Put #PenToPaper in 2024

#PenToPaper is a series of online courses for writers who want to generate new writing, focus on craft, and build their community. This year's theme is Be A Good Steward of Your Story.

The seeds of my stories are rooted in journals and spiral notebooks. In pages of complaints and off-shoots of ideas and running logs of what I need to do, what I want to do, and what I wish I’d never done. So many times this writing feels pointless but in truth, every time I write I am exercising my voice, my writer’s voice. In language and in rhythm, in structure of sentence or scene, putting pen to paper is the simplest way to hone my craft.

#PenToPaper, the online courses, began with this in mind: just write. Good, bad, or awful, you will eventually find your way to the story you want to tell.

I can’t wait to get this year’s series — Be A Good Steward of Your Story — rolling. There are four sessions, and all of them take writers through weekly prompts, discussions on craft, feedback on the work, and opportunity to connect with your peers.

• Session 1: Finding Your Story explores community and connection, the art of play, the gift of failure, and the story we find in the tangible.

• Session 2: Exploring the Exterior looks at setting the scene and tone through sensory writing and details, and at setting boundaries around space and place.

• Session 3: Honoring Relationships brings stewardship back into focus by bucking expectations and strengthening the relationships we have with each other (or character to character) and with the landscape.

• Session 4: Revising & Submitting takes inventory of strengths and weaknesses, looks at revision in layers, and sets sight on submitting the work you’ve been writing.

Taught by our publisher, Christi Craig, and hosted by Hidden Timber Books, details on dates, fees, and the link to sign up are all at christicraig.com. And, if you’re a paid subscriber to this substack, scroll down for the code that gives you 20% off registration fees at checkout.

Sign up for one or register for all four. Let’s see where your pen takes you this year!

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