Workshops

Successful Muse’s Alternative Writing 

Workshop and Retreat

check back soon for upcoming dates!

Until you get to “THE END,” writing is full of starts, stops and slow downs. How you respond to these is critical to your piece, your progress and your writing career.

Successful Muse’s Alternative Writing Workshop & Retreat teaches you how to respond to these stops and starts effectively, sensibly and compassionately.    No more  ‘beating your self up’.   Learn to replace the self criticism with encouragement and self-directed support for your own creative process. Leave the days of being demanding, judgmental, desperate or pessimistic about your writing or your future behind.

It’s true: you can develop a different way, a different ‘process.’

At Successful Muse’s Alternative Workshop and Retreat, I’ll show you how.

And you’ll be able to:

  • write more often,
  • write with fewer blocks (or none at all),
  • enjoy the writing process more and
  • handle difficult feelings more effectively.

If it’s time to  remove the tailspins from your writing experience and practice a healthy and productive relationship with your writing, this workshop will help get you there.   Take a deep dive into a different approach to your writing, sitting by the tranquil shore, surrounded by supportive fellow writers and a dedicated writing coach!

Immerse yourself in your writing while you get support and new ideas to break through blocks and stuck spots. You’ll have plenty of private time to write.   And breaks from writing will include:

  • Yoga, walking, swimming,
  • Group time to discuss writing and other challenges,
  • Feedback on your writing – if desired,
  • Individual consultation time with writing coach
  • Supportive fellow writers,
  • Fun, food and laughs.

Experience:

  • Support and encouragement,
  • A criticism – free zone,
  • Lack of pressure,
  • Challenge to help you grow
  • New approaches that make the writing process easier, more appealing and more productive.
  • Practice time to absorb ideas right then and there

Learn:

  • To understand and emerge from writing blocks
  • About your own writing patterns – and to respect them (they’re not bad)
  • How to create an internal ‘criticism-free zone’
  • How to ‘warm up,’ keep going, understand stops and starts
  • the difference between discipline and severity
  • When it’s a block and when it’s just time to take a break
  • How to enhance your sense of flow.

This workshop/retreat is for all writers, published or not,  who work in all genres and who want to take their writing further and learn ways to challenge the myths that writers must suffer through their work and be hard on themselves.

Please bring your own: lunch (or money to buy it), water, sunscreen, beach chair, beach umbrella and yoga mat if you wish to do yoga. Bring your own laptop or notebook and whatever else you need to be comfortable and healthy. There is a convenient array of local places to buy lunch, water and delicious frozen yogurt.

NO Raindate for the upcoming dates. Indoor office in case of rain.  

Cost for the day: $ 149.00.

 

For further information or to sign up, contact Marcia Weiss @ 617.817.4302 (cell)

 

The Successful Muse, 705 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 617.817.4302 (cell)

 

Posted on June 9th, 2011 by Marcia  |  No Comments »

New Workshop: Develop Your Writing Dream…

 

Have you ‘always dreamt’ of becoming a writer? Have teachers and others remarked on your writing potential?

If so, you’ll have a better shot at achieving it at this upcoming workshop.

What they probably didn’t tell you is that becoming a writer depends only partly on the quality of your work.  The rest depends on issues like how you handle success, ‘failure,’ the stops and starts of the creative process and how noisy your inner critic is.

In  our new workshop: Develop Your Writing Dream, learn what  makes a writer successful (besides ‘craft’).
Don’t join the ranks of writers whose careers stalled out because of perfectly treatable and common writer’s pitfalls like:

  • writing blocks,  
  • hyper-criticism,
  • perfectionism,   
  • procrastination,
  • inconsistent motivation,   
  • high expectations, 
  • performance issues,   
  • fear of success, 
  • fear of failure,  
  • personalization of rejection and the
  • blank page syndrome.

 

Develop Your Writing Dream is a six-week introductory workshop for writers who wan to take writing “more seriously. ”    This workshop lays the groundwork for your success by  teaching you how to successfully  handle the feelings and issues that stump most writers .

In the workshop, you’ll be able to :

  • Discuss your goals and aspirations,
  • Talk about the challenges you face now,
  • Examine common myths and beliefs about writing and publishing and
  • identify myths that may be bogging down your writing process,
  • Discuss how to develop a  lifestyle that supports your writing,
  • Nurture a positive and healthy relationship with your writing,
  • Use writing exercises to practice new approaches to writing issues,
  • Understandow these new approaches are absolutely essential to moving forward.
  • Build the skills, strengths and attitudes that will sustain your writing practice.

Develop Your Writing Dream is an experiential professional development workshop  for relatively new writers who want to write more and enjoy it more and/ or who are considering developing a writing career.  The workshop offers a supportive, non-competitive and safe place to explore needs and concerns candidly. Grow, gain confidence, hone your writer’s identity and receive supportive feedback that will assist you in your whole writing career.  Develop Your Writing Dream  will help you lay a strong foundation for  your career, your craft and your dream.

To sign up or to get more information, please contact Marcia Weiss at 617.817.4302 (cell).

Next Workshop begins: TBA shortly! Check back soon.

Fall Class begins: TBA shortly! Check back soon.

$240.00 for each series.

Individual writing coaching available separately.

I am a writing coach, psychotherapist and writer.  I  love to  help writers – both neophyte and advanced –  get their footing  in the writing/ art worlds, take the steps and learn the ways to pursue their dreams. I can help you to!

CONTACT: The Successful Muse, 705 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 617.817.4302 (cell)

Posted on June 7th, 2011 by Marcia  |  No Comments »

Embolden Your Inner Writer Weekend Workshop…

helps you build a relationship with yourself that supports and encourages your creativity and productivity as well as lays the groundwork for professional and financial success.

Reduce perfectionism, procrastination and fear of the ‘blank page,’
Quiet the inner critic,
Gain confidence,
Build motivation and momentum in your writing,
Establish greater self compassion and thoughtful,
Develop your writerly voice,
Develop the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs that make writers successful,
Overcome motivational hurdles to become a more productive writer … and
Have fun while you’re doing it, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted on January 19th, 2009 by Marcia  |  No Comments »

Write Your Book: Weekend Writing Workshop & Retreat

Like sweet flowers to bees, the daunting project of writing a book lures our internal conflicts. We cannot always resist getting stuck in their sticky nectar. The results however are far from ambrosial. Often we become mired in procrastination, pessimism, perfectionism, self criticism, depression, self doubt and panic. 

 

Write Your Book is a weekend writing retreat and workshop for writers who are stuck in a current project and want to get beyond these painful issues. Learn to handle inner obstructions in order to reinvigorate your writing project and re-engage with it in a positive way.

 

Come to understand your stuck points through exercises, group discussion and individual consultations. You’ll have plenty of time to write and practice applying fresh ideas as you build new skills and implement new insights to challenge your pessimism and other issues for when you write your next page and the next and the next until you reach THE END.

 

 

Details:

 

For Questions, please contact:

Marcia Weiss at 617.817.4302 (cell) or e-mail her at info@successfulmuse.com

 

Dates & Times:

Upcoming workshops are TBA.

 

Location:

705 Cambridge Street

Cambridge, MA 02141 

Cost:

$225.00 for both days.

 

Discount:

TBA.

 

Payment:

Please make check out to: Marcia Weiss and send to 705 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

Sorry, no credit cards accepted at this time.

 

To Register:

Please send name, address and home and cell phone numbers and e-mail address so confirmation may be send to you.

CONTACT: The Successful Muse, 705 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 617.817.4302 (cell)

Posted on January 19th, 2009 by Marcia  |  No Comments »