Get your creative energy flowing with Setting the Stage — a three-month program all about finding your rhythm, building creative habits, and actually making stuff happen.
Starting in December, we’ll read an assigned text, with weekly emails featuring prompts and key insights from the book. In January, we’ll meet several times a week for discussions, writing exercises and coworking sessions. In February, we’ll keep the momentum going with weekly accountability sessions.
Together we’ll work towards cultivating the mindset, habits, and structure needed to bring your creative projects to life. Through a blend of reading, discussion, and hands-on practice, participants will explore strategies for nurturing creativity, maintaining momentum, and organizing their work effectively. We’ll apply what we’ve learned and make progress on our individual projects in a supportive environment. Throughout the month, guest speakers will be leading special recorded sessions, sharing insights from their own creative journeys and offering practical tools for sustaining a long-term creative practice.
goals & Expectations:
Our main goal is to work toward building a consistent creative practice. Daily meetings provide accountability and support with a flexible schedule that includes afternoon and evening meetings; attend the days and times that work best for you. Guest workshops will be recorded and available to participants for one month following workshop. Along the way we’ll explore how creative people stay organized, find flow, and keep projects moving. Through readings, discussion, and coworking time, you’ll get to test out new strategies, swap ideas, and gather useful tools. Most importantly, you’ll be part of a supportive group of creators who understand the ups and downs of the process. Together, we’ll cheer each other on, share wins (and struggles), and help each other find a creative rhythm that feels good.
workshop details:
- Workshop meets live online via Zoom for one hour, Monday-Friday January 4th-30th according to weekly schedule.
- Flexible schedule includes afternoon and evening sessions.
- Daily attendance is not required, but participants are encouraged to attend as many sessions as possible.
- Only sessions featuring a guest speaker/facilitator will be recorded; regular daily meetings will not be recorded.
- Limited spaces available; small intimate group to ensure a sense of camaraderie and safety
- Sliding scale price options available.
Weekly Schedule
TBD
Schedule reflects Eastern Time Zone and may include adjustments and/or additional meetings to accommodate availability of speakers.
Sign up for Updates on Schedule and Registration
Meet the Facilitator
Alexis M. Collazo is a Brooklyn bred writer, now living in Pennsylvania. She writes in a variety of forms and genres inspired by a wide range of interest including horror, music, and other creative arts. Her poetry has appeared in Common Unity: An anthology, Gnashing Teeth’s Making Room Zine, and Trashlight Press. She is the pdf designer and a reader for Painted Pebble Lit Mag. In August of 2021, she was certified as an Amherst Writers and Artists workshop facilitator and has since been offering a variety of online workshops including Tarot Tuesdays, Poetry As Spiritual Practice, the Creative Chaos Workshop and more.
See the about page for more on Alexis’ work and the Creative Chaos Workshop.
As leader, Alexis exudes such warmth, humor and acceptance. Pure pleasure.
Betsy Bowen Wrenn
Alexis always gives enough structure to inspire and enough space to create. I appreciate that the prompts can be stretched to generate both new work and support ongoing projects
Taste Creative Chaos Workshop Participant
Thanks so much Alexis for a truly immersive writing course experience that was fun, interactive and insightful.
Sue Goode
Previous Guest Speakers/Facilitators
Jen Jones Donatelli is a certified coach (PCC, CPCC), creative facilitator and founder of Creative Groove—a small business offering courses, coaching programs, and community around the art of creative living. Jen has also led workshops and programs for schools and organizations including Loyola Marymount University, Ohio University, MediaBistro, StoryStudio Chicago, Literary Cleveland, and Chautauqua Institution. Prior to her work with Creative Groove, Jen worked in various forms of media and entertainment for nearly 20 years. Her resume spans feature films,award shows, talk shows, sitcoms, red carpet reporting, and print/online journalism for outlets including Glamour, REDBOOK, Business Insider, TODAY, Los Angeles Confidential and many more. She is a proud graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.
Kimberly Lee, JD, is the author of the captivating thriller, Have You Seen Him. A versatile writer, workshop facilitator, and editor, she has a passion for nurturing the imaginative spirit and helping others reveal their creative gifts. Kimberly holds degrees from Stanford University and UC Davis School of Law, along with certifications from Amherst Writers & Artists, SoulCollage®, Guided Autobiography, the Center for Journal Therapy, and the Center for Intentional Creativity. Recent collaborations include Esalen Institute, Hollyhock Retreat Center, Omega Institute, The Huntington, and West LA Veterans Administration. Kimberly’s stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, and she has served on the staffs of Literary Mama, F(r)iction, and Carve magazines. She lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.
Donna Sokol founded Capitol Hill Writers Group in January 2011 after the birth of her second child. The close-to-home writing group allowed her to pursue her passion for creative writing and find balance in her life. In April 2023, Donna launched PowerWriters—a fiction writing membership for writers in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia metro area. Three times a year, Donna launches several new writing groups and brings together writers in daily writing sprints, weekly accountability group meetings, and monthly in-person writing events. Donna began writing creatively as a child; then she went to college, where creative writing was all but beaten out of her. She is currently working on a thriller. Donna has worked in libraries since age 12 and currently works in a library but not as a librarian. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband (whom she met in a library), two sons, and two Labrador Retrievers.
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