PAPER TRAIL
Creative Writing Workshops
Are you looking for a workshop where you'll be encouraged and supported to find and strengthen your writing voice?
Are there ideas or stories and poems inside of you that want to find their way onto the page?
Paper Trail offers writing workshops using the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) method to support both practiced and emerging voices.
In these workshops we will write together, take risks, play with words and stories, and listen to the new and familiar voices that may show up on the page.
ABOUT US
Paper Trail writing workshops aim to build a creative community, make room for developing craft, and hold stories.
In each session, we share a wish to show up and give time to our creativity, be inspired by prompts encouraging us to go in new directions, and generate some writing!
Paper Trail uses the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) writing method, developed by Pat Schneider (Writing Alone & With Others, Oxford University Press, 2003). This method treats all writing as fiction, allowing us to write wherever our pens take us.
Each one of us has a story to tell and our own strong voice. This method allows us to create and share work in an open and supportive environment, relax, and settle into our writing. Together, we learn how fun and inspiring it can be to see where our first draft, just-written work, will take us!
IN OUR WORKSHOPS WE:
write in response to provided prompts, or follow our pens where they lead
read our writing to each other when we choose
share what works well in a piece of writing—learning to pay attention to what sticks with us
support each other's work and creativity
have the opportunity to receive feedback on a longer piece of writing
build a creative community together
IF YOU WRITE, YOU'RE A WRITER
One of the core beliefs of the AWA program—if you write, you're a writer—speaks to the whole reason Paper Trail began. In these workshops we welcome beginning and experienced writers. Each one of us can create, regardless of where we went to school, how much money we have, or what and whose stories we’ve been told are important.
We invite diverse voices and genres. We believe writing can help us to better understand and connect with ourselves and with the world we live in. We support the development of craft by generating new writing in each workshop. We support each other by taking risks and by listening carefully.
During each workshop, as part of the workshop fee, participants have the option to bring in a longer piece of work, or collection of writing, for manuscript review. Participants are also offered one meeting with Jeannette outside of the regular workshop, to chat over a cup of tea about writing or a particular piece they are working on.
Please be in touch anytime to get more information.
SCHEDULE
Fall 2023 and Winter 2024
Thursday, December 7, 2023
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Online
CREATING HOLIDAY GIFTS OF WRITING
Spend an evening with others to create and share a gift of writing! This time can be spent as an offering of a gift to yourself - the gift of time and attention to your creativity. I will also offer specific prompts and ideas for creating a gift of writing or art that can be shared with someone you love during the holidays.
Together we will think about what matters most. Come listen to poetry and be inspired by the voices in the room!
Mondays, January - March 2024
10:00 - 12:00 a.m.
Online
10-WEEK WRITING GROUP ONLINE
Are you looking for a workshop where you'll be encouraged and supported to find and strengthen your writing voice? Do you wish you could find more time to write?
I support writers to soften the grip of perfection. I offer playful ways to work with the stuck places. Using prompts that guide us to explore craft and simply showing up on the page, our group offers an invitation to open to a wider vision of what developing a writing practice can look like. I offer inspiration and support for sticking with it through readings and creative prompts you can use at home to support your writing. We'll play with settling in, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and adjusting together as we go. This group is for both new and experienced writers and is an offering aimed at building and supporting a creative community.
Sundays, January - March 2024
2:00 -4:00 p.m.
In-person
Shelburne Falls Yoga, The Mill at Shelburne Falls, 49 Conway St. Suite 201
10-WEEK IN-PERSON WRITING GROUP
Are you looking for a workshop where you'll be encouraged and supported to find and strengthen your writing voice? Do you wish you could find more time to write?
I support writers to soften the grip of perfection. I offer playful ways to work with the stuck places. Using prompts that guide us to explore craft and simply showing up on the page, our group offers an invitation to open to a wider vision of what developing a writing practice can look like. I offer inspiration and support for sticking with it through readings and creative prompts you can use at home to support your writing. We'll play with settling in, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and adjusting together as we go. This group is for both new and experienced writers and is an offering aimed at building and supporting a creative community.
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Jeannette Eaton fell in love with the power of words at age seven and has been writing ever since. She believes writing gives us a chance to connect with ourselves and with other people and offers a mirror to our lived experiences.
Along with offering creative writing workshops, Jeannette works as a mindfulness meditation teacher. Jeannette is certified in the AWA Writing Group method, and is an AWA affiliate.
With a long background in nonprofit work, connecting with and contributing to her community has been the focus and passion of her work. She received her Master’s in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College, where she learned to use the written word for social change.
Above all, Jeannette loves to write and to encourage and show up for other people who love to write, or who feel ready to give writing a try.
GET IN TOUCH
I’d love to hear from you! Reach out today with questions, to make sure the workshops will meet your needs, to register for an upcoming workshop, or simply to learn more about Paper Trail workshops.
Please sign up for my newsletter using the subscribe form below to make sure you hear about upcoming offerings!
Workshops currently offered online and in-person.
"Ten times a day something happens to me like this--some strengthening throb of amazement--some good sweet empathetic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of our attentiveness."