduate of Yale
University and holds a BA in English. She has taught creative writing,
songwriting and guitar for her entire adult life and is passionately in
love with what she gets to do for a living.
Trained by Martha Beck, "Oprah's life coach," Nerissa Nields has also started a coaching practice called Life Composition (www.lifecomposition.com.)"I
gear my life coaching towards "readers and writers," although you don't
need to be an actual writer, (or even a reader) to benefit. I believe
that our stories are what make us sick AND our stories are what heal
us. That art has the power to heal, that reading has the power to heal. One of my clients learned more from a performance of the play Wit
(about living in your heart rather than your head) than she did from
years of therapy. Another client uses the novels of Wallace Stevens to
keep her marriage healthy and communicative. For myself, I learned
about faith and bitterness from Bob Dylan, about joy from the early
Beatles, about family from King Lear and Anna Karenina.
So, in the course of our work together, I might assign the client a
re-reading of his or her favorite novel, poem or play as a jumping off
place. "
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you
bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within
you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."-Gospel of Thomas, 70.
"As such, I might also suggest you write a story, a
song, a poem about your experience. When the story exist on paper,
outside of ourselves, a clear projection rather than a spooling
internal narrative, we can see it for what it is: a story, rather than
our destiny.
"I work with every aspect of the person--physical,
emotional, spiritual. I work on issues about relationships, family,
finances, vocation and avocation. Everyone's life is a statement.
Everyone's life is a work of art. Every moment can be savored.
To schedule Nerissa for retreats, workshops or seminars, or for Life Coaching, email her at Nerissand@gmail.com.
Images to Download
Writing It Up In the Garden Credo
- Create time in your life to write consistently.
- Read voraciously.
- Write as if there were no one looking over your shoulder.
- Let go of the results.
- Bravely look at your material and share it with people you respect when you are ready to hear criticism and make changes.
- Take vacations from your writing.
- Live as if you were a journalist, documenting every
aspect of your life and the lives of the people around you. Everything
is grist for the mill.
- Listen to the work of others with generosity and an ear for noticing what works.
- Give support.
- Accept support.
- Do not read The New York Times Book Review.
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