Thursdays evenings from 6:00-8:30pm at Story Parlor
April 10, April 17, April 24, May 1, May 8, May 15
Early bird $375 | Register by February 28 (discount applied at checkout)
Regular Price $400 | Effective March 1
Space is LIMITED to ensure an intimate experience. We recommend signing up early!
Refund and other policies can be found here.
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Our favorite characters feel like people we know. Their conflicts and desires leap off the page, and they linger with us long after a story ends. But writers commonly struggle to create characters whose vibrancy matches people in their favorite books, or in the real world. Even when a character emerges initially with a strong voice and backstory, we often lose that intensity and struggle to rediscover it as a project continues.
In this workshop, we’ll use the Enneagram, which has long been employed as a tool for deep personal growth, to transform our creative writing practice. We'll dive into the Enneagram’s triads (the gut, the heart, and the head) through teaching, discussion, and the Embodiment Tradition – an experiential, felt sense of the Enneagram that creates deep understanding of type.
Then, we’ll use readings and prompts to create characters of each type. We’ll craft backstories, dialogue, motivations, and dreams for characters, giving them distinct, compelling voices that will carry them through any plot. We will spend half of our time together learning, and half workshopping and sharing characters we're creating for our own projects. No Enneagram or writing experience is required for this course.
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Creative writers of any kind! Fiction/non-fiction, long/short-form, playwrights, poets, screenplay authors, or dabblers
People developing a concept and feeling stuck with character development
Creatives curious about the Enneagram, from beginner to advanced
Writers looking for a new tool for their creative toolbox
Creatives interested in human psychology
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Ali McGhee is an International Enneagram Association Accredited Professional and Co-Director of the Enneagram School of Awakening. She completed her Level 1 Certification through the Enneagram School of Awakening in 2015. She has a PhD in English from the University of Rochester and is the People Operations Manager at 6AM City. She is the co-founder of Appalachian Psychedelic Society and is a member of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines Chronicles team. Her work has been published in Dark Mountain, Slippery Elm Literary Journal, Atlantic Studies, Scalawag, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Bulletin, Lucid News, and others. She was a finalist for New South‘s and Glimmer Train‘s new fiction contests. She’s currently completing her novel.
Ali is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200), a member of the Asheville-based storytelling venue Story Parlor’s “Story Board.” She also co-hosts a weekly radio show, Slumber Party, on Asheville FM. Her workshop offerings include the Enneagram and Creative Writing, the Enneagram and Yoga/Meditation, and the Enneagram for Business Leadership and Communication.