This workshop will help you get started on creative writing of any sort - poems, stories, personal essays, plays, novels. The history and underpinnings of what we do is spelled out in Let the Crazy Child Write! (New World Library, 1998) or, briefly, in "Preface" and "Chapter One" at the website http://matsonpoet.com. Also, a video preview is available at http://dragonflyvillage.com/WritingWorkshop.

We recognize three voices in the writer's psyche: "Editor," "Writer," and "Crazy Child" - or creative unconscious. The Editor is the "should " voice, as in you should write everything perfectly the first time, you should make money with your writing, you should make no spelling errors. The Writer organizes your writing life, finds blank paper and pens that work, makes time to sit at the computer or go to a coffeehouse with your notebook. The Crazy Child is the urge to write, that itch in your psyche or body that wants to get out into the world. We'll tell the Editor and Writer to take a walk and let your Crazy Child write whatever it wants. Our Writers and Editors may be fine at their jobs, but they often get involved too early in our writing. By letting the Crazy Child write whatever it wants, we'll produce energetic and enlightening rough drafts. These drafts will display our strengths, our passion and our most deeply held beliefs, and they are usually strongly stated. When we repeat your most vivid lines back to you, you'll discover that you are doing at least one or two things very well. You'll find your Crazy Child is smarter and far better organized than the Editor and Writer might think.

We are careful to establish a warm and inviting atmosphere where even the rawest and shyest of writers can flourish and feel proud of what they accomplish. I expect, as usual, eight or ten people (including some of brave beginners), much exciting writing, and fun to boot. Fee: $80. Any questions? Or you'd like to register, and need directions? Email clive@matsonpoet.com or call 510-654-6495.

"Clive Matson, a master teacher, set me on the path to writing freely, to writing with exuberance and joy. He is gentle and nourishing in his critiques and tough when pushing you to your highest potential."- Isabelle Maynard, author of CHINA DREAMS (University of Iowa Press, 1996)

"I've seen every kind of writer come from Clive's workshops very much improved and with a newfound confidence. He cherishes the primary impulse to create in everyone. He leads his merry band of writers to a place of vibrant self-realization; his humor and enthusiasm are as infectious as his wisdom." - Joe Quirk, bestselling author of THE ULTIMATE RUSH (William Morrow, 1998)

“Clive encourages the discovery of what so impassions us to write in the first place, what he calls the voice of ‘the Crazy Child’ – the intuitive, the raw, the bloody.” - Laura Glen Louis, author of TALKING IN THE DARK (Harcourt, 2001)