… the workshops
In workshops online or in person, you will practice a type of intuitive writing that is more like listening than thinking. Our inner voices have as much to say as our dreams. You’ll learn how to let the voice take hold of the pen.
Writing this way engages the whole self in the same way that playing does for children; in fact, the brain state of a child in play is identical to an adult in focused creativity. We let this writing happen for us instead of forcing ideas. Creativity takes over. Memory feels like time travel. The experience creates meaning, generates ideas, can be healing, and tends to result in stories that feel very much alive.
Like yoga, meditation, or dancing, writing this way releases tension, activates the whole system, and connects you to your authentic self. You will learn to sustain creative focus. Remembering why you matter and unleashing potential tends to happen.
WHO ARE THESE WORKSHOPS FOR?
The workshops are not just for writers, although the method does help writers open creative pathways and breathe life into their work. Learning to write this way is for anyone interested in using writing as a way to generate ideas, heal, remember, listen to the inner voice, or tell stories.
WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?
Privacy. You will not be required to speak, make eye contact, or be on camera. Guided Writing. You will be guided step-by-step in a safe and supportive space. No thinking required. Bring no ideas. Meaningful Exhaustion. Maintaining focused creative concentration is hard work. Expect to leave the workshop with a stack of stories and ready for a nap. Memories. The smallest details come to life in a way that feels like time travel, giving you an experience in words on paper.
Writing By Hand. To sneak around our rather controlling and thinky brains, handwriting is invaluable. Drawing letters on lined paper coaxes out both creativity and the inner voice. Expect to make friends with your funky handwriting, at least for a few hours, and see what stories is has to tell.
… Amy
I’m Amy Probst, an intuitive writer who loves to share things that work for me and were hard to figure out on my own.
Like so many other naturally creative kids, self-expression did not feel safe at some point, and my creativity went into hiding. Writing workshops with Lynda Barry showed me ways to creak open that door and eventually blow it off the hinges, changing my relationship with creativity, writing, and myself.
Lynda also lit in me a spark that led to the confidence to teach others: She believed in me before I did. Paying that forward by lighting sparks in others means the world to me.
I am also a corporate training specialist and Second City-trained improviser, former teenage runaway, I.T. technical writer, squirrel-feeder, Mensan, standup comedian, typewriter poet, and my county’s favorite poet by popular vote two years running. I have a social work degree, complicated brain, and care very much. Memoir in the works!
And I love questions. Even tests & interviews. Ask.
