The Way of StoryWriting Consultations with award-winning author Catherine Ann Jones
“People without hope do not write books.” – Margaret Atwood “It is my feeling that some stories already exist in the ether, and my job is simply to bring them down to the gross level. The best times are when I seem to disappear altogether and the story writes itself. It passes through […]
Writing Memoir for Family Legacy on ZOOM, Sat, May 8 at 10 AM
Writing Memoir for Family Legacy on ZOOM, Sat, May 8 at 10 AM I write in order to discover myself.” – Maya Angelou Why write a memoir? To discover what we have learned on our journey and then share that with others, those who come after. Home is where our stories begin. What we […]
The Way of Story in Ojai, Sat, Sept 22, 2018
THE WAY OF STORY in OJAI with Catherine Ann Jones Saturday, Sept 22 (10-4pm) “We’ve become lopsided living only in our heads. Writing, in order to serve the soul must integrate outer craft with the inner world of intuition and feeling.” – Catherine Ann Jones, NY TIMES The Way of Story offers an integrative approach […]
Play Productions & Awards
Awards & Productions of the Plays of Catherine Ann Jones (formerly Katherine Rao) Freud’s Oracle (published 2016; available on amazon.com) The Ojai Retreat, Ojai, CA, Krotona Institute, Ojai, CA Creativity and Madness, Santa Fe, NM https://www.wayofstory.com/freuds-oracle-standing-ovation-santa-fe-nm/ Women of Resilience, New Orleans, LA Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA http://www.pacifica.edu/current-public/item/freuds-oracle April 13, 2018: C.G. Jung […]
Consider One Word Titles for Books & Movies
As Oscar Night looms (February 28th this year, 2016), might be interesting to ponder how many Movies have won Best Picture that have one-word titles. Might be fun to first guess then look at this list at Oscar-winners over the years: One-word Best Picture winners Amadeus Argo Ben-Hur (yes, hyphens are cool) Braveheart Casablanca Cavalcade […]
Pilgrimage to India
Albert Camus once said, “What gives value to travel is fear. It breaks down a kind of inner structure we have. Far from our own people, our own language, stripped of all our props, deprived of our masks, we are completely on the surface of ourselves.” Fear brings an added dimension in today’s world […]
On Writing Memoir
On Writing Memoir Life is a face of truth, mirroring back to us, ourselves. – Catherine Ann Jones, The Way of Story It is the ‘Age of Memoir’. The rise of interest in memoir recognizes the power of the genre to move and affect not just individual readers but society at large. The story that […]
Santa Barbara Writers Conference aftermath
Santa Barbara Writers Conference is an annual six-day writers conference, now in its 42nd year. The ghost of sci-fi author Ray Bradbury seemed hovering as though his recent death would not deter his presence as he had come every year for so many years. A few years ago, the Conference was about to go under […]
The importance of reading well
Of late, I discover that I would rather read than write, rather watch good movies than write another screenplay. A twinge of guilt but then I remind myself how important it is for writers to read well – regardless of the form of fiction or non-fiction they choose to write. There is an intimacy of […]
On the Edge: the final years of Virginia Woolf wins NEA award
On the Edge: the final years of Virginia Woolf wins the N.E.A. AWARD A Note from the Playwright: Sometimes story ideas may arise from what happens to us in our own lives. Yet they usually connect with something felt within. I was still acting then and had been cast to play Virginia Woolf in […]
The Writing Cure
Why Talk Therapy Is on the Wane and Writing Workshops Are on the Rise “A generation ago, when “Annie Hall” won the Oscar for Best Picture, talk therapy occupied a prominent place in our collective imagination, whether or not you partook. If you wanted to spend several hours a week baring your soul to a […]
Sunsets in Santa Fe
All too often in my capacity as a teacher of writing as well as that of a writing consultant, I am confronted with writers trying to be clever for the sake of cleverness. This can sometimes prove a detriment to good storytelling.
Visioning Your Story
Where do stories come from? Whether you create an original story or re-create a known one, you as the writer must still make it your own. And this requires a personal journey – both inner and outer.
Webinar on Writing Memoir, May 20, 2011
Don’t miss Catherine Ann Jones, as she joins the National Association of Memoir Writers to discuss the Way of Story for writers at all stages of their memoir writing journey.
Theater 150’s production of On the Edge, Oct-Nov 2004
Sometimes story ideas may arise from what happens to us in our own lives. Yet they usually connect with something felt within. My first long play was about Virginia Woolf. I was still acting then and had been cast to play Virginia Woolf in the comedy, An Evening in Bloomsbury by Victoria Sullivan, produced off-Broadway in New York.