SPECIAL ASSOCIATE ISSUE

Why Your Story Matters

Writers who spend hours trying to understand another period of history know the value of personal stories. Were it not for the journals and letters from the thirteen century, we would grasp very little of how those people felt or thought.

But what will remain of our time after we’re gone? Our “letters” are cryptic phone texts and short emails, and what passes for a journal is nothing but a series of equally cryptic messages on FB.  READ MORE

Fortunately, that’s not all we’ll have to offer those future historians. Life in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is being recorded and reflected upon—not by professional  historians and news commentators, but by the people who actually lived it.

More people are writing stories today than ever before, and these writings—whether memoir or fiction—published or self-published—will become the repository of our times.

 
Stories reveal us, connect us, and inspire us. And--they leave a legacy.

Those of us who write work hard to make our own stories better and get them published. But as a writer, I have to ask myself, who am I to think that MY story is more universal, more inspirational, or wiser than anyone else's? If we learn anything looking at the great writers of the past, we learn that they often appeared unprepossessing and unexceptional. Some of the most ordinary stories have had the most extraordinary impact.
 

The value of story cannot be overstated. If even ONE story changes ONE life for the better, a life is improved! If one battered wife finds courage or one lonely child finds hope, what price can be put on that?
 

Perhaps the story most needed by the world is not the one I write, but the one we help make possible by empowering other would-be writers.

The Challenge~~Empower Writers

That's why the Village Writing School exists—to help ordinary people tell their stories by teaching them basic tools to craft a readable and interesting narrative and by making this instruction affordable and flexible for all.

All of us can write stories. Yes, there is such a thing as innate writing talent. And a tiny percentage of the population will write heart-stopping prose. That many not be you or me. But I believe that everything you need to write a beautiful, interesting, compelling book can be learned.

At the Village Writing School, we believe your story is important. 

• Stories provide healing for the writer and the reader.
• Stories connect us, entertain us, and inspire us.
• Stories will provide a record for future centuries of who we were and what we faced and how we felt.

Empowering You Wherever You Are

If our goal is to teach as many people as possible to tell their stories, we must reach out to as many locations as possible. And we have begun!

Mackenzie Doss our Rogers associate began teaching this week.

We plan to offer our full curriculum in Rogers in 2015 as well as screenwriting and writing family history. 

Our Maumelle and Little Rock associate programs headed by Thomas Eaton, Ed.D. begin in January 2015. More on that soon.

We will offer an affordable curriculum of workshops at convenient times in as many locations as possible. 
 

An important part of our plan is to provide aspiring writers in associate workshops with a reference book to help them retain what they learn and to apply it to their own stories.

We will share our materials with credentialed associate teachers/writers in many locations, so they can teach their own programs on their own schedules, These teachers will not be employees or partners or franchisees of the Village Writing School. But they will be associated with us through our shared mission and our permission to them to teach our copywrited materials. We will help them with marketing, social media, and a web presence. Together, we will reach many students and empower many stories.

A credentialed teacher ANYWHERE who has a passion for sharing the craft and art of writing will find that our materials give them EVERYTHING needed to teach a student to write a beautiful story. If you or someone you know has credentials for teaching creative writing, contact us. 

Share our Mission

 
If you believe in the value of story or if you have learned to make your own story better through your association with the Village Writing School, we ask you to embrace our vision to empower the stories resident in many villages. You can:

• Support us as a Friend

• Consider an endowment for the future

• Hook us up with a potential associate teacher

• Share our newsletter and social media

• Take a workshop to make your story more publishable

   

  Village Writers~~Stronger & Better Together