International Day for Sharing Life Stories

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January 1, 2008
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Sharing Stories:

How To Organize A Writing Circle

Writing circles provide a place where people from all backgrounds can come together and share their personal, reflective stories, explore a range of issues and life experiences, and strengthen their creative writing abilities.

The writing circle should be an engaging and supportive place in which participants are encourage to write from the heart. Listed below are suggestions for creating a supportive environment in which each participant can share their writing freely and honor their peers by listening to their stories.

• Welcome your participants to the Story Circle. Invite them to eat refreshments, tell them where the bathroom is located, and any other logistical issues that folks should know about.

• Briefly explain the purpose of the event and that it is one of many events happening worldwide to celebrate the International Day for Sharing Life Stories.

• Have participants briefly introduce themselves to the group.

• Explain and develop “ground rules” for the Story Circle – that is, a group of agreements that the group makes on how the Story Circle will operate.

• Potentially designate a “timekeeper” to make sure the time guidelines are being followed and to offer participants “two minute warnings” and “30 seconds warnings” for when their time is coming to a close. Writing circles typically take no more than 2 hours. Encourage folks with additional questions and comments to approach the storyteller following the writing circle.

• As a warm-up, consider offering a writing prompt (from this list or one of your own) and give your participants a short amount of time to respond (3 -5 minutes) or leading one of the other storytelling activities on the list. Go around the circle and allow participants to share their writing.

• Offer participants another prompt (from this list or one of your own) and allow them 20 minutes to respond to the prompt in their writing. They may also work on the piece of writing started during the warm up.

• Have participants go around the circle and share their story as well as receive feedback from the group (approximatly 40 minutes). Make sure that each person is given equal time for their participation.

• Ask participants for their feedback on the writing circle process. What did they enjoy about it? What, if anything, did they find frustrating? In what ways do they think the writing circle process or storytelling in general could be better used in society?

• Discuss whether or not you as a group are interested in publishing your stories. This publication can be a self-published compendium, a zine, a website and/or integrated into a larger project.

• Collect contact information for participants and thank them for their participation.

BEFORE THE WRITING CIRCLE:

• Determine who you want to invite to your writing circle. Do you want to partner with another organization? If so, how will you determine who is invited or participates? Do you want to limit the number of participants, require an RSVP, or have an open invitation to the public?

In order to provide ample time for each participant, we usually find it best to limit writing circles to no more than 10 people, but if you anticipate that your number of participants will exceed this, you can always plan on dividing the larger group into small circles.

• Find a space for your event. Make sure that is easily accessible to your participants and provides your writing circle with the level of privacy and intimacy you want. Is there space for people to write? If you anticipate having multiple circles, can your venue accomodate this? Does it have multiple rooms?

• Create a welcoming environment. Make sure the seating is comfortable and arranged effectively. Arrange for snacks and drinks for before and after the writing circle. Make sure the room is at a comfortable temperature.

• Determine the time of your event. What times generally work best for your participant group? Does that time work with the venue?

• Do you want to partner with an outside group, such as a local radio station or other media organization, to document the writing circle? Do you or your organization want to take photographs of the event for your own archives?

• If your event is open to the public, how do you want to publicize the event? If you are interested in generating press coverage for your event, craft a press release for the event and send it to your local media outlets at least two weeks before the event and a follow-up reminder two days before the event.

• Make sure you have a ready supply of pens and paper for participants. We generally find that using index cards for story writing can be less intimidating and encourage participants to be more thoughtful with their responses

• Select writing prompts and/or activities for use during the workshop and how much time you would like to allow for each prompt.

• Identify somebody you can count on for encouraging participation and manage the flow of the workshop and deliver writing prompts

• Investigate options for publishing stories following the event. Do you want to create a book, zine, or website? If so, what resources do you have access to and what resources would you need? Check out our list of publishing resources.

AFTER THE WRITING CIRCLE:

• Send thank yous to event participants, especially circle leaders, the venue and any other people who helped the event happen.

• Send photos and a description of how your event went to CDS (laura@storycenter.org) so we can include them on our International Day site and archives.

• If applicable, follow through on publication plans.

• Consider hosting another storytelling event in your community.

ACTIVITY KITS

HOST ORGANIZATIONS

* Center for Digital Storytelling

* Museu da Pessoa