Simply Writing

“This workshop taught me to have confidence in myself as a writer and to keep growing. Writing a piece overnight made me feel free and empowered.”

Annisa, January 24, 2016

“I learnt how to approach writing, how to motivate myself. Finding out how to organise my writing was very useful in particular. Writing a piece overnight was a bit stressful, yet exciting. I have realised that i have to think about a topic, play with it for a while, then sleep on it—and then it just ‘comes out’ in one go.”

Jana, January 24, 2016

“I learned that it’s totally okay if the first draft sucks or is really bad, as long as the final piece had some re-drafting and time, it will ‘get good.’ It was fun to just to do the writing for about an hour and then to let it go.”

Katinka, January 24, 2016

“I learned that I don’t ‘draft enough—and can improve the way I’m managing my time to write. In addition, I learned how to organize my writing projects. This course gave me many tools and motivation to write again. I hope I can apply them all later on. For me, the workshop was about more than simply writing. Many of the learnings and techniques can easily be implemented in other aspects of life and work. I felt the passion of the facilitator, and that passion came through to me and perhaps the others at the workshop, too.”

Sobhi, March 27, 2015

“I am always intrigued by the diversity of inspiration and experience gathered around the table at the Amsterdam Writing Workshops. I have participated in 3 other workshops, so I now somehow know what to expect. Very immodestly, I now feel almost proud of myself when hearing my text. It also feels as if someone else wrote it. These workshops are always a precious opportunity to write something new within a very strict deadline – I am always amazed at what I manage to produce in this way, it seems I have so much to tap from. I just need to have somebody asking me to write it down—and then to hear what the other participants think about it. I am presently learning to see my writing from the reader’s point of view— someone who has no previous knowledge whatsoever about what I feel, or about the story I want to tell. It is a fascinating, and very humbling, experience.”

Annie, March 27, 2015

“The public library and the group were very pleasant. It’s inspirational and really nice to connect with others.

The instructor’s personal way of moderating, guiding us, and protecting us was just a wonderful experience.”

Nienke, March 17, 2015

“I learned that working with prompts really helps to get me unblocked. It was motivating and interesting to hear about people’s projects, how they cope with obstacles/challenges to writing—and to hear about their strategies for pushing through.

We actually wrote! And we read. And we learned strategies for getting the juices flowing.”

Margaret, March 17, 2015

“The ‘Simply Writing’ workshop confirmed some of my literary preferences. I felt encouraged and led to further explore theme and form. All in all, the class was very supportive and inspiring. We got a lot of hints and examples of how the process works. In the end, I realized it was not just about how to start writing and how to keep going; it was also about how to work with later drafts.”

Elena, March 17, 2015