WORKSHOP RUNDOWN

Creation

Description:

This guide is timed for a 1-hour, 30-minute virtual workshop with 8-10 participants and includes a short break. It assumes you have already held an introductory “Attention” group and set group guidelines. Adjust your time estimates for groups that are larger, smaller, or of different lengths. Same for in-person groups: adjust timing and exercises as necessary.

Look for facilitator tips, production notes, and sample language throughout to help make your workshop successful. Feel free to copy and paste third objects, prompts, and other exercises from the Accessible Narrative Medicine Digital Library into your rundown.

Workshop rundown:

Welcome: 3-5 minutes

Guidelines reminder to create a safe environment. Introductory note about creation and what we bring to it. The generative nature of human interaction and interaction with art, beauty, change and hardship. Creation or co-creation of new ideas, as well as the awareness that this makes change more possible. The co-creation, in many settings of our lives, of truth.

Reminder that there will be a short break midway through the workshop.

Production note:
This is a great chance to bring your own thinking and experience to this workshop. Why did you choose this workshop? What do you hope these explorations bring participants?

Warm-up Write & Share: 15-20 minutes total

Write #1 (3 minutes)
Conjure in your mind’s eye a place that has connected you to creativity or beauty. Spend a few seconds taking in its sensory details. Engage with the feeling of this place and be sure to keep your pen/pencil/typing moving as you respond to one or both of these prompts:

Here on this bridge…
In a field full of…

Share (10-15 minutes)
Give everyone an opportunity to share all or part of their writing aloud. Reminder to respect people’s privacy, to read without apology or preamble. For everyone else, bring attention to the writing, practice active engagement with what is being shared. If there is a particular word or phrase that stands out to you, write it down for yourself or type it in the chat.

Third Object – Engage, Discuss, and Write: 16-20 minutes total

For third objects and prompts or exercises that pair best with this workshop, visit the Accessible Digital Library here.

Preface (1 minute)
Before sharing your screen with the third object, encourage everyone to continue the level of active engagement when you share each other’s words. Encourage them to keep a list of what they notice about the piece, first impressions, words or phrases, their own experience in their body and any emotional reaction.

Engage with third object (5-7 minutes)
Share your screen. If a written work, have a participant read aloud and a second volunteer read it again. Whatever the third object, have everyone jot a list for themselves what they notice about the piece, the questions they have.

Discuss (10-12 minutes)
Facilitate discussion about what people notice or respond to, what stands out. Use skills honed in previous workshops. Does everybody gravitate to the same things or different? Was there something you brought to your observation, any aesthetic preference or bias? With the subjects of the third objects in mind, do you recognize where creation/creativity shows up in your life, particularly in areas of health and illness? Without placing judgment on whether these forms of creation or creativity are good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, healthy or unhealthy, can you name them? Was there something familiar that helped you identify with the material, or was there no point of reference? Was anything about the piece difficult or challenging for you? Name it.

Break: 5 minutes

While it is nice to stay inside the dream of a workshop, it’s also important to normalize taking breaks. “Powering through” may leave some people behind who have access needs you are not aware of. Encourage people to keep phones and other devices tucked away, but also to stretch their body, use the restroom, grab a snack, and/or do what they need to rest and recharge.

Production note:
We offer the following write/share/discussion to be used instead of prompts and exercises suggested with your chosen third object. If you want to do both, we’ve included a production note below with ways to shorten the following exercise to 15-20 minutes instead of 40-45 minutes.

Write #2, Share, Discussion: 40-45 minutes total

Write #2 (20 minutes total)
MAPPING PLACE
With the third object still in mind, do another write. Continuing with the theme of mapping places of creativity, beauty, generativity and truth, spend a minute pulling out a few of the specifics from your first write that felt powerful or representative (2 minutes).

Now I want you to take out a blank sheet of paper. I’m going to give you time to map out a place that is creative or beautiful for you. You could do this by drawing a picture, doodling, taking notes or using objects around you to set the scene. This could be your childhood home, a room that you love to be in or an outdoor space that has brought out your creativity. It could be imaginary. It could be the same place you wrote about earlier or a different place. This could be used as an opportunity to see beauty or opportunities for generativity in a place you spend time but that you may not have thought of that way (8 minutes).

Using your drawings, doodles or notes as a guide for this next exercise, write an ode to this place. Consider exploring the opportunities it gives you to express your creative self or recognize the beauty of your life. How is it a place that helps you find your truth? (10 minutes).

Let me count the ways…
There was a time…

Share (10-15 minutes)
Give everyone an opportunity to share one of their letters, acknowledging that a writing exercise like this can feel vulnerable and that it is ok not to share. Reminder of privacy, to read without apology or preamble. For everyone else, bring attention to the writing, practice active engagement with what is being shared. If there is a particular word or phrase that stands out to you, write it down for yourself or type it in the chat.

Discussion (10 minutes)
Open discussion on ways we might consider what we’re going through a creative act and/or the ways place can help us find the drive in ourselves to be creative or appreciate beauty.

Production note:
A shorter version (15-20 minutes) of this same write/share/discussion means capping these two exercises at 3-4 minutes each. Then, instead of sharing full pieces, folks could share just the opening line aloud or in the chat. Leave time for discussion.

Write #3, Share: 9-11 minutes total

Write #3 (3-4 minutes)
Time permitting, do a final write. Invite people to think about something they’d like to create next. Find prompts from third objects or use these: