From Reflection to Connection: Putting Your Inner Monologue on the Page

Additional Information

As writers, we understand the importance of scene-building and observation of detail, but adding reflection can sometimes feel as though we are stating the obvious. Yet putting more of ourselves into our story can be a critical element in building a meaningful connection between narrator and reader.

We often censor our own internal engines of chaos, but instead we can use them to make art and literature. In this webinar, we’ll explore the lively world of stream-of-consciousness writing in both fiction and nonfiction and consider the range of moves available in adding reflection to our work.

Even when we don’t have high drama in our lives, watching what Phillip Lopate calls “the mind at work” can generate surprising connections and draw the reader into a closer relationship with the narrator. Using mind-observation and meditation techniques, we will practice ways of catching the mind in its non-linear leaps, following in the footsteps of such writers as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce and learning how we might make our ordinary days into extraordinary writing.

In this webinar, you will:

• CONSIDER metacognitive techniques and frame the process of catching thought as “internal scene”
• REDEFINE and broaden the concept of “reflection” within everyday moments
• DRAW connections between tangents, stream-of-consciousness writing, and traditional nonfiction modes

There will be time for a Q & A at the end of the presentation.

This webinar is ideal for writers at all levels, especially those who sometimes feel frustrated about discipline or stymied by their own perfectionism and who want to become more fluent and productive.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.