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The Writers Woodshed: A Sanctuary for Creative Exploration (Virtual class)

  • Story Parlor 227A Haywood Road Asheville, NC, 28806 United States (map)

Six Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm on Zoom: 3/26, 4/2, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7
No class April 9

Registration for this class is now full!
Please email us if you’d like to add your name to the waitlist.

Writers Woodshed (Zoom class)
$225.00

Early Bird pricing through March 10
Regular price effective March 11

Space is LIMITED to ensure an intimate experience. We recommend signing up EARLY!

Refund policies can be found here.

Do you struggle with having a consistent writing practice? Never fear, the Writers Woodshed is here. 

"To woodshed" means any private place to practice without being heard by anyone else.

Every week, we’ll start with a mindfulness practice, and then launch, heads down and pens ready, into a deep, guided “Associative Writing” adventure. In the end, you will make connections between the various pieces, which will spark new projects and stories.

You’ll get a ton of writing done but in a whole new way. This is for writers who play in any genre.

“Nina Hart creates a structure and process that feels like magic. Her class is an engine for inspiration and creative flow and it has consistently helped me break through in all of my work.”

~ILona Kimberly Nagy, writer, and senior editor 

We all need to woodshed. To play in our imagination. To sort through our lives and dig for the gold. So much of creativity is about associating, braiding, and threading one disparate element to another, and allowing a third to arise from the mysterious depths. We will do that in the Woodshed.

We will also read and listen to each other and offer positive-only feedback on these delicate, fledging creations.⁣

“A poem is like the meditation cushion. It is a field of discovery. It is not the record of something I already know. It is the record of the exploration of finding of the recipe for the alchemical transformation…”

~Jane Hirshfield

  • Nina Hart is the founder of "Writing from the Top of Your Head" workshops. She offers writing workshops and 1:1 first draft book coaching, and is a certified KaizenMuse Creativity Coach and Gateless Method writing facilitator. Her workshops have also been inspired by the work of Paulo Freire and his philosophy of education for liberation and the work of Brene Brown, among others. Her first collection of surreal short fictions called “Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere” was a finalist in Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Nina spends her time as a right-brained, highly sensitive, creative entrepreneur. She is passionate about helping writers find their voice and reclaim the hooligan kid spirit that most people have buried under an “adult” veneer. Nina considers herself to be an improvisational writer – she was a blocked writer until she rediscovered the curious part of herself who could play, experiment, and explore. She offers online workshops, writing retreats, and 1:1 coaching.

    You can check out her website and join her newsletter here: www.writingfromthetopofyourhead.com.

  • You’ll need your favorite notebook and pen, a computer or an iPad, and access to Zoom.

  • "I have struggled for years to write against a constant storm of inner criticism screaming, “Don’t write it like that. You can’t say that. You’re doing it wrong.” It’s been increasingly hard to summon up the courage to get to the page, let alone put words on it, and I end up retreating, sooner or later, under the torrent of self-abuse. I have read shelves of books on writer’s block and becoming more creative or productive, with little result.I’ve signed up for classes and creativity coaching, which I often don’t finish because the fear/perfectionism/self-criticism won’t abate enough to do the lessons... But Nina has structured the course so that, for the first time, those lessons could sneak, ninja-like, past my defensive barriers and take root. With the help of her talks and prompts—through which Nina’s compassion, wisdom, and playful spirit shine—I’ve finally created a small, safe space within myself where the words can flow without fear. It’s a feeling I’ve never experienced before, and I am so grateful to Nina for that gift."

    — Tinatsu Wallace

    “The content and material ALONE in this course is rich and deep enough to bring someone through substantial, substantive transformation not only in their creative lives, but in their lives, period. The hidden little traumas in all of us creatives get tweaked and exposed and witnessed in the process of these brilliantly diagnosed exercises that are laser-precise in what, where, and how they touch these places.”

    - Karuna Haber

    “Nina’s class blew me out of the water. I had done some things like it before so I felt like I was experienced… but this class! This class really opened up some sort of spigot in me and out came the words, the images, the magic. I don’t even know where it came FROM. It just came THROUGH."

    — Mindy Beller, Student

    “I have a degree in painting and drawing, but I don’t consider myself a writer. I joined Nina’s writing classes thinking they would help me with some technical writing for work. Boy, was that an undervision! This class completely blew the top off my creativity in a way that bled into everything in my art and life. It honestly taught me to just be myself and trust my own voice. I even make up words now, like undervision. I am free!”

    — Sarah Thomas, Student

    “These six weeks have changed my life, helped me set priorities, returned my vocabulary. I am reconnected to my young adulthood when I could say “I am a writer.” These classes are not about grammar and form but discovering the great creative mind rich with sentences and images. They are not about competition to be best but about each person’s unique discovery of their magical words and phrases. I am in a state of joy…”

    — Bonnie Schell, Student

    “When I started Nina’s class, I had mostly not written for two years – and was starting to wonder if I was still a writer. Now I’m on fire for writing. Nina is a truly creative soul – and a phenomenal cheerleader, coach, and creativity instigator.”

    — MJM, Student

    "No matter what kind of artist you are, this class is essential to your creative blossoming."

    — Badria Jazairi

    “This is the best thing that happened to me and my creativity.”

    - Flora Le