Location: Substack, Zoom

Topic: Expressive Writing, Self-Authorship

Genres: All

Instructor: Shawna Ayoub

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Course Overview: “I Exist Here” is a course that utilizes the techniques of expressive writing to explore the times, places, and roles that continue to define us. In this course, we will follow a three-part approach to all writing, beginning with the facts, moving to the emotions, and followed by a self-check-in. This method is proven to improve both mental and physical health outcomes. As a rule, we will write four days a week for at least 20 minutes. Topics do not have to be traumatic in nature, although you are welcome to explore themes of grief and pain along with joy and growth.

This course poses a central question: What is alive inside you? When you examine what zings, you are looking at a place you dwell. This course will ask you to identify those moments, examine them both with distance and up close, and to determine how they inform your existence. You will also be prompted to reframe narratives that do not serve the person you would like to be. Sometimes, where we choose to stop existing is just as informative as where we are existing.

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Course Structure: Each two-week module, you will be assigned a set of readings. They will include selections on craft and samples of writing or media that explore themes of identity. You will be offered a set of questions to help you more deeply engage this content, followed by a series of 20-minute prompts that will also employ the same arc: facts, feelings, healing, and revision. When writing to prompts, blocks 1-3 should be expressive, meaning you will write without concern for grammar, punctuation, or spelling. The goal is to write for the full 20 minutes, putting down whatever comes into your head. During the final session, you will focus on revision.

Module Structure

Week 1: assigned readings and questions

Week 2: four 20-minute writing sessions

Please engage the readings over the course of each module’s first week so you have time to sit with the questions and re-read. Engage the four 20-minute periods of writing on different days throughout the second week. The first three can happen back-to-back, but try to give yourself a gap between the third and fourth writing sessions. Finally, set a timer for each writing session. You can repeat sessions if you choose, but this course is designed to help you build a writing practice and generate content while preventing you from writing in a way that creates blocks.

Tips: It is helpful to have a safe and comfortable space to write. Consider when and where you will do your writing assignments each week. It is also helpful to have an opening and closing ritual to aid your brain in leaving your writing at the table. This could be lighting a candle for the duration of the writing session, going for a walk before and after, or some other routine that works for you.

Book Recommendations: If you are able, I highly recommend you order a copy of Story Work by GG Renee Hill. You should not need to purchase any of the books for this course. Links to PDFs and other content will be provided each module.

Please see the full list of recommended reading on my “I Exist Here” Bookshop.org affiliate list. Note that we are only reading excerpts from these collections, but the full books are worth consuming!

Final Note: I do intend for this to be a multi-part course. Part 1, what you see here, will focus on identifying the stories you want to tell and getting them started. This is a generative session. Part 2 will bring in more craft and focus on building a collection of the work you began in this session. Part 3 will be a workshop series in which I hope we can begin to work in groups. For this first part, though, I think it’s important for us to maintain privacy as we potentially explore impactful moments for the first time.

Module Links:

Module 1

Module 2

Module 3

Module 4

Module 5

Module 6

Schedule 1:1 Zoom