We all know how “easy” it is become a writer: just wear dark turtlenecks, sit in coffee shops with a moody expression, and talk about the burden of being an artist. (All of which is easier, but much less fun, than doing actual writing.) But how do you become an actual writer—someone who actually writes?

This class will show you how.

We will discuss the practical aspects of writing: how to budget your time, find an inspirational space, keep writing even when your day-job drags you down, develop your voice, edit without cutting too much (or too little), and turn your journal into mental working space and a safe haven for your creative self. We will also work on quieting the inner critic, learning how not to fear the blank page, and developing our skills as a keen observer (and explorer) of the world around us and within us. Ways of getting your work known and published will also be introduced.

The course will include plenty of published pieces about the craft of writing, and regular exercises will help you move from a wanna-be writer to the real thing!

Additional Courses of Interest:

Who Should Attend:

Adults, 18 and over
Beginning writers

About the Instructor: Jack Helbig is a theater critic, arts writer, and essayist for various publications. He regularly writes for the Chicago Reader and the Daily Herald. He is also a playwright; his musical adaptation, Hotel d’Amour, written with Gregg Opelka (and based on Georges Feydeau’s farce A Flea in Her Ear), was first produced by the Buffalo Theatre Company in Chicago and has since been done around the U.S. He has written two plays, Thinking of Her Made Him Think of Her, an autobiographical piece first produced by the Talisman Theatre in Elgin, Illinois, and Kitten With a Whip, produced at the Cafe Voltaire, Chicago, and three ten-minute musicals (The Adventures of Princess Snapdragon, Dry Ice and Dinner with Douglas) (New Tuners, Chicago). He and Gregg Opelka also collaborated on My Night at Jacques’, a modern translation of two one-act comic operettas by Jacques Offenbach, and a new translation of Franz Lehar’s classic, The Merry Widow, which earned rave reviews from both of Chicago’s major dailies when it was produced last summer. He has been keeping a journal since he was in Mr. Kramer’s ninth grade English class at St. Louis U. High. He now working on his 60th journal.