Lorraine’s Workshops
Lorraine is available to speak to groups on the following topics. Contact Lorraine for availability and details. Check the Events & Appearances page for the current schedule.
- Iceberg Tips: Deep Memoir Writing from the Top Down
Manna for writers looking to start or deepen their memoirs in long or short forms, including books and essays. Ideal for a weekend workshop, though parts can be adapted for a day-long workshop.
Participants will identify five or six different “tips,” or ways awareness surfaces in their consciousness, and then write them into full fruition — an essay or a chapter — in such a way as to capture them in all their depth and significance. It’s wonder-filled writing because the writer lowers the proverbial water level and sees what’s in her own psyche as she writes. Interspersed in this workshop are micro-lessons, including thoughts on when to unpack the writing, and when not to, and the value of actually reporting on one’s own life. At the end we will explore how the ocean metaphor can be used to create resolution in our life stories and how what first surfaces in our consciousness suggests the structure of those pieces of writing we weave from personal experience.
- The Art of the Spiritual Memoir
Perfect for writers interested in crafting their own book-length memoir. Provocative for readers with an innate love of great prose and inner exploration. Available for a weekend, extended weekend or week-long retreat.
The words that flow from our pens weave meaning through and among our life experiences, revealing themes and patterns particular to our journeys. This meaning grows into wisdom and healing and, often, beautiful works of art. We will learn how to summon, present and arrange pieces of our lives for two purposes. One, to understand them. Two, to create memoirs rich in surprises and spiritual treasures. Each participant will outline a book project, write drafts of some passages and leave with inspiration to keep going.
- Wisdom of Words: Writing to Heal the Spirit
Designed for individuals looking for solace and self-understanding in times of great loss, and also for those who want to gently explore their hearts for the meanings in significant life experiences, quiet or dramatic.
Available in varying lengths for mid-sized to large conferences or for private intimate groups.
Quietly, and often in flashes, our higher selves offer us comfort and insight every day. Lorraine opens this workshop by introducing the blank page as a place to capture these soul whisperings, which enter our hearts and minds from a higher, wider dimension than the one in which we live and suffer. She teaches how to collect and appreciate these whisperings as the makings of new perspectives and understandings.
A variety of short writing exercises help participants crack open their own memories and experiences to find the lights of insight within them. With each exercise comes a different frame of perspective through which to view and explore pain, grief and love. Short passages by noted authors, famous great people and classical works are used as springboards to get creative juices flowing. To ease participants’ sense of aloneness in the world, the passages span eras and cultures, reminding us that loss and confusion, seeking and finding, have been part of the human drama from the start.
No writing experience is required.
- The First Page / The Ending: Framing Your Story
Two workshops for authors and essayists, to be taken independently or as a set.
- The first page is the most important one in any work—the one that causes editors or readers to stop reading or compels them to turn the page. Learn the hallmarks of a great opener, including secrets of setting, voice, juxtaposition, timing and quality observations.
- The ending is just that — a closure. Stories end. They don’t stop. Learn what makes an ending resonate. We’ll talk about imagery, surprises, feeling, “elevator revelations,” and effective ways to use quotations.
Participants in both workshops are invited to send Lorraine the first and/or last pages of a work-in-progress ahead of time. In the afternoon they will be read aloud, anonymously, by an independent reader and we will evaluate them in terms of what was covered in the morning. Everyone will leave with ideas for a polished start, and end, to their works.
- Stillbirth: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know
Designed for medical and support staff to help them tailor hospital protocol to best meet the needs of stillbirth parents.
Should a stillbirth mother stay on the maternity ward? How does the language used by those around stillbirth parents affect them? Lorraine reads passages from Life Touches Life and speaks from personal experience to address such questions. Others include: How will stillbirth parents respond to the decorations in the maternal-fetal medicine department? Is taking pictures of parents and baby upsetting or healing? What is the psychological impact of going home from the hospital holding nothing at all? What’s the best way to follow up with stillbirth parents?
Lorraine’s talk on this topic in July 2004 at Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pompton Plains NJ was previewed in The Chilton Physician (101 KB PDF file; Adobe Acrobat Reader required; if you have trouble accessing this newsletter, refer to “PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files” on our support page) and was written up in this Chilton Memorial Hospital press release.