Write, Workshop, Share and Celebrate
Writers meet monthly to generate new work, receive supportive feedback, revise their strongest pieces, and share at a celebratory August reading.
A Writing Circle With Guided Facilitation
May 23: Heart on Your Sleeve - How to give and receive supportive feedback (Memoir-prompt given)
- What are you hoping to discover, write, or reclaim this summer?
- Community Agreements
- Mini Lesson: How to Write a Micro-Memoir
- Speed Write and Trim
- Mini Lesson: How to Provide Supportive Feedback
- Next Steps
June 20: Truth, Tension, and Vulnerability - How to find your emotional center (Develop the micro-memoir - small group feedback)
July 18: Make it Sing - How to revise effectively (Workshop the micro-memoir - break into two groups)
August 22: Celebration - Stories shared aloud (Celebrate the micro-memoir - sharing optional)
8:30 AM to 11:00 AM at Riverstone Bookshop.
Shared Outcomes for the Micro-Memoir Circle
By August, I hope you leave:
- With at least one micro memoir you’re proud to share
- Feeling more confident in your voice
- Connected to a creative community
- Excited to keep writing
Community Agreements
- Confidentiality
- Kindness
- Curiosity over judgment
- Everyone has the right to pass
Mini Lesson: How to Write a Micro-Memoir
- One moment
- Sensory detail
- Emotional movement
- Specificity
- Leave some things unsaid
Speed Write a Micro-Memoir
Choose ONE prompt:
- A moment you almost said something - but didn’t
- A moment your body remember before your mind does
- A moment you still replay
Twenty minutes to write. Discuss.
Trim to the Emotional Core
- 10 minutes to trim to emotional core
Mini Lesson: How to Provide Supportive Feedback
How to help a writer go deeper
- What stayed with me…
- What felt strongest…
- Where I wanted more…
- One possibility to consider…
The power of positive feedback and sincere encouragement nurtures deep learning and growth.
Micro-Memoir Next Steps
1) Write Your Micro-Memoir
Write a 250 to 500 word micro-memoir about a moment you still carry with you.
Choose one specific scene or instant in time. It may be joyful, unsettling, funny, tender, awkward, or unresolved. Focus on sensory detail, emotional truth, and what was happening beneath the surface.
You do not need to explain everything. Let the moment speak for itself.
At the top of your micro-memoir, include the title and your first name.
Please email your piece to sc@summersnow.pub by June 11th so members of the circle have time to read and reflect before our next gathering. Stephani will compile and email all submitted pieces to the group.
2) Respond to the Work of the Circle
Print out each circle member's submission. On each piece, reflect on these two questions:
What stayed with me?
Can you tell me more about this?
Feel free to underline passages, note favorite details, or respond to moments that sparked curiosity, emotion, or connection.
Sign your name to your comments and bring copies to class to return to each writer.
Micro-Memoir Resources
- Small Moments, Real Meaning: Writing the Micro-Memoir (Notes from s.c.halleen's presentation)