Marilee Zdenek
Where The Good Stories Hide
This is an experiential workshop to free the powers of your imagination.
Monday - Friday
Roving Ambassador!
Every fiction writer wants to create a strong story with fascinating characters. Sometimes that story is hiding in plain sight. Have you considered writing about an actual event in your own life, and then turning your true story into fascinating fiction?
You can use your own experience, and, by twisting the facts, places and names, you can create a short story, a novel or a screenplay. You can combine the power of your emotional truth with your fictional plot and watch the story unfold.
How do you choose among a lifetime of personal stories? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use a combination of mental techniques that let the story come to you. When you let your characters create a raw draft, you may be astonished by the results.
Some of the techniques are revealed in interviews with Ray Bradbury and Charles Schulz, Stevie Wonder and other intuitive writers and artists. Some are inspired by actors like Meryl Streep, Al Pacino and Leonardo DiCaprio. What actors do with their bodies, writers can do with their minds.
Every writer knows the Muse has her own way of keeping us humble. Some days it seems like she hangs a “Closed” sign on her mythical door. That’s when you need to trust the wisdom of your subconscious mind to let the story and the characters find their way to you.
Where do the good stories hide? In a chamber within your mind, behind the door where your Muse lives. She’s not on vacation; she’s just waiting for you to open the door. Keys to her dwelling are in my workshop. If you bring an adventurous spirit, an open mind and your writing tools, I’ll lead you on a wild, productive journey.
Writer, Susie Cronin, will be a special guest in this workshop and share how this program works for her.
You are welcome to come to all, or some, or even just one of the sessions.
This is your conference. Enjoy!
Message to Students
If it’s your first time to SBWC, remember to breathe. You can’t do it all.There’s no one way to experience this conference any more than there’s only one way to write your book. Have fun.Talk with writers. Listen. Share. Everyone’s here to help you.
Bio
Marilee Zdenek is the author of eight books and is a pioneer in exploring how right-brain stimulation can enhance the creative process. She has lectured at major universities in the US, and for conferences in Germany, Switzerland , and Sweden. Marilee also presented five programs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. And it all started with a class she taught at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 1981!
In Her Own Words
I mailed my first submission to a magazine when I was nine and heard my mother say,“Now you know, Marilee, they don’t allow you to be a writer until you’ve collected many rejection slips.” When the inevitable happened, I was so proud that I had my very first one. I don’t celebrate rejection now, but I don’t let it draw blood either.
Literary (and other) Heroes
Much as I love literary classics, I like to read contemporary authors, fiction and nonfiction. Anna Quindlen and Donna Tartt are high on the list. Most of all, I enjoy reading my friends’ books and especially the published works of my students.
