Write-O-Rama

Saturday, June 5, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

When was the last time you wrote all day? Really, all day—not in between loads of laundry, the kids' soccer games or reruns of "The Golden Girls"? Well, here's your chance...

Write-O-Rama is a full day of more than 30 one-hour workshops offered by Hugo House's writing teachers. Sample Hugo classes, dabble in different forms and genres and share your fresh, new writing before the ink even dries at two open mics—all for $50 ($45 for Hugo House members)!

For the first time ever, you can pre-register for Write-O-Rama online, and we definitely recommend you do, so we'll have enough pencils sharpened and coffee brewed. You'll need both to write all day.

And for the procrastinators among us, day-of registration will still be offered, beginning at 9:30 a.m., though you can drop-in at any time during the day, register and get writing.

Workshops begin at 10 a.m. and run every hour until 5 p.m. when the wrap party and second open mic begins. (The first open mic is during the lunch break at 1 p.m.) See the running list of workshops here.

Ready to O-Rama? Register today! Did we mention that it's only $50?

In the event that you must cancel your Write-O-Rama registration, cancellations must be requested in writing. (Email is fine.) All refunds are subject to a $25 cancellation fee up to May 28. After this date, no refunds will be made.

Presenting Sponsor:

Sponsored by Cafe Argento and Caffe Vita

Become a Write-O-Rama Underwriter
Write-O-Rama Underwriters—formerly called Laureates—are super fundraisers. Underwriters commit to raising at least $250, and in return, they receive an arm-load of goosebumps for supporting a good cause, get connected to the local writing community, succumb to the whirlwind of inspiration that is Write-O-Rama and earn a slew of fabulous prizes.

To become a Write-O-Rama Underwriter, e-mail Rebecca Brinson at development@hugohouse.org.

Prizes for Write-O-Rama Underwriters
Last winter, Write-O-Rama raised $10,000 for Hugo House. This summer, we're setting the bar even higher—our goal is $12,500. Become a Write-O-Rama Underwriter and lend your support to Hugo House, and in return, you can win the following prizes:

• The person who raises the most money will win a six-week Hugo Class;
• The people who raise the second and third largest amounts will each win a one-day class;
• And other prizes will be awarded for Underwriters with the most donors, the most creative fundraising asks and more!

What if I can't make it to Write-O-Rama?
You can still make a gift to Hugo House or sponsor a Write-O-Rama Underwriter instead. Here's how:

1. Push the "Donate Now through Network for Good" button below;
2. Enter the amount you want to give—it is all tax deductible;
3. Fill out your donation and privacy preferences;
4. Under "Designation" type "Write-O-Rama";
5. Under "Dedication" type the name of the person you want to sponsor (including yourself);
6. Fill out your credit card information as instructed;
7. Make your online contribution by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 4 for it to count towards your friend's total for Write-O-Rama prizes and glory.

Write-O-Rama Workshops for June 2010

Workshops begin at 10 a.m. and continue on the hour throughout the day until 5 p.m. Workshops are subject to change.

Self-Interrogation: From Question to Revelation in Personal Nonfiction with Wendy Call
Ask yourself tough questions about everything from the quotidian to the profound and find powerful answers. We’ll probe the depths of pride and shame, mining for gems that you can later polish into finished works of personal nonfiction (essay or memoir). We’ll spend most of our time together writing.

Instant Fiction with Robert Clark     
Create mini-fictions and short short stories—PRESTO!—from random nonfiction materials such as news clippings, letters, photos and other real world objects.

Stripping Fiction (or “Narrative Sequencing") with Lyn Coffin
Who says kindergarten is just for kids? Armed with scissors and some scotch tape, we will turn story skeletons (lists of fictional events) into Moebius strips, and go from there.

Reviewing, Regressing, Reverting—or, Just Thinking Backward with Cara Diaconoff   
In making up stories, what if, instead of “What happens next?” we asked, “What happened before?” In this mini-workshop, we'll experiment with set prompts and a “backwards” structure to maybe discover the shape of a new story or narrative poem. 

What’s So Funny? with Wilson Diehl
In this creative nonfiction workshop you’ll explore the moves that humorists use to make readers laugh and try them out yourself. Be prepared to write—and to crack yourself up.

From Inciting Incident to Resolution: A Five-Focus Story with Scott Driscoll
Borrowing heavily from cinema, we’ll look at story as a journey from an inciting incident, up the arc past a point of no return to an insight moment that leads to a climactic attempt to resolve the conflict. We’ll also define conflict as the gap between the object of desire and the repeated attempts to get there that fall short.

The First Time with Mindy Hardwick   
Come explore how the world of the “first” can be a means for generating material. In this workshop, we’ll examine how those first experiences, good or bad, can provide us with an abundance of ideas for story. 

Zines 101 with Graham Isaac & Emily Van der Harten
Have an idea for a zine that you want to finally turn into a finished, tangible product? This class will teach you the finer points of self-publishing and the physical traits of production. We will work with Publisher, study the aesthetics of a zine and employ these tools to the process of bringing your work to a printable piece of work. With this class you will develop the know-how to take the content you have or would like to create and make it into a zine.

Banish Your Writing Blocks! with Bharti Kirchner   
Learn mind-mapping, free writing and other useful tools. Practice these techniques to gather materials for an article or an essay, flesh out a character or dramatize a scene from a novel.  

Postcard Secrets with Linera Lucas   
This is a three-part exercise. The first part is to write as the person who sent the postcard. The second is to write as the person who received the postcard. The third part is a secret, to be revealed only in the workshop.
 
I Am Your Table of Contents, or Write the Poem Someone Has Always Wanted! with Sierra Nelson
Together we’ll generate a list of imagined poem titles (poems that don’t exist yet—but will!), swap favorites and write like crazy to satisfy the demand. Join this fun poetry sweatshop using a time-honored technique of The Typing Explosion. You’ll leave with a handful of new poems and poem-starts, plus a list of ideas for poems to come.

Lights! Camera! Action! A Quickie Flick with Dickey Nesenger
In this screenwriting teaser, writers will practice principles of the trade, formatting skills and cinematic points-of-view through completing one-minute screenplays.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Scene with Michael Overa
When characters are in plain sight they often reveal more than they intend and/or realize. We will discuss, briefly, how the smallest details can reveal character. Basing our inquiry on Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well Lighted Place,” we will explore how characters act when they believe that they are unobserved.

Jumpstarting the Story with Midge Raymond   
What writer’s block? In this session, you’ll begin a story from scratch and write as much you can in an hour’s time. Through prompts, you’ll create characters and conflict, then flesh out the story with dialogue and detail. By the end, you’ll have the beginnings of a story or novel.

Got Duende? with Judith Roche
We’ll explore Lorca’s concept of Duendé: what it might be and who might have it. The writing exercise will be a poem based on specific words. This exercise will bring out the best in you, surprise you with what you’ve have written and maybe even incorporate some of the qualities of Duendé.

S----Happens! with Roberta Brown Root
But why? For writers, the truth lives in sentences. Let’s sharpen our pencils and begin to excavate, find purpose behind our pain and extract emotional wisdom from our travails.

Speed Translation with Ed Skoog
They say much gets lost in translation—but what gets found? In this workshop, you’ll receive a poem in a foreign language, along with a direct transliteration into English. After some discussion of ways to approach it, participants will try making a good poem, either a translation or an original work.

Forget "The Rules" with JT Stewart
Forget grammar books (i.e. The Rules) and just write. Test drive this multi-genre workshop by spotting and shuffling pronouns. Come away with two manuscripts of your choice: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, plays—all potentials for the day’s open mics and/or future development. Lots of reading aloud and imaginative explorations.

The Ahh of Visual Poetry with Ann Teplick
Visual poetry is created for the eye—a marriage of poetry and art that creates images and patterns with words. These poems are designed to be seen, and offer new ways of "seeing" the world. We will peek at this form’s history, its many examples, and then create visual poems of our own.

Memory: The Dream and the Lie with Sarah Vap
In this workshop we will consider the poem that works with memory and with Memory. We will explore the truth of each of these kinds of memory—their purpose and place in poetry.