Everything is Writing is a series of unserious writing and creativity workshops for adults.
Everything is Writing has officially wrapped up for 2024!
It has been a joyous program with our Creative Producer Miranda Aguilar and the participants exploring why they write in the first place in the last workshop. Plenty of zines were also made! Shoutout to all the participants and watch this space for what’s to come! Special thanks to the wonderful Suzanne Sivieng from Fairfield City Council for gifting Miranda with a Barbie too – pictured below. Suzanne crochets and up-cycles Barbies for fun – talent upon talent all ‘round!
Read Miranda's wrap-up post for 2024 below & make sure to watch this space for the next iteration of Everything is Writing!
In my workshops, I feel like an Adult Kindergarten Teacher.
Everything is Writing is a writing workshop program for adults. Unlike writing workshops for kids and highschoolers, workshops for adults aren’t typically run like a kindergarten class. Writing workshops are serious. They’re about learning and building up your skill sets. Often, they’re structured so that you bring in your novel or script or essay into the workshop to have it torn to shreds, and then pieced back together - sharper, more salient, better than before.
I love and value those kinds of writing workshops, but that’s not how I run Everything is Writing. You can (and should) go to a different program to learn how to edit your work. This program is designed to give participants permission to play.
As adults, we’re often disconnected from the sense of play we had as children. Adult responsibilities, a cost-of-living crisis and the increasing burdens from late-stage capitalism means it’s difficult to make time for fun. Foolish, even. Even our rest and recreation needs to be productive. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time.
When I initially planned this workshop program, I definitely had productivity in mind. This was a skill-building workshop program. All the workshops for this first term were designed around different aspects of character creation. At each workshop, we would look at developing characters through different facets: their home life, their friends and family, their public personas, their connection to culture and community. Even though it was a drop-in workshop, participants could ostensibly bring the same character to every session and build on different facets every time.
Importantly, I wanted it to be accessible to people regardless of writing experience. In terms of productivity, this was probably my downfall. Because if I wanted to make this beginner-friendly, I could have designed the workshops like an Intro to Creative Writing class. But I’m not an English teacher. I’m an Adult Kindergarten teacher. So I made a space that wasn’t a classroom, but a playground.
We made party music playlists. Played Mad Libs. Scripted Tiktok-style What’s in my Bag videos. We made conspiracy boards with mermaids, talking pets and oil tycoons. At the last workshop, I actually discarded the majority of my agenda in favour of making collages and showing folks how to make their first zines. Why? Because I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun.
We also did a lot of writing. (This was still a writing workshop program). There are many people who are interested in writing and story-telling, but for whatever reason, they find it intimidating. Difficult. And to an extent, they’re right. Good writing doesn’t require perfect grammar, syntax or literacy, but it does require effort and focus and rewriting. But just because it’s difficult to do something well doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it at all. After all, writing is fun. So with every activity and writing provocation, I made sure that the emphasis wasn’t on making anything perfectly, but on making just for the fun of making it.
I can give explanations for how these different activities promoted creativity and expanded skill sets and perspectives. I hope these workshops armed participants with new tools and activities to expand their artistic practices. After all, I’m also a writer. I take my writing seriously. Sometimes that work looks like extensive Scrivener documents, whiteboards and post-it-notes, and red-inked notes in the margins. Sometimes it looks like building character playlists and making collages. All of it is an actual part of my serious writing practice.
I can tell you exactly why I think it’s useful and productive to play, the same way a kindergarten teacher might explain to parents why it’s important their students have playtime as well as basic math and literacy lessons. I don’t want to. Frankly, I don’t think I should have to.
Art-making is not productive. Even if you make money from it, it’s not productive. It’s better. As Kurt Vonnegut said, “The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way of making your soul grow.” What better reason could there be to play around and make art?
Play is important, no matter what age you are. It reduces stress. It promotes creativity and problem solving. Safe environments for play promotes social cohesion and cooperation amongst participants.
Most of all, play promotes joy.
Joy is never a waste of time.
Extra reading:
- https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210914-the-way-we-view-free-time-is-making-us-less-happy
- https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/01/history-hobbies-america-productivity-leisure/621150/
- Kurt Vonnegut's book of essays, A Man Without a Country. In the same book he also said: “We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” Hear hear!
- If you’re actually interested in learning more about the science of play and its importance, check out psychiatrist and play researcher Dr. Stuart Brown and the National Institute of Play.