*Private Class | Shadow Writing

with Gloria Kempton

| 8 to 12 Weeks |

$595.00

Private Course

Shadow Writing is offered as only a private class. Rather than eight weeks, as it would be if offered as a group class, the time to finish is extended to twelve weeks. Otherwise the class is the same: you’ll receive eight lessons and eight assignments. Gloria will respond with feedback on each piece you submit.

Want to take the class with a friend? You can. Write to us at writers@writers.com for more information.

This course is not for the faint of heart. If you’re curious about writer’s block (a myth), the dreams, longings, cravings, obsessions, and needs that distract you from your writing because of the strength of their grip, the depth that you can’t quite reach in your writing for fear of turning up something unpleasant—instead of turning away, in this class, we will turn toward these things.

As writers, we are both and at once, attracted to the material of the shadow and repelled by it. Some never make the approach. Others make the approach and when encountering the unfamiliar, the strange, and/or the downright disgusting, turn away. A few are up to the challenge and charge ahead into the dark—where they find that the light is brightest. Beyond the threshold of the shadow you’ll find the richest, the most authentic, the deepest writing of which you’re capable.

To shadow write is to explore your unconscious longings and needs, fears and obsessions so that they don’t drive your essays and stories in a way that’s out of your control but rather, inform your writing in a way that’s honest and upholds your truest self. To shadow write is also to move into who you and your characters are as their best and worst selves, all at the same time. Finally, the decision to shadow write is to inquire into your unconscious life as much as your conscious life and to agree that you won’t shrink back from death’s dark door—yours and your characters’—as you write.

Step on the accelerator and move into one of the darkest places you’ve ever been as a writer—your own unconscious. This is where you’ll find your most authentic writing self, so hang on for the ride. Both fiction and nonfiction writers are welcome.

One caveat: While I hope you’ll feel full rein to allow yourself to probe your dark unconscious side, please no explicit and/or graphic sexual or violent scenes. This class isn’t so much about writing through your dark actions but about probing your unconscious thoughts, emotions, motivations and behaviors so as to unlock your inhibitions and write, as much as possible, the authentic truth of who you are in your relationship with yourself and with others, or if writing fiction, the uncovering of what’s truly driving your character in his or her story.

Gloria provided some of the best advice I’ve ever received.
—Brownwen Jones

Course Outline

Recommended text: A Little Book on the Human Shadow by Robert Bly (recommended but not required)

Week One: Shadow Writing—Approaching the Dark and Hidden Places

What is the shadow? What is shadow writing? As writers, how do we move past the superficial and obvious into what’s really true when writing about a topic, any topic? What are the benefits of shadow writing? How can our shadow help us connect with ourselves?

Assignment: Write a profile of your shadow self.

Week Two: Longings and Needs—Coaxing Them Out Into the Open

Consider the longings and needs that are conscious for you. Now learn to write into the ones that aren’t, that are hidden in the shadow of your consciousness. When you can bring these out in your writing, they will inform your own life and the lives of your characters in ways you never imagined.

Assignment: Write an essay or a fictional scene that explores a longing or need you’ve never before acknowledged to yourself or written about. Prompts will be provided.

Week Three: Good and Evil—Owning Both Sides

We are as afraid of the “good” in ourselves as we are the “bad.”. But we can only achieve authenticity as writers when we can own both the good and the bad and integrate them into our creative self as we write. The shadow is where we must go in our writing in order to achieve this process.

Assignment: Explore your “good” and “bad” self in an essay or create a scene that includes the protagonist and antagonist facing off in an area that incorporates the bad in the protagonist and the good in the antagonist.

Week Four: Fears and Obsessions—Strengthening our Themes

Too often, as writers, we come up to our fears and obsessions and, instead of owning them in our stories and essays, we run the other way, thereby weakening the themes we want to explore for ourselves and our readers. Learn to plunge in; you will survive.

Assignment: Explore a personal fear and/or an obsession in an essay or fictional scene or story. You will be asked specific questions to help you access what’s hidden in your shadow.

Week Five: Guilt and Shame—Letting Them Go

As writers, our shadow can be filled with guilt and shame. When writing, whether a fictional story or a personal memoir, we can suddenly back away from writing a particular scene or exploring a certain kind of character because of unresolved and now unconscious guilt and/or shame around a moment in time in our personal lives. Facing our shadow can help us bring these moments out into the light and resolve them in our writing.

Assignment: Write a fictional scene or a scene from your life that filled you with guilt and shame, rewriting the ending and giving the moment a resolution.

Week Six: The Masks We Wear—Taking Them Off

We all wear masks in public, unconsciously in order to protect our true selves from judgment, ridicule, rejection and a host of other reactions that we believe we would receive were others to see who we really are. When writing, we continue this facade because of our own negative reactions to our true selves. If we were to take off all of the masks during our daily writing time, who would we be?

Assignment: Create a fictional character who behaves one way in public and another in private and put him into a scene where his false self is exposed. Or write about a real time when you had to make the choice to present your false self or to stand up and be your true self.

Week Seven: Life and Death—Staying Engage

Life and death—the last territory we must conquer as writers. Writing about death can scare the bravest of writers, but we often don’t look so deeply into our lives and understand that writing about life can be equally as scary. While some of us do make an effort to write consciously about life and death, it’s the unconscious—the shadow—that holds the deepest secrets and the most authentic writing that is accessible to us on these topics.

Assignment: Write an essay that explores both life and death simultaneously, or a fictional scene where your character is faced with death or, if staying alive, must make an unethical or immoral choice.

Week Eight: The Commitment—Staying Awake

Now that we’ve been awakened to some of the parts of ourselves that aren’t readily accessible when we write, how can we assure that we don’t go back to sleep in those areas? Shadow writing can be sustainable if there is a commitment to waking up to our authentic selves when we write.

Assignment: Create a plan to pursue shadow writing in whatever form it seems to want to show up.

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Course categories: Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, Novel, Personal Essay, Short Story

Student Feedback for Gloria Kempton:

I loved working with Gloria. She is very positive, encouraging, and thorough in her evaluations of our writing. Her feedback is excellent and her assignments really make you think. I cannot say enough good things about Gloria.The class was great! It was a wonderful experience! Janna Brock

I can't say enough about Gloria as a teacher. Her feedback is always so in-depth and full of questions to help me to think deeper about my story, character and plot. She was very responsive and timely with any questions and I felt encouraged while challenged the entire time. Michele Davidson

I was very happy with the content and the assignments. The class exceeded my expectations in every way. I found the deadlines, word limits and others feedback invaluable. I found out a lot about myself and the type of writing I want to continue. Gloria was a great teacher who gave a lot of feedback. How she keeps everything straight I'll never know. Her sense of humor and the way she evaluated assignments made me very comfortable. I had never shared my writing with anyone before and she made me feel very much at ease. Her feedback was helpful and specific as to what I needed to do as a writer to make my work better. Catherine Turner

The course went by quickly. I have gained helpful knowledge about the craft of writing. I'm grateful for that! I felt a lot of time and thought went into our teacher's remarks, guidance, and encouragement on each assignment. I am still re-reading her notes to learn as much as I can from her! Shirley Woods

Gloria encourages participation with all her students and we gain from each others' experiences. After decades of taking courses, Gloria has proven, with three consecutive courses, that she is the best writing instructor for me. Patricia Casey

Gloria's feedback was vital. She was helpful and gave thoughtful responses. She asked questions and knew how to best elaborate on topics when asked. Her lectures were easy to understand and thought-provoking. Rose Neff

Wow! Gloria is clearly an expert in her field and I feel fortunate that she chose to share her knowledge with other writers. Her mentoring and guidance was very impactful to me. I learned how powerful voice and perspective can be in shaping a story and her precise feedback was very actionable. I look forward to learning more from Gloria. Bonnie Bittman

Gloria did an excellent and thoughtful job through her critiques of my writing each week. Exploring the different genre available and their various structures was invaluable to me as I seek to grow in my writing. Her tips and encouragement helped me focus on the kind of writing it might be best for me to pursue going forward. Gloria was also personable, taking time to interact with each student, and most of all, I found her encouraging! Thanks Gloria! Ray Cureton

Gloria was terrific as an instructor. I didn't know what to expect since this was the first time I had ever taken a writing course on the net. Gloria's critiques on all of our work was timely, thoughtful, so on the mark it was scary at times-She was always so encouraging yet her comments never seemed condescending or false. Frankly, I was very surprised at how much Gloria provided in the way of written feedback as well as taking the time to answer questions from class members and participate in email exchanges-conversations. While it may sound odd, given this was a virtual course, Gloria was not only an excellent instructor, critic and supporter, she was gracious in the amount of attention she devoted to the group. Jan Smith

First I want to say that I loved Gloria. She really helped me to open my eyes and realize that becoming a writer or at least trying wasn't quite as scary as I thought it would be. Carly Young

Excellent. The lecture material was concise and relevant. The assignments were challenging and instructive. [Gloria was] very good. Excellent critique style. Wonderful attention to detail in review of our assignments. Encouraging and constructive. Judy Schreiner

Gloria has a great style and combines positive constructive feedback with personal and personable exchanges that challenge while growing your confidence. I am considering other courses as this was such a good experience. Ann Wright

YES!! It was a great experience with a wonderful writing coach. I felt challenged and excited to log in on Mondays and read the lecture and start writing the assignment. There was a great mix of different writing genres, so for those of us “Starting to Write” we were able to try a lot and maybe, hopefully, settle on one we would like to continue. Gloria is wonderfully smart, funny, encouraging, thought-provoking, just all around great. Her comments/critiques/reviews were amazing -- as a student you could tell that she really put time and energy into what she was doing. With an online class, you can loose the human connection, but I feel very connected to Gloria, I would take another class from her anytime! Anna Reorda

Very happy. This was the first writing class that I have taken so don't have anything else to compare it too, but I thought the lessons fit perfectly with my lack of experience. Gloria was excellent. Did a very nice job of reviewing our work, giving us encouragement along with constructive criticism. Gary Gustafson

Gloria was a fantastic teacher. She inspired me to find the desire to keep writing. She also led me into a new way of thinking about my writing and what I was capable of doing. I would definitely recommend these classes to others. In fact I have given your website out to two others so far. I will be taking another class with you in the near future. I'd like to thank you for being there on the web. Connie Wojtyna

Gloria gives amazing feedback. Very positive, yet not afraid to critique and point out weaknesses. I would definitely recommend the class to a friend. I am already taking another of Gloria's classes. Ann Barnett

Gloria Kempton has provided some of the best advice I’ve ever received on how to achieve more psychological depth in my fictional characters, and also how to investigate my own shadows. She gave excellent advice and feedback. Brownwen Jones

I'm happy to say that I was delighted with the course content, the assignments, and the instructor. Gloria's lecture material and feedback on assignments were very effective in drawing me to a conclusion as to what my writing niche(s) might be. The course met all of its objectives. Michael Tully

Gloria was well organized and and as thorough as could be hoped for. I thought her ability to offer critiques that were both positive and instructive was masterful. The lessons plans and lectures were very instructive and I will be referring to them often. Geoff Tobiasson

[Gloria's] critiques were thoughtful, elaborate, and helpful. She also added a personal touch and was really approachable during the entire class. Michael Ehler

Before signing up for this class, I looked over feedback from previous students of Gloria Kempton. All reviews said that she took a personal interest in her students, and I was not disappointed. She has a knack for meeting students right where they are, and gave constructive criticism with kindness and humor. She also recommended a couple of books that Writer's Digest had published for outside reading; I checked them both out of our public library and they were helpful. Lori Peardon

This was my first class, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found the lessons challenging but "doable." They certainly stretched me a bit, which is what I was looking for. Gloria seemed friendly and fair, and offered helpful feedback. I was happy to have such a positive/encouraging person reviewing my work, and it helped me to stick with it. Arnold Doyle

Gloria was just the person I needed to help me with my writing, make constructive suggestions and give sound advice to us budding writers. I'll certainly recommend your courses. Thank you for a very well organized and interesting online course. John Harper

The lessons were very informative. The sequence led me through the process of creating a story (i.e., a first draft) --something I had not done before. I learned a lot. I think I could take the class again and learn it a second time! Gloria gave excellent, very personal critiques with suggestions on how to make use of them as we moved on to the next lesson. She was helpful, sympathetic, and encouraging when one class member encountered unavoidable computer & personal problems. [With Writers.com] I've never been without a class I wanted to take. Marge Osborn

This [The Hero's Journey for Storytellers] was the best writing class I've ever taken. Second best was Gloria's Shadow Writing class. Gloria is the best writing teacher I have had. She is wholeheartedly committed to helping her students. Antoinette Armocida

The specific prompts helped me to focus on things I needed to work on. Gloria is helpful and insightful. She is very experienced and explained concepts well. Amelia Wood

Having a mentor like Gloria launched me into a whole new career. I have now published over 100 articles and 3 books, teach writing seminars, and landed a position in the editorial department at a publishing company. Karan Gleason

The class gave me a whole new and satisfying direction in my writing. I don’t think I could have gotten there without this class. I now know what I want to focus on and I am so happy… Gloria is a star. A great teacher and a nice person. She really knows her stuff and presented it in a way that kept me enthusiastic and motivated… Offer more classes by Gloria! Justine Owen

Gloria offered specific suggestions and brainstormed with me frequently without suggesting that I conform to her style. I can honestly say that I came away encouraged and motivated after every contact. Dudley Delffs

The long winding road to publishing my initial manuscripts were shortened after attending Gloria’s classes. I exceeded my goals by publishing 30 articles my first year! Christina Carrigan

I was very pleased with both the content of the class and with the expertise and sensitivity of the instructor, Gloria Kempton… Gloria’s classes were very well thought out and organized. She presented the written lectures in an easy to understand format, and included questions designed to provoke thought and insight for her students. She showed a personal, genuine interest in each one of us, and was always willing to help us in our writing efforts. Her commentaries on our work were tactful, always offering positive guidance, and full of “atta boys” that we all need. She made us “feel like writers” from day one… Again, I was very pleased with the entire experience with taking a class through Writers on the Net. The format is so easy to use, and is ideal for those of us trying squeeze writing classes in between work and family obligations. Even though the idea of an internet class provides a degree of anonymity, I very much felt like a part of a “class”, and the names on my inbox indeed became friends after the eight weeks together. I came away from the class with definite improved skills, and the determination to continue with my writing efforts. Thank you for making this avenue of study possible! Candy Calvert

I was very impressed with the format of the class and the subject matter… Gloria is an excellent instructor and uses this medium well. I felt she gave us enough information to provide a well rounded perspective, to encourage us to think – and not become overwhelmed. The assignments were diverse enough to challenge us and keep us focused on the process of “Discovering our Niche”. She was able to effectively project her personality across the miles, develop relationships with us, and empower us with a belief in our own writing abilities. Somehow, she was able to diplomatically walk the fine line of fairly critiquing our work and at the same time, keeping us motivated… I am telling my new writer friends about Writers.com. Gloria encouraged us to get involved with other writers groups, which I am now doing — and spreading the word about how great you are!… I look forward to another class — well worth the investment in time and money. Carole Borah

I really enjoyed the class and Gloria was GREAT!!! Taught me a lot about writing and a lot about myself… I never thought that I could write and I have found an inner voice that I never knew that I had… You have an excellent platform and excellent teachers (and the price is good. too). I have looked into other programs that cost twice to three times as much and I doubt that they can be that much better… Thanks a bunch Gloria… you are great!!!… Thanks for being there… it has opened up a whole new arena for me…. to the good… and I now realize I not only “don’t” want to go back to where I was…. I cannot. Jena Johler

[Gloria] is amazingly insightful and encouraging without holding back the needed criticism. Joe Plemon

Discovering your writing niche” proved to be very beneficial. Each of the assignments were appropriately linked to the corresponding lesson. At the completion of each assignment I was left with a definite feel for what I liked or didn’t like to write. I was very happy with the content and the manner in which it was presented. Gloria Kempton did a fine job teaching. Connie Ong

I just finished a class with Gloria Kempton. She has been an excellent writing coach; I’ve learned so much in such a short time. I appreciate her thorough critiques of my work, and her suggestions were straightforward and easy to follow. Most importantly, she did two things no other instructor has done so far. First, she made us stick to the guidelines she set for the assignment. That was great! What better way to get us ready for the world of publication than to make us work like writers! Finally, she taught us the basics of HOW to market our work. As I said, I’ve taken five of your courses. Gloria’s class (for the amount of time we had), ranked up there with my graduate level writing classes. I am so grateful to have been her student. I look forward to taking future classes with Writers.com. Linda Kulp

About Gloria Kempton

Gloria Kempton is the author of seven nonfiction self-help books and two young adult novels, as well as hundreds of short stories, essays, personal experiences, personality profiles, how-to's, and feature articles for a number of national magazines including Writer's Digest. For three years she wrote a column for single parents in a parenting magazine. Her book, Dialogue, was published by Writer’s Digest Books in 2004 and is still selling well.

She is the former Managing Editor of Parents of Teenagers magazine and was a freelance book editor for nine major publishers including Harper Collins. She is a former contributing editor for Writer’s Digest magazine. She continues to critique and edit both fiction and nonfiction for individuals, as well as coaching writers one-on-one on any aspect of fiction, nonfiction, marketing, or the writing life.

Gloria teaches at writers conferences and has served on several writer's conference boards and program committees, including the Pacific Northwest Writer's Conference, and chaired their midwinter conference for two years.

She has most recently published a correspondence course, The Outlaw’s Journey; A Mythological Approach to Storytelling for Writers Behind Bars, which she is now taking into correctional institutions around the country. She’s currently writing a book based on the material in this course.

Read more about Gloria on her web site: http://gloriakempton.com/