1-day Character Lab*
“There is no crime of which I cannot conceive myself guilty.” –Goethe
WHAT: A 1-day, 3-hour creative writing intensive focusing on Dynamic and Compelling Characterization.
FOR WHO: Writers, avid readers, sexy dilettantes, and artistic types (dancers, actors, yogis, painters)—hungry to explore this medium.
WHEN: Saturday May 24th 10am-1pm (arrive at 9:30 for bagels and coffee and sign in.)
WHERE: Performing Arts Workshop. A beautiful open loft space at 1661 Tennessee Street, Unit 3-O, San Francisco, CA 94107
WHAT TO BRING: Your laptop or a notebook with a working writing utensil. A bottle of water. A snack in case your bagel wears out.
HOW MUCH: $50.00** advanced sign-up/$60.00 at the door.
SIGN UP HERE
**The tuition for this 1-day Lab can be used toward the tuition of the 8-week Fall 2008 Lab beginning in September.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER LAB ON 5/24:
It is my belief that all good prose starts with compelling characters. Everything: plot, setting, and point-of-view springs forth from the particular fears, wants, needs, and desires of our characters. Consider the following quotes:
"The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented. It is that crossed border (the border beyond which my own “I” ends) which attracts me most. For beyond that border begins the secret the novel asks about. This novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become."-Milan Kundera
"Unless we are willing to escape into sentimentality or fantasy, often the best we can do with catastrophes, even our own, is to find out exactly what happened and restore some of the missing parts" –Norman Maclean
"Sometimes the smallest details of another person’s daily struggle threaten to destroy us. We avert our gaze because sympathy forces us to recognize the fragility of our human bodies and our human spirits." –Melanie Rae Thon
This Lab will help us begin to find our own "unrealized possibilities" to "restore some of the missing parts" and focus "our gaze" on that process without averting our eyes.
STRUCTURE:
After coffees and hellos (starting at 9:30) we'll work for 3 hours.
- Half-hour Lecture/Discussion on Topic
- Half-hour write.
- 15 minute Break.
- Half-hour continuation of Lecture/Discussion
- Half-Hour Write.
- 45 minutes: Read. Discuss. Brainstorm for development.
THE SPACE:
Performing Arts Workshop's offices are huge, high-ceilinged, filled with light, airy, and gorgeous. I've participated in several artistic workshops there and the space is utterly conducive to the creative process. Plus the furniture is comfortable!
*ABOUT MY PRIVATE WRITING LABS:
Over the course of nearly 10 years of teaching Creative Writing at SF State and consulting one-on-one with authors, I've often been asked, "When are you going to teach a private writing class?"
Former students who had finished their formal study of creative writing still yearned for writing prompts and reading assignments to keep their writing going for the long haul. They wanted a casual place where they could commune with other writerly types without being bogged down with the traditional commitment of reading and critiquing dozens of pages in their workshops.
Lots of people in "the real world" with families and 9-5 jobs and artists in other disciplines also expressed interest in a private class. Not for the goal of publishing a book, necessarily, (like so many MA/MFA students) but to explore creative writing as a form of artistic expression.
Once I started working as an Artist Mentor at Performing Arts Workshop, I paid attention to how electric the group dynamic can be when creative people of multiple disciplines and backgrounds come together to talk about art.
So "The Lab" is targeted "as a place to experiment with prose" to "people who love words." This turns out to be a much broader and dynamic category than those who consider themselves writers. The work and conversations generated in the first two 8-week sessions of "The Douglass Street Lab" have been exhilarating and inspiring.
A NEW REQUEST:
Lots of people were interested in this concept of The Labs, but not all could commit to 8-weeks. "Why not teach 1-day mini-Labs in addition to the 8-week-sessions?"
Here you go!
**Should you decide to sign-up for the Fall 2008 8-week Lab, and should the Fall Lab “go,” you’ll be invited to deduct the $50 dollar advanced-sign-up tuition from the cost of the 8-week Lab. This, however, I cannot garauntee.
QUESTIONS ABOUT ME?
Here's my bio.
Here's some of my work.
Or read my blog. You're already here!
USE THE FORM BELOW TO SIGN UP.
    |
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
Greetings from the life of a working writer in San Francisco.
Seems like just yesterday I was blogging from New York and here it is time for me to buy my tickets to go back this summer! A full year later?
About my novel: SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS! The Fall Semester made the day-to-day writing a challenge...but the books and stories I read and what I learned from my students ended up proving invaluable yet again.
Is the novel going to be finished according to the schedule I proposed for the grant? No. But it is simmering at its own pace. All I need to keep truckin' is a bit of progress.
The reading series also ended up being such an effective way to keep working and revising. I made sure never to read the same thing twice—and I also tried, when possible, to pull from the novel scenes set in the neighborhoods where I read. It's odd to read from a work-in-progress, but I recommend it. It takes the often-heard suggestion of reading aloud to a whole new level. I was really able to hear the places that need work (reading in front of an audience is a great way to experience what needs to be cut!). I was also able to see in their faces when they were connecting.
About The Lab: The Winter Session of Douglass Street Lab was a sheer delight. These ten writers/artists/word-nerds created a camaraderie that fostered risk-taking (and therefore growth). The reading at Bollywood was a blast. The Spring Lab just met for the first session of 8 Sessions this last Tuesday. We dug right into the writing—using the concept of fear as the opening topic.
These were a couple of the quotes we considered:
“Fear is not your enemy, it’s your energy—let it make you freer, bigger. Let them see your hand shake as you reach out.” –Amy Freed
“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side.” —Audre Lorde
If you're interested in my Fall 2008 Lab, it will be starting in September. Email me at matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com with Lab List as the subject of the email and I'll keep you informed as it develops.
May first ever 1-day Drop-In Lab is upcoming. lt will focus on Characterization—imagining believable AND interesting characters. (So many books about prose concentrate on Believability as if it's the only goal in effective characterization. Boring can be believable. I don't want mere believability. I want fascinating, complicated, irresistible characters, don't you?
We'll meet for 3 hours on a Saturday late morning. - Half-hour Lecture/Discussion on Topic
- Half hour write.
- 15 minute Break.
- Half hour continuation of Lecture/Discussion
- Half Hour Write.
- 45 minutes: Read. Discuss. Brainstorm for development.
Email me if this seems interesting to you.
UPCOMING DATES: Please save May 21st for The Upcoming Reading for Fourteen Hills Issue 14.2. I'm so excited that one of my favorite poets, Randall Mann, whose next book is coming out from University of Chicago Press, is going to be featured in the issue—and he's scheduled to read.
The reading will also be at Bollyhood Cafe in the Mission at 7pm.
More later!
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
Douglass Street Writing Laboratory Spring Session
On a roll with your writing? Need a shot in the arm? Have you been procrastinating? Need some structure?
Fiction, Creative Non, and Beyond
A Creative Writing Laboratory
When: 8 consecutive Tuesdays, starting April 1st, 2008.
What time: 7-9:30pm.
Where: A spacious private home near both the Castro and Noe Valley with easy parking and access to MUNI.
Cost: $350.00
Intimate writing laboratory (a place to research, experiment, measure, review, and revise) for all levels. The vibe of this course will be neither academic nor coddling.
- Experienced writers should expect to build upon their craft skills and deepen their characterizations.
- "Beginners" should expect to learn a useful, creative writing vocabulary and to experience how precision, concreteness, expansiveness, and generosity work together to form compelling and scintillating prose.
- All should expect to take their work, but not themselves, seriously (plan to have fun in an environment that will be at once focused and relaxed).
Non-writer-identified folks, avid readers, and creative artists (actors, dancers, musicians, etc.) are welcomed, encouraged to attend.
Class Size: 8-12 people (maximum 12).
Notes:
You will not be responsible to write written feedback for your peers. Reading/feedback will take place in "the lab" and there will be the option of posting and responding online in between sessions.
The Douglass Lab is also home to a cat, should that be relevant to you.
Questions? email me: matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com
to join the mailing list for future courses or 1-day classes, please email me with Mailing List in the subject line. |
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
Here Comes Everybody
A reading with writers
Matthew Clark Davison & Stephen Elliott
with musical guest Pocket Shelley
Friday March 7th
7pm-8pm
Adobe Books
3166 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
I'm excited about this one because the LitQuake version of this reading (see pics here:End of the Year Approaching) was really fun and I've never read with Stephen Elliot. I sometimes teach one of stories. It's called "Long Distance." It appeared in Vol. 7 No. 2 of Fourteen Hills and in new standards the first decade of fiction at 14 Hills anthology, both available at Small Press Distribution. I recently heard Stephen read at The Sex Workers Art Show, which was a great night of storytelling entertainment. Also, my character Janis from my NIP (novel-in-progress) is surprisingly moved by a song by Pocket Shelly and says so in the book. The song is Half Moon Bay. Check it out with the links below. Hope to see you there.
Stephen Elliott is a former stripper and the author of six books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lion Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and the Village Voice. In addition to writing fiction he frequently writes on politics. In 2004 he wrote Looking Forward To It, about the quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination. His most recent book is an almost all true sexual memoir called My Girlfriend Comes To The City And Beats Me Up. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and is a member of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. He is also the founder of The Progressive Reading Series which helps authors raise money and participate on behalf of progressive candidates across the country. www.stephenelliott.com
Pocket Shelley is an ongoing project of songwriter Michael C. Mullen. His latest CD, "Small Illuminations in a Darkening Sky" (2006) was produced by Tim Mooney of American Music Club. Among his current projects, Michael has been creating and recording musical adaptions of works by his favorite poets (Ashbery, O'Hara, Pound, etc.), which he hopes to release as "Pocket Shelley's Golden Treasury of Well-Thumbed Poems." His next CD, "Glockenspiel and Other Love Songs, Part I: Glockenspiel" has been completed and will be released in 2008, with "Part II: Ukulele" due in 2009. With novelist Adam Klein, Michael has written songs for the bands Glasstown, Roman Evening and The Size Queens, who were recently chosen to provide music for the "pedagogical concept album" Our Literal Speed (http://www.ourliteralspeed.com), a series of art criticism conferences being held in Karlsruhe (Germany), Chicago and Los Angeles, sponsored by the University of Chicago and the Getty Research Institute. http://cdbaby.com/cd/pocketshelley and http://www.myspace.com/pocketshelley.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
Here are some upcoming events. I hope you'll join me.
March 4th, Tuesday:
“DOUGLASS READS”
7-8:30 pm
Bollyhood Cafe
3372 19th Street @ Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
“Douglass,” a private writing laboratory, focusing on the prose experiment, invites you to an evening of discoveries at Bollywood Café in the Mission.
Named after the street where the group meets, "Douglass" will feature short shots from the works-in-progress of:
Laura Camp
Candyce Choi
Steve Deshimer
Donna Duffy
Mollie Kazan
Mark Rubnitz
Stephanie Schenkel
Don Simms
Anne Trickey
Please come by. Bollyhood offers great food and drinks. The vibe will be more sunny than somber. We are people who take our work—but not ourselves—seriously.
ALSO:
DOUGLASS is now taking reservations for its Spring Session. 8 consecutive Tuesdays Starting April 1st 7-9:30 pm. Email me if you'd like details.
***
Wednesday March 5th
14 Hills Spring Fundraiser
7pm The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University
Humanities Building, 5th Floor
1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132
featuring an evening of Creative Non Fiction with:
Terese Svoboda and
Toni Mirosevich
10 dollars (all proceeds benefit the longevity of one of SF's most treasured national literary magazines) or FREE WITH SUBSCRIPTION.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
|
Happy New Year.
Look at the San Francisco Sky on the last day of 2007:
 
 
I took those shots walking home from Wallgreens after giving up on a search for the "right" black shoelaces for my New Year's Eve sneakers. Aren't they incredible? (The color of the sky, not black shoelaces). The church in the one pic appears in LETTERS TO THE DEAD.
My getaway writing weekend plans have been thwarted by Mother Nature. My Guerneville trip will have to wait. I'd planned on going in the rain, but the cabin I rented called. No electricity or hot water and falling branches in the woods. At first I thought, well, I'm into "Setting as Kinetic Landscape" (which is how Michelle Carter talks about "place" in fiction), and I thought I'll just make the storm work for Janis. But I can't make anything work if I'm knocked out by a redwood branch. I'd really wanted to do some serious hiking and pay visits to the ocean as well...so it's best that I wait.
Meanwhile, mark your calander for the event below, it's the last of my scheduled readings in association with The Cultural Equities Grant:
JANUARY 16, 2008
SMACK DAB
Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 7:30 pm signup, 8 pm show
SMACK DAB : an open stage hosted by Kirk Read and Larry-bob Roberts.
Featured: Matthew Davison and Allen Young (showing a film on Butterworth Farm, the 35-year old rural gay community where he lives.)
All ages, all genders, all the time.
If you'd like to perform at the open mic, please bring five minutes or less of your unsolicited advice, writing, music, dance, performance, cooking suggestions or whatever it is you want to share. Musicians, one song. Prose writers: that's about two and a half double spaced pages of prose.
At Magnet, the queer neighborhood health center, 4122 18th Street between Castro and Collingwood.
magnetsf.org
Free.
Allen Young, gay author and journalist, who holds a masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, left a reporter's position at the Washington Post in 1967 at age 26 to become involved in the anti-war "underground press." He later became a gay activist/journalist, part of the post-Stonewall gay liberation movement launched by the New York Gay Liberation Front in 1969. With fellow GLFer Karla Jay, he wrote and edited four books, including "Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation." He then moved to North Central Massachusetts as part of the "back-to-the-land" movement, taking a job as reporter for a local daily newspaper. His most recent book — his 13th — is a collection of articles written for that newspaper and the Valley Advocate, entitled "Make Hay While the Sun Shines: Farms, Forests and People of the North Quabbin." Now retired, he remains involved in the gay movement on a local level, cultivates a large vegetable and flower garden, and participates in a regional land trust dedicated to protecting farms and forests. |
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
I was staring at the ceiling of my gym yesterday after an hour of jump rope and yoga. I took even took a picture of the ceiling from where I was lying on my back:
My gym is at the old Alhambra movie theater, which opened in 1926. It used to look like this:
Not only am I inspired by the flamboyant Moorish architecture, but in the late 80s when I moved to San Francisco, you could smoke in the balcony while watching art house movies (such bliss!). At first I was disgusted that a gym (A GYM!) was going into one of San Francisco's historical art landmarks...one of the last of its kind...but in fact, the place has been completely preserved (unlike many of the other beautiful art house theaters that once existed in San Francisco). In fact, they've done maintenance on it, improving its beauty while insuring its longevity without changing its structure or original details. At least in the building itself. The movie seats are gone. In their place are treadmills and barbells. And the old projection room is a yoga studio. And, truth is, a yoga studio and cardio equipment is much more in line with my current lifestyle. As much of a match for me now as the smoking section in the balcony was in the late 80s.
I love finishing my workout and then lying on my back, breathing, getting lost in the ceiling's design. Often I gaze at the stars and get ideas about new directions for my novel or other creative projects.
My job after that is to actually get home and write. It doesn't always happen. The demands of being a lover-of-life and organic food means I need to make a living. It requires discipline and determination I sometimes lack to make sure I work on my own writing as much as I take care of students, clients, the blog, or any number of other things. To that end, a friend sent me a link to The Red Room. I've been hearing about it for a long time. They offer a bunch of different services, so check out the site. They seem to share my philosophy that the number one block writers have isn't something about their childhood or their first teacher who told them they sucked. It's that they don't actually sit down to write. In my private classes, I always make sure writers have time to write, not just polish their bull-she-ite about what they think about writing.
Apparently so does The Red Room. I might just go and do one of their intensives when I get back from my self-imposed Russian River writing exile. This is from their site. I think it's brilliant:
|
A class or instruction on writing…is not writing.
Group therapy for blocked writers…good, but isn’t writing.
Attending interesting lectures about writing…is not writing.
Reading books, about writing or anything else…is not writing.
Networking with editors or publishers…is not writing.
Making friends with other writers…is not writing.
Completing writing "exercises"…is not writing.
Discussing published or unpublished work…is not writing.
Learning about writers, writing, the industry…is not writing.
Attending a peer critique writing group…is not writing.
Getting feedback on your unfinished work…is not writing.
Talking about your writing or writing ideas…definitely not writing.
Feeling guilty all week for not writing…is not writing.
Attending a Red Room Writers Studio…is you actually writing. |
And if one historical theater wasn't enough for me to write about today, tonight I'm going to see Sandra Bernhard at The Castro Theater to ring in The New Year. I hope it's fun. |
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
Brrr...
It's freezing in San Francisco right now. At least for San Francisco. I used to live at the base of The Swiss Alps. It was warmer there in February than it is riding on my motorcycle past sundown in San Francisco.
Still, I love it. Yesterday I hung out in Hayes Valley. The picture above is the corner of Hayes and Octavia.
This one from a parking lot off Hayes closer to Gough.
After looking at cool shoes and eighty dollar tee shirts for a while, I settled at Cafe La Vie where I stayed for hours reading and commenting on manuscripts. The young woman there was very kind to me as I struggled to figure out how to get online with my handheld Windows device. Now I'm half way through my pile of finals that I'm reading from last semester. Some of my students blew me away with their creativity. It's amazing how the careful consideration of craft can enable a writer to bridge that gap between what they love to read and what they're able to write. Today I start on the Characterization finals.
I'm getting ready to head up north for a couple of days to visit the coastline and spend some time in The Russian River valley. Janis, the protagonist in my novel, who looks something like this:
(I've been seeing this graffiti artist around town a lot...and this one almost always stops me in my tracks)
...(continued from above:) spent part of many summers there as a kid (as did I...and I have barely been back since). I need to do some research. I'm also really looking forward to being in a little cabin with a desk and a fireplace and no cell phone reception for four days and three nights.
I've spent the morning preparing for Start Your New Year Off Write. A Creative Writing Laboratory and trying to decide where to send excerpts of the novel for publication while I work on it. I finally decided to send one piece to a place where one of my favorite writers, Terese Svoboda, often places her work. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Happy Holidays and More Soon.
|
|
|
|
| Posted by Matthew Clark Davison at | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
