Gualala Arts Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961
The Inaugural Workshop will take place Saturday & Sunday, December 10 and 11, 9 am to 11 am.
Register Here!
This two-day workshop:
- Will focus on finding the story inside of us waiting to be told.
- Our different method of introduction to each other will be the first approach starting us off in the writing process. We will then be using a series of focused prompts to build our story
- Each step of the way will include comfortable, trusting and effective discussions on our individual writing. This method will help us learn how to enhance our writing
- Prompts will begin as guideposts
- Successive prompts will come from our own writing (this is my favorite process)
- The first part of the workshop will focus on finding our story
- The second part of the workshop will be developing our story into stand alone pieces or the foundation for a longer work in progress.
- A reading of our work will conclude our workshop before final comments and next steps
- There will be a between session assignment focused on developing your story and using what we have learned during the day for our second day.
*An additional thought would be to invite folks to hear readings of our just developed work in an impromptu casual get together immediately following the workshop.
As with each workshop I stay committed to following the dynamics of the group to move the learning process along and maintain the atmosphere of comfort, trust and sharing.
Any questions or additional info contact writeupthecoast@gmail.com. ]
Write-up-the-coast-writers will include:
• Readings in workshops and local write-up-the-coast events at local venues.
• Eventual recordings of works to share through social media.
Write-up-the-coast workshops will:
• Offer writing workshops at community venues along the coast to allow for convenience.
• Consist of small group workshops that encourage intimate sharing and learning from workshop participants in comfortable non-judgmental atmospheres.
• Learning through writing processes to uncover writers’ inner stories; how to develop and share them.
• Focus on generating new work through prompts and free-writes process.
• Opportunities for all ages and demographics..
• Be open to all writers from novice to novelist.
• Encouragement for folks who had wanted to write but don’t know where or how to begin.
• coaching writers on voice, genre, style, dialogue and writing for different story length.
• reference authors current and past identifying some styles and mechanisms in their works.
Write-up-the-coast:
• Is a new initiative dedicated to building community voice-by -voice; story-by-story, writer-by-writer.
• No experience required.
• Write-up-the-coast will offer advanced workshops as writer’s develop, private writing events, one-on-one coaching, corporate team build programs and sustaining workshops.
Students are welcome to bring whatever tools that they prefer to write with, notebook, laptop etc, and a sack lunch.
About Mark Sanford Gross
“1/3 NY, 1/3 Washington, DC and 1/3 San Francisco.” For the past 8 years Mark calls the Mendonoma Coast home where he lives with his husband Billy, their two Hungarian shepherds, Woof! and Ruf? in Anchor Bay. “I didn’t realize the hidden metaphor of Anchor Bay until I was here for a few years. Our home now is truly my anchor.”
Growing up in New York, Mark always says that New York is a great place to be from. “You learn a street sense and a way of living in diverse crowds that is not taught but lived.” He moved to Washington DC to work in radio where he sold advertising for ABC radio’s first FM Rock station, WRQX. During that time he earned his MBA in Management from Marymount University. He moved on to two other radio stations learning radio formats and audience behavior. The Washington Post took Mark out of radio and into the world of newspaper in the nation’s capitol. It was during that time mark was accepted into part-time creative writing at John Hopkins University where he earned his MA over three years of full time work and full time writing fit into part time structure. After 12 years at the Post’s “DC mothership” he was asked to start an experimental remote home office in San Francisco to be the brand ambassador representing The Washington Post and Washington DC. “It was the first time of blending opposite ways of thinking. Silicon Valley was becoming the center of innovation and Washington, DC was the center of policy and regulation. Often one didn’t understand the language of the other”. Over the next fifteen years Mark developed his relationship skills learning how to bring together groups and teams of individuals with all their differences. In 2013, Mark was awarded the Washington Post prestigious Eugene Meyer Award named after Katharine Grahams father for his career contributions and principles.
He retired in 2015 when they moved to Anchor Bay. On his first day living in Gualala, he stopped at The Sea Trader. The woman welcomed him and could tell he was new. She offered the best advice, “You need to give it at least two years. It will take that time for you to realize who you are and how to fit in here and how all our surroundings work. Too many people give up. Don’t. I promise you magic.”