(Fredericton, NB, May 26, 2008)Biff Mitchell’s Writing Hurts Like Hell workshop doesn’t teach people how to write, it teaches people how to become writers. “I can’t teach people how to write,” said Mitchell, founder of Writing Hurts Like Hell. “Nobody can do that. You learn how to write on your own, by writing. What I give people are the tools they need to get them writing.”
Mitchell, author of three novels and a fourth coming out later this year, has been teaching writing workshops for several years. “At first, they weren’t all that successful,” said Mitchell. “I was teaching people the basics: character, plot, dialogue, literary devices … it was mostly boring.”
“Last summer,” said Mitchell, “I decided to scrap the whole thing and re-invent my workshop.”
Mitchell’s first three novels were written while he worked full-time jobs. “Full-time jobs, families, and academic pursuits leave little time for writing,” said Mitchell, “especially for something as ambitious as a novel.”
Mitchell designed a workshop that would not only allow people to develop the tools they need to become writers, but would also give them a step-by-step methodology to begin writing a novel and stick with it, even if their lives were busy. “It’s easy to get lost in something as big as a novel if you’re working on it for a year or more,” said Mitchell. “If you’re writing full-time, you might be able to just sit down at your computer and start writing. If you’re working a full-time job, it’s different. You have to plan.”
Before getting into the writing methodology, Mitchell’s workshop focuses on the tools people need in order to become writers. “Probably the biggest barrier to becoming a writer is the belief that it can’t be done, that it’s a pipe dream or a silly little hobby,” said Mitchell. “I teach my students how to take themselves seriously as writers, how to see the world as writers and how to think like writers. Most of all, though, I force them to write. Nothing reinforces your faith in yourself as a writer more than the simple act of writing, which, unfortunately seems to be difficult for most people. That’s why I call this workshop Writing Hurts Like Hell.”
One of Mitchell’s techniques is to move his workshop around the city. “When I was teaching this through the UNB College of Extended Learning, we would be given a classroom which we met in for the first class, and then we ranged out into the city, meeting at coffee shops, malls, homes, lounges, restaurants, artists’ studios … we even had one class in a hot tub. The rationale for this is to constantly change the setting to keep the right side of the brain fired up.”
In one class, Mitchell had his students wandering around a local art studio, not just observing things, but touching, smelling, and licking them.
Mitchell taught a workshop on so-called “forbidden topics” at the 2007 Muse Online Writers’ Conference. “I brought this into my Writing Hurts Like Hell workshop because it’s something that would-be writers find difficult,” said Mitchell. “Most beginning writers are either too explicit or too shy, especially when it comes to sex scenes.”
Mitchell’s workshop will be running two nights a week through June. The workshop is limited to 10 students. “I may begin an additional workshop depending on the response to the first,” said Mitchell.
The Writing Hurts Like Hell workshop includes a one-on-one with Mitchell at some point after the workshop. “This will give the students a chance to meet with me a few weeks or months after the workshop to take a look at what they’re doing and get answers to those questions that arise when you start to the actual work on a novel.”
Beginning mid-summer, Mitchell will be offering a variety of other workshops under the umbrella of Writing Hurts Like Hell, including humor, a one-day weekend workshop on forbidden topics and science fiction and writing for the Internet – the last two of which he’ll be teaching at the Maritime Writers’ Workshop in July.
About Biff Mitchell
A regular contributor to the award-winning Twisted Tails anthologies, Biff has three novels published and a fourth coming out from Double Dragon Publishing in November of this year. He has taught writing workshops through the UNB College of Extended Learning for several years and was a featured instructor at the 2005 Maritime Writers’ Workshop. This July, he’ll be teaching workshops on epublishing and science fiction and cyberpunk at the Workshop. Biff also does one-on-one writing consultations and will be applying his creative methodology to a seminar that he’ll be offering to local businesses and government organizations.
About the Workshop
Writing Hurts Like Hell is a four-week workshop that will give people the tools they need to stop talking about writing that novel they’ve always dreamed of and start writing it. Through field trips around the city, brutal discussions and writing exercises, they’ll learn how to get the words flowing, how to turn off the inner critic, where to start, what to do, how to do it and how to keep the steam up until their book is finished. This workshop is intended specifically for busy people–people with full-time jobs, families to raise, or classes to attend. This is not a workshop on how to write–it’s a workshop on how to become a writer. It includes one two hour one-on-one by arrangement with each student after the workshop.
Contact Biff Mitchell
Phone: 506.455.BIFF (2433)
Email: biff@biffmitchell.com
