Join Pam Houston at Atelier Clos Mirabel for a creative writing workshop in the foothills of the Pyrénées mountains. The focus of this workshop will be all about generating new work in a collective environment.
About this course:
At the heart of the workshop will be an examination of the physical stuff of your life — and how you might use it to gain access to the emotional stuff. You will focus on the ways in which the sensory details that surround you — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures — can provide access to a far greater elusive interior landscape which one constantly seeks access to when writing.
Discussions will be held on what Pam considers to be the real artistry of prose writing: The way in which ladles are dipped into the bottomless pot of metaphor soup of a life’s witnessed experience – pulling out what is needed; the way in which we pick up hunks of the physical world and return them to the page, translated into language.
You will go through a series of exercises in Pam’s essential components of good prose writing: image, metaphor, structure, form, dialogue, character, scene, lyricism, – to name but a few. Pam encourages participants to come armed with pen, paper, or laptop; your vast memory banks, your active and engaged senses, and all the things you don’t even know you know.
Pam’s ethos for the week:
‘We are creatures. Sentient beings living among other sentient beings on the Earth. It seems every day there is another article about the sentience of dogs, horses, pigs, octopi. There are books about how trees and other plants communicate with one another, how the Earth has mechanisms to heal itself from pollution and other abuses. Members of Indigenous Nations believe the mountains have sentience, rocks and oceans, sea and sky. In what ways might we unlock our imaginations whilst spending a week together in a beautiful place, living under the assumptions that everything in our line of vision — that vineyard, that donkey, that Medieval Tower, that fig tree — had its own story to tell?
In this class, we will borrow the beauty of the French countryside as well as the other landscapes we have loved, the animals and the night skies and the bodies of water, to give us fuller access to our human stories. I am talking here, about the way metaphor reveals us to ourselves of course, but also something more than metaphor. I am talking about what kind of writer we would be if we saw ourselves more fully in community and conversation with the Earth.
As in all workshops, we will also talk about the building blocks of good prose writing: point of view, form and structure, character, scene, dialogue, etc. Our week together will be about generating new writing, (rather than critique) though if you are already working on something, the exercises I assign might allow you to access it in a new way.’
Outline Programme – Creative Writing Retreat with Pam Houston
Saturday
4.00 – Check-in time from 4pm onwards. Guests arrive, settle in and explore Clos Mirabel
6.00 – Welcome drinks and dinner
Sunday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 12.00 Turning the physical world in to story: metaphors, glimmers and all five senses
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.00 – 5.00 The ten-sentence story, writing exercises assigned, written, read aloud.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Monday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 12.00 Structure and form. What is the shape of your story? How to make form follow function.
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.00 – 5.00 The alphabet exercise and other fun with form, writing exercises assigned, written, read aloud.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Tuesday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 12.00 Dialogue and why you should learn to love it
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch at local Auberge followed by an afternoon excursion.Transport provided.
2.15 – 4.30 Writing exercises en plein air.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Wednesday Day off
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
9.30 – 6.00 Free time to explore Pau or beyond. The Clos Mirabel team is available to provide suggestions and organise transport.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Thursday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 12.00 Point of View and Tense choices all the tools in your tool box.
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.00 – 5.00 Writing exercises assigned, written, read aloud.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Friday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 12.00 This morning the students drive the conversation. Come with a question you have that has not been answered.
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.00 – 5.00 Walk to a local wine producer and wine tasting.
6.00 – Aperitif and evening event in the Atelier space, readings by participants.
7.00 – 4 course dinner in the Manor House or on the terrace
Saturday
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet Breakfast and departure (Check-out 11am)
Non-Participating guests: we are more than happy to welcome non-painting guests, accompanying partners, family or friends. There are plenty of activities to experience around Clos Mirabel, that will make your holiday unforgettable Click here for more information.
The Creative Studio offers a spacious open plan layout of 75 m2. It is available at all times during your stay. Click here for more information.
