“Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them.” — Constantin Brancusi

LEARNING AIMS

• Manage and understand stress, procrastination, anxiety, and self-doubt
• Be kinder to yourself and understand different stages and types of writing
• Think critically about ways to manage and reorganise your life to write
• Learn practical pre-writing exercises such as mind-mapping and outlining
• Let go of perfectionism and analysis paralysis to enjoy incremental progress

TUITION & TIME

• 5-7 PM GMT
• Saturday, Jan 21
• £35 per person

ABOUT

This January masterclass will help you fulfil your artistic potential in kind, quiet, and gentle ways.

Live via Zoom with a community of writers across the US and UK, you will learn how to set out weekly and daily intentions and learn new habits of mind, body, and spirit to help cultivate your creative process.

I will teach you ways to mindfully monitor and measure your progress to include breakthroughs in ideas, writing revisions, and positive mental imaging — and not just counting words.

The aim is letting go of perfectionism to create a heightened sense of yourself and an appreciation of your individual creative processes.  I will teach you how to actively read like a writer and record this in your daily writing journal.

This increased awareness of writing on a holistic level should create a sense of positive accountability. My aim is to help you create a more intentional writing practice by enhancing your understanding of psychological mindsets that will help you work attentively and effectively.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Kathryn Aalto is a passionate practitioner and teacher of narrative nonfiction.  For more than twenty-five years, she has taught writing and literature courses at colleges and universities including Western Washington University, Everett Community College, and Plymouth University and has given guest lectures at Cambridge University, Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, and more. She has a global mentoring practice, guides students in a vibrant online writing school, and leads in-person retreats, courses, and workshops in the United States and United Kingdom. She is a judge for The Nature Chronicles Prize, an international bi-annual award for nature writing in the English language. She is represented by Peter McGuigan at Ultra Literary in New York City. As a public speaker, she has given hundreds of talks at distinguished speakers’ series and is represented by Chartwell Speakers in New York City.