Chapter I
Before the Workshop
Chapter II
Let the Workshop Unfold
Chapter III
Stories in Evolution
Chapter IV
The Light on the Opposite Shore
Chapter V
Deeper Dives
Resources for Herstory Facilitators
Sharing the First Writings
Agenda for the First Weeks
ROAD MAP
1. Come Prepared to Respond to Surprises; Bring Along a Well-Packed Suitcase of Tricks
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Reviewing your listening log from day one to see where people were going when they imaged their stories out loud, so that you will be ready to talk about your desire for the actual writings
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Preparing a few stories ready to share from our library that you think will particularly speak to the group.
2. Setting the Stage: Easing in with the group “Go Round,” where people can share how it was to begin their writing journeys.
3. Working Individually with Text Shared Aloud
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Expectations and Surprises
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Getting to know your writers more deeply
4. Modeling Positive Feedback: A time to Introduce the Herstory tools.
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Replacing more conventional notions of feedback and fixing with the search for Moments of Power and Beauty to build on
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Reinforcing the Notion of the Stranger/ Reader, as participants are dared to find moments in each reader’s sharing where they would like to hear more
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Introducing the Notions of There-ness as opposed to about-ness, Nesting, and Book Time.
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Engaging the whole writing circle in wanting more.
5. Leaving each writer with a clear task
Come prepared to be surprised, and to help the writers in your circle overcome their first shyness in sharing.
From the moment people begin to share their stories, it is important to abandon the notion of having a lesson plan for each session.
The joy of reading and listening is in being surprised in a place where you are suddenly face to face with a stranger’s whole way of perceiving the world. You are suddenly sitting up in bed, or sitting on the edge of your chair, as if you are the protagonist in an action you couldn’t imagine being part of (or maybe an action you know all too well). You forget you are you, as the writer invites you into their world. You are hooked.
So it makes sense to start in your own way, talking about how the oral imaging hooked you, and how excited you are to see where the writing will take you. Each new facilitator does this very differently. You might talk about how some of the images from the Page One Moments you heard being playacted came over you when you were in the shower, or waking in the middle of the night. You might talk about the feelings that came to you thinking about the spirit and beauty you heard in those first oral imagings. Or the power and anger, how much it made you want to continue to work for a better world. There is no right way to do this. The only goal is to set up your desire to hear.
Because there will be inevitable lulls no matter how carefully you set things up, it is important to bring along a well-packed “suitcase” of Stories to Share and Stories to Tell, in case you need them to keep things going at first.
Take a few minutes before you meet with your writing circle to browse through the stories you selected before you met with them for the first time.
But now you are thinking more specifically in terms of content and form about what will speak to your particular cohort.
Reread your listening log before you make the final selection.
As your workshop members develop trust with one another and have more and more writing to share, you will need them less and less.
Setting the Stage:
Easing in with the group “Go Round,” where people can share how it was to begin their writing journeys.
Working Individually with Text Shared Aloud
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Let us assume that you left your newly formed writing circle with people inspired by the raw Page One Moments that popped up during the oral imaging.
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But now, when they begin to write, quite a number will be intimidated by putting these raw sparkling moments on the page. This is equally true with those who have extensive literary or scholarly backgrounds (perhaps even more true) and those whose exposure to listening and storytelling has been more organic.
Some will jump right in and write pages and pages (much more than there will be time to share aloud) in the excitement of sudden release of the stories locked inside them. Others will write just a sentence or two and be stuck. And still others will not write at all. Some will write such a powerful first scene that you will be in awe and not imagine anything that should be changed or elaborated. Others will map in their whole story, enough for a book in a paragraph or two. Some will rush from one traumatic moment to another, so fast that the listener will not have time to catch a breath. Others will carefully lay out the background.
How then do you work with a group with respect for the dignity and individuality of each writer, knowing that no two writers will share the same process?
Trust is a tricky thing, as you navigate the delicate balance between celebrating each writer’s “tadpole” beginning, giving space to experiment and try out new ways to engage in the newness of the task of daring an imaginary reader to care, and responding in a way that meet each writer in the dance of desire to be fully engaged?
How do you make space for the surprise of actually being met, as opposed to either being complimented (and ultimately left alone to express oneself) or being rejected and criticized?
Now listen to our student reading her first writing about a scene she had imaged aloud a week earlier. Listen in a relaxed way without trying too hard to pick up everything she has put into that short space of time. As you listen, let your mind wander back to when she first described the scene.
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(Video coming soon!)
Where do you think she rushed too much? Where would you like her to slow down?
(Later on, you will see how beautifully she rose to the challenge.)
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Modeling Positive Feedback
A Time to Introduce the Herstory Tools
If you had to pick just one place to ask her to elaborate and create a fuller scene, which place would you pick?
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What was the moment when you really became engaged with her story and wanted much more? Where did the background and details get in the way of when you were right there, and where did you want many more details?
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In the scene you have chosen to help your student expand, can you think of a way that she can stay in the moment and weave the background in?
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We often talk about Thereness as opposed to Aboutness. Imagine you are talking to your student about the scene you have chosen. How are you going to dare her to take you There? This is a perfect time to engage the whole group in helping your student describe what it really was like.
Looking at the Strength and the Spirit of Each Storyteller
Moments of Power and Beauty
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What parts of your student's story would make even a cold-hearted reader care about her? Where do you see her spirit and strength shining through? Working from your memory of her story, find a few moments you could echo back to her, and help her expand them and work on them more.
Even though you are working with one person's story, you are teaching the whole group the concept of Thereness as opposed to Aboutness. You are reinforcing the notion of writing from a place of resilience and strength.
​The first feedback you give will set the stage for the trust that you wish to establish, so it is important to dignify each reader with a meaningful challenge, while being careful not to overwhelm them or make them feel inadequate.
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We like to think of opportunities and obstacles, rather than problems that need to be fixed.
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Now pause for a moment and notice the way that another student in the class advised your student to stay in that moment when she was being so harshly sentenced in court.
(Video coming soon!)
Opportunities and Obstacles
Following the other student's advice to your student, we invite you to take another few minutes to replay the video of the student reading, stopping and starting it wherever you wish as you jot down the bits of information that feel like opportunities to you, and those that get in the way of your developing a sense of connection with her as a person in that opening moment when you are just getting to know her own the page.
We invite you to take a sheet of paper and make two columns, while you play with your list.
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As you study your list, do you see any patterns that touch on the nature of what causes empathy and what causes distance?
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Nesting
Did you notice how the minute the student started to tell one story, suddenly another, and yet another story was Nesting inside it?
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MORE COMING SOON
We gratefully thank the Angela and Scott Jaggar Foundation for providing the seed money to allow a collective of teachers, school counselors, and school administrators to create this new open source website dedicated to educators who are seeking new ways to connect with their students.
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The artwork on these pages is from the Paintings for Justice series, created by Gwynne Duncan for Herstory
© 2023 by Herstory Writers Network. All rights reserved.
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