Fire Starters: Exclusive Memoir Writing & Critique Group (6 Months) (Oct 2024 - Apr 2025)
The new Fire Starters is a 6-month memoir / personal narrative writing program and community. Fire Starters will be your answer to building momentum and the follow-through to make your writing dreams come true!
What most writers lack is time - Fire Starters exists to help you designate and commit to taking the time to cultivate a rich writing practice. From October to April, you'll immerse yourself in the writer life you dream about with a cohort of others who are wholly focused on writing and refining their writing (you’ll learn how to critique your group-mates’ writing which will help your own writing!) . Even though you will be writing in different locations, the fact that our whole group shares the same intention will help you reach your goal of finishing a piece (or more than one!).
Write the essays you've been meaning to write, craft a TEDTalk or keynote speech, begin your book at last, or make serious headway on an existing memoir book project!
There is no requirement to write about your cancer experience, but if you choose to, you're in perfect company to do so. Fire Starters is specifically designed for personal narrative writing; no fiction, please.
Fire Starters includes:
1 monthly Zoom - instruction, sharing, critique (recorded so you can do this on your own time as needed)
Saturdays, 10a - 12p PT:
Oct 5
Nov 2
Dec 7
Jan 11
Feb 1
Mar 1
1 monthly instructional video
Weekly customized writing plan via email (prompts, instruction, tips, and inspiration)
2 1:1 coaching sessions
More available as add-ons
1:1 feedback on 1 manuscript
Optional "write-in" days each month to write together via Zoom
Optional group critique for your writing at the monthly Zooms
Optional group art therapy session with Stephanie McLeod-Estevez to help you bring your writing goals to life (Saturday, Nov 16th)
Optional private Facebook group for writing community & support between Zooms
Additional info:Memoir-writing only, but that can take any form: essays, book project, screenplay, poetry
Expect to write 20-200 pages over our 6 months, depending on your goals and speed of writing
Participate monthly live, or go at your own pace
Price & Dates:
Start: October 1st, end: March 31
Cost:
Early bird: $750 (ends July 15)Saver: $824 (ends August 15)
Standard: $897 - registration closes Sept 15
The new Fire Starters is a 6-month memoir / personal narrative writing program and community. Fire Starters will be your answer to building momentum and the follow-through to make your writing dreams come true!
What most writers lack is time - Fire Starters exists to help you designate and commit to taking the time to cultivate a rich writing practice. From October to April, you'll immerse yourself in the writer life you dream about with a cohort of others who are wholly focused on writing and refining their writing (you’ll learn how to critique your group-mates’ writing which will help your own writing!) . Even though you will be writing in different locations, the fact that our whole group shares the same intention will help you reach your goal of finishing a piece (or more than one!).
Write the essays you've been meaning to write, craft a TEDTalk or keynote speech, begin your book at last, or make serious headway on an existing memoir book project!
There is no requirement to write about your cancer experience, but if you choose to, you're in perfect company to do so. Fire Starters is specifically designed for personal narrative writing; no fiction, please.
Fire Starters includes:
1 monthly Zoom - instruction, sharing, critique (recorded so you can do this on your own time as needed)
Saturdays, 10a - 12p PT:
Oct 5
Nov 2
Dec 7
Jan 11
Feb 1
Mar 1
1 monthly instructional video
Weekly customized writing plan via email (prompts, instruction, tips, and inspiration)
2 1:1 coaching sessions
More available as add-ons
1:1 feedback on 1 manuscript
Optional "write-in" days each month to write together via Zoom
Optional group critique for your writing at the monthly Zooms
Optional group art therapy session with Stephanie McLeod-Estevez to help you bring your writing goals to life (Saturday, Nov 16th)
Optional private Facebook group for writing community & support between Zooms
Additional info:Memoir-writing only, but that can take any form: essays, book project, screenplay, poetry
Expect to write 20-200 pages over our 6 months, depending on your goals and speed of writing
Participate monthly live, or go at your own pace
Price & Dates:
Start: October 1st, end: March 31
Cost:
Early bird: $750 (ends July 15)Saver: $824 (ends August 15)
Standard: $897 - registration closes Sept 15
The new Fire Starters is a 6-month memoir / personal narrative writing program and community. Fire Starters will be your answer to building momentum and the follow-through to make your writing dreams come true!
What most writers lack is time - Fire Starters exists to help you designate and commit to taking the time to cultivate a rich writing practice. From October to April, you'll immerse yourself in the writer life you dream about with a cohort of others who are wholly focused on writing and refining their writing (you’ll learn how to critique your group-mates’ writing which will help your own writing!) . Even though you will be writing in different locations, the fact that our whole group shares the same intention will help you reach your goal of finishing a piece (or more than one!).
Write the essays you've been meaning to write, craft a TEDTalk or keynote speech, begin your book at last, or make serious headway on an existing memoir book project!
There is no requirement to write about your cancer experience, but if you choose to, you're in perfect company to do so. Fire Starters is specifically designed for personal narrative writing; no fiction, please.
Fire Starters includes:
1 monthly Zoom - instruction, sharing, critique (recorded so you can do this on your own time as needed)
Saturdays, 10a - 12p PT:
Oct 5
Nov 2
Dec 7
Jan 11
Feb 1
Mar 1
1 monthly instructional video
Weekly customized writing plan via email (prompts, instruction, tips, and inspiration)
2 1:1 coaching sessions
More available as add-ons
1:1 feedback on 1 manuscript
Optional "write-in" days each month to write together via Zoom
Optional group critique for your writing at the monthly Zooms
Optional group art therapy session with Stephanie McLeod-Estevez to help you bring your writing goals to life (Saturday, Nov 16th)
Optional private Facebook group for writing community & support between Zooms
Additional info:Memoir-writing only, but that can take any form: essays, book project, screenplay, poetry
Expect to write 20-200 pages over our 6 months, depending on your goals and speed of writing
Participate monthly live, or go at your own pace
Price & Dates:
Start: October 1st, end: March 31
Cost:
Early bird: $750 (ends July 15)Saver: $824 (ends August 15)
Standard: $897 - registration closes Sept 15
A message from your facilitator: “The reason I've expanded this from an 8-week program to a 6-month program is to really foster the community, creativity, time & space to sink your teeth into a life-changing writing project! This is my dream writing program & community that I needed. I want to give you that jumpstart and momentum that I craved. I would truly love to support your writing goals all fall & winter!” ~ April Stearns
All stages of breast cancer welcome.
Participants may be any age now, but were diagnosed under 50. (If you were older, and still want in, email me to discuss: editor@wildfirecommunity.org)
Ideally, you have attended a Wildfire “Sparks” Writing Workshop six-week series in the past or are currently enrolled but not required.
The workshop will take place online via Zoom. Although not required, headphones with a mic are helpful.
About April:
April Johnson Stearns, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, WILDFIRE Magazine. A lifelong writer who landed her first memoir-based magazine cover story at just 16, April worked for her college newspaper (“City on the Hill” at the University of California at Santa Cruz) and then went on to work for her local newspaper (The Sentinel, Santa Cruz, CA) following graduation. Before long, she was lured to other writing jobs “over the hill” from Santa Cruz in Silicon Valley during the tech boom of the early 2000s. However, in 2012, in the midst of this career, April was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer at age 35. Four years later, while struggling to “go back to normal” and find others in similar circumstances, April launched WILDFIRE Magazine as a way for younger people to tell and read breast cancer stories. April believes strongly that helping others tell their stories has the dramatic effect of turning a traumatic cancer experience into an empowering one. April lives with her husband and young daughter in Santa Cruz. Although she loves town life, she also likes to get away from all the hustle and bustle whenever she can to hike in the woods, but writing memoir remains April’s purest escape.
