BLOWING ROCK — This March, the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum is inviting locals and visitors to tap into their creativity and explore the depths of their personal stories through the “Write to be Fully Alive” workshop series, led by Nancy Dorrier. These sessions allow participants to connect with themselves through expressive writing, all while being guided by one of the region’s most experienced facilitators.

The workshop, which runs every Saturday in March, is designed to allow people to engage in a unique form of creative expression, using writing as a personal exploration. Dorrier’s goal is to help participants bypass the traditional pressures of writing and focus on tapping into deeper emotions, thoughts and memories that might otherwise remain hidden.

“In writing, you can say something that you can’t say in a conversation because even if the person you’re talking to is a good listener, it has to make sense,” Dorrier said. “Whereas when I write, I don’t have that editing process going on.”

The workshops typically begin with the audience writing down personal headlines to get your mind focused on slowing down and reflecting. Then Dorrier presents different quotes from fiction, poetry or literature as a starting point for the audience to take the prompt wherever it leads, with one instruction, “keep your hand moving.”

“Most people, they write, and then think and look up out the window, look at the sky, mark something, and the processes you keep your hand moving,” Dorrier said.

Dorrier encourages participants to write “nonfiction” in a very personal, lyrical way, connecting them with deep memories, small joys, and personal experiences.

“I give them a line, and the point is that if you start with good literature that’s not yours, you will inevitably make it more personal and find something to say that you would never have thought to write about,” Dorrier said. “You might write about your loneliness, but you started writing about something Wordsworth said.”

As Dorrier describes, the workshops are not about performing or impressing others. They are an exercise in self-exploration and mediation. Participants might find themselves writing about an unexpected memory from childhood or an emotion they hadn’t recognized before.

“I don’t want them to be writing to perform. I want them to write for themselves and go somewhere that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to go if they knew they’re going to share it,” Dorrier said.

Exhibitions at BRAHM