The other day I got an email advertising a writing workshop. No surprise, I get quite a few of these. This one is through r/evolution story lab, a partner of WOW Women on Writing. I have never taken a workshop with them, and I do not know the person, Nicole Breit, giving this one. The course is supposed to be designed for writers who are INFP. If you know, you know. If you don’t, this is a personality type from the Myers-Briggs personality test. I am not an INFP, but an INFJ, which is supposed to be the rarest type. I suppose it would be too much to expect somebody to design a course for those few of us who are INFJ. 

But there was something in the description that made me think about my  memoir Scrap, which is written in pieces–flash, micro, tiny essays, poems, a short playscript. Listen to this:

In just 75 minutes you’ll:

discover how it feels to write with your brain instead of against it, using mosaic method
tap into memory and sensation as you generate a fresh new piece in fragments
cut and arrange your fragments into a cohesive narrative you can’t wait to share
connect with likeminded writers in a warm, inclusive community led by an INFP/HSP/AuDHD bestselling memoir author

Why linear storytelling blocks intuitive, INFP and neurodivergent brains — and what to do instead to make writing easy and fun!
Nicole’s mosaic method: a simple, repeatable way to generate fragments, then arrange them into a finished piece
How to work with creative constraints and spark memories you wouldn’t otherwise access
Why fragments + structure = a powerful portal into your most interesting material

Now I am wondering if a reason I couldn’t write my memoir in regular chapters is because I am not only INFJ but neurodivergent or as we said in the old days ADHD. I was diagnosed as an adult and while Ritalin was very helpful to me when I was teaching, I couldn’t stay on it because of side effects. I doubt your Myers-Briggs type has anything to do with any particular neurodivergency you might or might not have, but I do know that mine is one of the intuitive types which is why I could ace math tests without being able to show my work. Very annoying since teachers and test graders generally require your calculations.

This workshop is $69, and you can try the link above for Nicole’s name if you’re interested. It appears that r/evolution is her own site.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty interesting that I do mixed media collage, used to make stained glass (another form of collage), and wrote a memoir in collage. It must be the way my mind works. Now I need to apply this knowledge even to writing small–poems and microstories.

On another note, Scrap has been long listed in the Chanticleer Collections and Anthologies contest. Fingers crossed!!!