LIVE Workshop: Talking Back to the Voices in Our Heads

This event is part of the ongoing workshops sponsored by Spring Writes Literary Festival, presented by the Ithaca Community Arts Partnership.

Talking Back to the Voices in Our Heads: Building Confidence as Writers

Many writers have an inner critic, an internal scold who loves to point out everything they’re doing wrong: procrastination, typos or spelling errors, grammatical or structural problems, too much telling and not enough showing… It can be hard even to get started knowing that voice is waiting to pounce.

This workshop, co-led by creative coach Emily Mure and novelist Nancy Holzner, features exercises and strategies to keep your inner critic from drowning out your writing. We’ll start by interrogating the critic to find out where that voice is coming from. Then, we’ll invite another voice to come forward—someone who believed in or encouraged you (past or present) in some area of your life. We’ll develop this champion’s voice to make it as strong as the critic’s. Finally, we’ll write a scene that puts the critic and the champion in dialogue.

These voices in our heads are characters we create. And as writers, we know how to work with characters! By understanding our inner critic and enlisting our champion, we can learn how to enlist their aid to help our writing, rather than block it.

Join creative coach Emily Mure and novelist Nancy Holzner in a fun, hourlong workshop exploring the internal voices that can block us or cheer us on.

We'll meet at Buffalo Street Books and DeWitt Mall, 215 N. Cayuga Street (enter on Buffalo Street). The event is free, but registration is required. You can register here. Hope to see you there!