The Joy of Writing with Anne McDonald

Course Summary:

Over a period of six weeks, this course will look at how the process of writing can help with well-being by working with memory, everyday surroundings and imagination. It will help participants to rediscover the joy of writing and set writing goals which are achievable, challenging and inspiring.

Participants will be invited to write with prompts given during the sessions and invited to write with weekly topics taken from their immediate surroundings.

The emphasis with each prompt is to have fun and to use writing as a way to communicate, articulate and develop individual voices and writing styles.

Course Outline:

• Week One: Writing, is it work or recreation? Is there a difference? History of writing for wellness.
• Week Two: Finding inspiration in the everyday. Keeping notes, making space and finding a rhythm.
• Week Three: To submit or not to submit? Dealing with rejection, nerves and procrastination.
• Week Four: Time stealers. What distracts you from writing? Tools to deal with distractions.
• Week Five: Challenges & Commitment. What will help? What will get in the way?
• Week Six: Setting powerful goals. Participants will work on individual goals suited to their level and aspirations for their writing.

Each week participants will be invited to share their work in the format of “What I got done. What got in the way. What I got done instead.” This allows participants articulate if there is a pattern that has developed that takes them away from their writing and what they can to do refocus.

You will look what draws you to favourite fairy-tales, poetry, stories and song lyrics and how these can be used to inspire you to write.

You will also look at what the process of submission is depending on genre and individual aspirations. Through writing for well being, you will examine how writers can gain confidence in their own voice and replace fear of rejection with the joy of completing a piece.

Course Outcomes:

Participants will take away a sense of what it is that writing means to them, where they want to go with their writing and what simple steps they can take to give their writing space and focus. Each participant will have a set of writing goals that are personal and specific to them so they can leave the course with a clear sense of direction.

Anne McDonald (B.A., M.Phil) is a professional life coach, creative writing teacher and award winning spoken word performer. She was featured as life coach on the BBC production of The Last Resort, with Woman’s Way magazine and has facilitated The Artist’s Way for many years. She has been a winner in the Strokestown International Poetry competition was shortlisted in the RTE Frances MacManus short story competition. Her poetry collection Crows’ Books was published in March 2021.