All Smiles at the April Workshop!

Our April workshop was such a fun time together! We spent a beautiful morning getting to know new friends, and many of us had headshots taken by Corrinne Vonphakdy. (She did a fantastic job!)

During the teaching portion of the workshop, Amanda did what she does best: encouraging us to remember the value of our words. She reminded us our stories are mirrors that help others discover themselves as we share ourselves. She also talked about the value of sharing our stories for us, as writers. Writing our stories is a powerful way to help us remember, mourn, heal, and celebrate. Our voices matter…to others and to us.

My topic focused on developing characters. We gave each woman a packet with 165 questions to ask our characters! I encouraged us to remember that sometimes we are the main character, especially if we are writing nonfiction. To ask ourselves these questions helps us to write more deeply and better understand who we are writing about.

Then, as always, we gave our attendees time to write and put what they were learning into practice.

Wow.

We were blown away by what was written that day. Watching women dig deep and bravely write and share incredible pieces never ceases to amaze us. There are some truly gifted women in our StoryHood community! We are excited for what lies ahead for each of us as we develop these relationships and help each other develop our skills as writers.

Thank you to each woman who attended and participated, and thank you to Corrinne for sharing her gift of photography with us! We look forward to another gathering very soon.

Until then, here are a few photos from our time together:

Courtesy of Amanda Parker

Courtesy of Corinne Vongphakdy

With gratitude,

Jeanine