Paulette Bates Alden: Workshops

Here are few examples of what Paulette's workshop participants have said.

"Paulette is extremely knowledgeable and big-hearted. She offered just the right balance of information and encouragement. I definitely hope to work with her again. This week, schmaltzy as it may sound, has changed my life in just the way I've needed for many many years. I feel inspired and am at last prepared to take myself seriously (with a lot of laughter!) - which was gloriously abundant in our group -- as a writer, a teller of stories."

"Paulette did an excellent job of creating a comfort level for all. Even though we were all writers at different stages, she managed to keep most of us close and on track. I loved her no judgment approach, her welcome smile and attitude and the organization of the class. She involved everyone and really had a knack to make the group cohesive and together."

"Best writing workshop/course I ever attended and believe me, I've seen a few!"

"Excellent knowledge of subject area; excellent control of group; great empathy for difficult disclosures; honest feedback - astute; excellent helpful hand-outs; I feel like I'm getting help from a master writer."

"Paulette is the first writing teacher I have ever had, but I can see she has set a standard that will be hard for others to meet. Her encouragement, enthusiasm for this topic, and her excellent teaching skills made this week a real pleasure. She taught me the basic skills I need, but also expanded my thinking about the validity of my own work."

"This workshop was wonderful for me because I focused on what I wanted to do under the expert guidance of an excellent teacher. The make-up of the class was diverse - positive people. I could readily observe the progress all of us made as the week moved on. I do not believe a better teacher could have been found for this class."

"Paulette was wonderful - well organized, and kept us on track - at the same time responsive to the quirky direction our workshop needed to go. Attentive to individuals, she has a great sense of humor. Not shy at offering pointed, specific suggestions and is gentle in offering them. She certainly spurred me on to write - and I also learned good techniques for teaching writing - many good ideas for reading, too."

"I enjoyed Paulette very much. She asked questions that led me just where I needed to go. Individual conference was very helpful - I would have liked even longer for this individual help. I would have liked even more class time - more time for class writing. The exercises were very valuable. My writing has moved forward because of this week at Split Rock."

"Paulette was great. She came well prepared. Her teaching had a nice pace of materials/readings/time for writing. She had a great nurturing style."

"I did not expect this workshop to be as pivotal to my writing as it became. It gave my writing direction, which it sorely needed. Paulette is an intelligent, compassionate person who is appropriately direct in making suggestions and recommendations to participants. She was always right on. She kept the workshop on track and accomplished what she said she was going to accomplish. A very focused, intense workshop, great input from participants, all held together by Paulette - superb."

"Paulette is an excellent instructor - well-organized, welcoming, extremely competent, humorous, gentle, manages her classroom exquisitely... Not only was it important to her that we receive the assistance we needed for this class, but that we see ourselves as writers in that we put our immediate work into a larger context."

"Paulette is a wonderful teacher - patient, informative, clear, articulate and helpful. She does a nice job of balancing didactic information, stimulating discussion and giving constructive feedback. She creates an atmosphere where others feel their thoughts and opinions are heard and respected."

"Paulette met and exceeded every expectation I had of her as an instructor. She was kind, respectful and gentle, but very much in control of the material and the class... I saw amazing progress in everyone's work throughout the week."

The following are workshops or courses which Paulette has conducted or has scheduled for the coming year.

Fictional Devices in Memoir: What the Memoirist Can Learn From the Fiction Writer

The memoirist has many of the same challenges as the fiction writer: how to tell a compelling story; how to bring characters to life in all their contradictions and complexity; how to shape experience and material so that they can be interpreted in the way a writer intends; how to balance showing and telling; how to write scenes and dialogue that are convincing and functional; issues of perspective and tense; and last but not least, how to find the voice that can synthesize all the elements that must work together to produce a successful piece of writing. In this workshop we’ll explore these topics, examine models of various techniques from published memoirs, and use exercises to practice such craft elements as characterization, writing dialogue and scenes, use of tone, and developing a narrative arc.

Writing The Memoir

Memoir writing is not simple matter of recording what we remember, but rather a complex, dynamic act of discovering what we truly know. This course introduces memoir as a literary form. Learn where to start, how to work through stages, how to establish a narrative voice, and how to make your writing come alive.

Anyone who sets out to write a memoir immediately understands that there is more to it than reminiscing. The fact is that memory itself is problematic, sometimes mixing things up, having big holes, or overwhelming us with data. We soon realize that what we have is experience and material, and what we want is STORY: our own true story, the way we think and feel about what has happened, what we make of it, the shape we give it.

Through exercises and examples, participants will work on how to determine intentions and goals; where to start; how to work through stages; how to establish a narrative voice; how to make the writing come alive with senses and detail; how to write scenes, dialogue and exposition; the role of reflection and imagination; and how to meet the needs of the reader.

Writing the Book-length Literary Memoir

This workshop is for writers who have a book-length memoir underway, with at least some chapters or pieces drafted. Memoir, as it is used here, has a subject and theme, and is concerned not only with what happened, but what the writer makes of what happened. It usually deals with a portion of a life, such as childhood (Angela's Ashes, The Liar's Club), or has a focus, such as mental illness (Girl, Interrupted), or a mother-daughter relationship (Fierce Attachments). The challenges facing the writer of a literary memoir involve such issues as from what perspective in time to tell the story, where and how to begin, how to structure and shape the material, how to hold the reader's attention, and questions of relevance--what to put in and what to leave out.

The group will explore these aspects of memoir through readings, exercises, and discussion. The instructor will help participants grapple with both the "forest" and the "trees," trying to access the big picture of the book as well as developing skills in writing scenes, exposition, summary and dialogue. In addition to one-on-one conferences with the instructor, the members of the group will have the opportunity to get helpful feedback on their writing from other members of the group. Because of the nature of this workshop, the class size will be limited to 12.

Note: Writing the Book-Length Literary Memoir is intended for people who want to write literary memoirs as opposed to family histories.

The Truth Speaker: Developing Voice in Autobiographical Writing

The memoirist Vivian Gornick asks the pertinent question with which all writers of autobiographical material must wrestle: "How does the writer of personal narrative pull from his or her own boring, agitated self the truth speaker who will tell the story that needs to be told?" By truth speaker she means the narrator or persona who knows the story, how to tell it, and what to make of it. But what is the story, and how do we tell it, and what do we make of it?

In this workshop for writers of memoir or essay, we'll ponder those questions as we work on pieces-in-progress and also new pieces developed from exercises in the workshop. We'll work specifically on developing this "truth speaker" - because, as Gornick also says, "Get the narrator and you've got the piece."

A lot has to come together before a narrator can speak the story with originality, authority and power. "Voice" is a key component of that ability, because voice is what melds everything together. But what is "voice" in writing? According to Peter Elbow, "writing with no voice is dead, mechanical, faceless," even if it's saying something true. Writing that has what he calls "real voice" has "the power to make you pay attention and understand-the words go deep." Real voice is what the truth speaker has. No one can really teach "real voice," but you can encourage people in that direction. You can help them hear the parts of their writing that are the most alive, the most urgent, the most necessary. You can give them examples and models of voice and personas in pieces that work, and help them begin to see why. You can give them exercises that will stretch their range, inviting wit, eccentricity, quirkiness, vulnerability, honesty, and maybe even the wondrous strange. In this workshop we'll be doing those kinds of things, and undoubtedly more!

Writing Healing Narratives

For people who want to take the raw material of their life experiences and shape it into narratives that have the power to move and heal. Participants in this workshop will be invited to write their stories and will be introduced to elements of a healing narrative drawn from recent research and other writers' experiences as well as the instructor's

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Voice Lessons

Often what we're attracted to in a piece of writing - a poem, a memoir, a short story -- is a distinct, original human voice... Voice occurs when a lot of things - personality, content, process, technique, authority, etc. -- come together for the writer. This workshop consists of "voice lessons" designed to help the writer pull together some of the aspects that help develop voice, whether in poetry or prose.

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Roaming in the Heart's Field: A Workshop on Place

In this workshop we will explore the heart's field of place through discussion of what such concepts as region, land, and "home" mean to us as people and writers; we'll study examples of writing which evoke place very strongly, analyzing what goes into such writing and how and why it affects us; and we'll do writing exercises designed to mine the meaning and feelings associated with our own places, generating in the process ideas, stories, and memoirs.

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