24PearlStreet Workshops and Events
Often, that moment when you first begin to write is the scariest. This one-week intensive workshop will help you get started by asking the right questions. Whether you’re stuck in a draft that isn’t working, having trouble organizing your story, or are just unable to get started, this class is designed to help you.
In his book on the craft of writing, Stephen King says: the scariest moment is just before you start. This workshop takes that moment and makes it less scary by asking you the right questions about what you are writing and why. Then we will move on to how to begin, and by the end of our week you will have your first 1-3 pages and a road map of where to go next.
Whether you’re stuck in a draft that isn’t working, having trouble organizing your story, or just unable to get started, this workshop will help you.
I will post points for discussion every morning. Your responses by 5:00 that same day will include answering questions to help you get started on your memoir. On our last day, you will post 1-3 opening pages and an outline of your memoir. Everyone will post responses to that by 5:00 that day.
At the end of our workshop, I will mail you a personal feedback letter that will include my thoughts on your opening and how to tweak it and your outline, as well as suggestions for going forward and reading recommendations.
Stephen King also says: you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. In this workshop, you will!
Biography
Ann Hood
is the author of over a dozen novels, including the bestsellers The Knitting Circle, The Obituary Writer, and The Book That Matters Most. Her debut novel, the bestseller Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, has been in print since 1987. She has also written five memoirs, including Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, which is the story of her five-year-old daughter Grace who died from a virulent form of strep in 2002. The book was a NYT Editors’ Choice and was named one of the top ten non-fiction books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly.
Her essays and short stories have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, The Paris Review, and many more.
She has won two Pushcart Prizes, two Best American Food Writing awards, a Best American Travel Writing award, and a Best American Spiritual Writing award,
Hood’s most recent book is her memoir, Fly Girl, which is about her eight years as a TWA flight attendant from the late 70s to the mid-80s, spanning the Golden Age of Flying through deregulation and the beginning of vast system wide changes.
Ann Hood splits her time between Providence, Rhode Island and New York City with her husband, the food writer Michael Ruhlman.
