Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Click question to jump to its answer.
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1. How do I get started?
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2. When and how do I receive the classes?
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3. How much do the classes cost?
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4. What is the best, easiest way to pay for the courses?
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5. How do I create a “Writing Group” to do these courses together?
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6. Is there a special process for Writer’s Groups taking these courses?
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7. How do we, writers and poets in the Luminous Learning courses, receive feedback from Judyth?
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8. How can I work privately with Judyth?
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9. For “Tales of Arrival and Becoming” Writers: How do I pick out my Story for the course?
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Please contact me if you have more questions! I want this to be fun, easy and a deep pleasure for us all!
Trade and payment arrangements are ALWAYS possible! As always, I welcome individual students for personalized mentoring and editing on their projects… Please feel free to contact me by email to share work
& if you have any questions!
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Luminous Learning… Distance Learning Made Intimate Thank you for your desire to be a part of this exciting process!
Here are some answers to the most oft-asked questions!
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1. How do I get started?
Firstly, feel entirely welcome! I am so happy you have chosen to join this Caravan of Delight! Secondly, please email me which course you would like to take! It’s a snap! A click! Easy-peasy! Wondering which class you would enjoy most? Write me! I am always happy to discuss what might work best for you at any particular turning point… Once you have chosen your class, go to PayPal.com, and send the payment for the class(es) to me, via my email address: judythhill@gmail.com See answer to question #10!
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2. When and how do I receive the classes?
I send classes out, as emails, on Thursdays; just tell me what date you would like start to receiving your 4 or 5 week course. You may receive any of the classes whenever you would like to begin! If you want to receive them on a different day – let me know, and I will send them to you on the day that works best for you! You may receive them one at a time, over time, or all at once: whichever is easier for you.
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2.5 Ah, Oh, hmmm…What do I receive?
You receive variations of the following: a Teaching piece…wisdom quotes to Inspire… and fun, exciting writing assignments! Plus, unpredictable & unknown…. surprises! Poetry classes will usually include some important Great Poems…to fall in love with, and work with!
Then you write…and send me your Homework assignment –and YES! If you did something “different,” because the assignment, or your life, pulled you there, send me that! Remember: There is NO WRONG WAY to do any assignment!!!! All Writing work is GOOD WORK!!
Each class includes 1.5 hours of personal mentoring time, responding with tender and skillful care! And you may purchase more personal mentoring and editing at my Editing rates.
3. How much do the classes cost?
Each regular 4 week course is $350, consisting of 4 weeks of assignments and responses. The Inner Author class is $650. I offer a Subscription Rate: $950 for a sequence of 3 (5 Week) courses. You may continue with the projects you are working on, or take any other class of your choice. Good from One (1) Year Date of Purchase!
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Private Mentoring is $125 an hour, AND!! You may buy Hours in Bulk!
$1000. For 28.5 hours @ $35 per hour
$600. For 15 hours @$40 per hour
4. What is the best, easiest way to pay for the courses?
The absolutely easiest way for you to pay for the course(s), is to ask me to send you an invoice from PayPal! Then you just follow the payment instructions!
You do not need a “PayPal Account” to use their services to send money!
You can, very easily, just go to the PayPal website, www.PayPal.com, and, following the instructions to send money, send the class fees to email: judythhill@gmail.com .
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5. How do I create a “Writing Group” to do these courses together ?
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! *****
Writing in Community builds Spirit Muscles!!
An utterly wonderful to work with these courses, is to gather a group of like-minded writers together, and meet to share work and discuss the class material, the poems, forms, tasks, etc. Each person in the group should then email me, introduce themselves a bit, if you like, sign up, and pay for the class. Or, even better, designate ONE person to be handle all the money and just have that writer take care of joining up your members…& name your Writer’s Group something Fun and Inspiring!
A group is such a rich way to do this work – which is so deliciously done in community! Make it a potluck and have yummy snacks! Have a pajama party! Meet in gardens and aviaries…hot springs… in coffee houses…museums (I have special classes for these environs! Read about this course in Luminous Learning}. Make your classtime special and a pleasure…a respite, and a treat! That will support all you do, and each other the most… and make the writing soar and sing, our goal!
But know…at the very least…taking my course…we, you and I, and the Dharma Lineage of Great Ones…are a community of…. many!
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6. Is there a special process for Writer’s Groups taking these courses?
YES! And dear to my heart, is to work with you to make the process of sharing your work an enlivening, joyous way to become both a writer/poet and create a dynamic, supportive writing community.
I offer a course called, Writing in Concert, which demonstrates, over a five week period, a tried-and–true way to work together beautifully, with tremendous respect, and utmost sensitivity (and efficiency!) This class can be taken by any size Writing Group, in tandem with any other Luminous Learning class, for a group rate fee of $25 per person, one time fee, for the whole course. Or, if you have an existing writing group, this class can be tailored to fit the way you are working together now. Also – if you gather a group of writers, you can arrange a Private Retreat at Simple Choice Farm! (See Answer #9!)
7. How do we, writers and poets in the Luminous Learning courses, receive feedback from Judyth?
When I receive and read your work, I will personally send you my feedback: comments praising specific strengths in your piece, and very very tenderly offering the growth opportunities presented inside each piece: a process often called “critique”…which is something I do NOT do!
I have found, through years and years of teaching, that most writers –& everyone else! - do not grow from criticism of what they have “done wrong”: we grow from exactly seen and described praise of what we have done WELL. We grow from receiving praise for where we have written strong, beautifully, and true.
I offer you my insights into those places where you are writing “hot”…and offer some thoughts on how to work with where you have maybe stepped away from your pieces’ own journey. Each and every writer that takes a course in Luminous Learning, receives 1.5 hours of individual mentoring from me! Here’s my handy-dandy secret advice… on how to use that time BEST for yourself: write all the course work, then weekly, send me what you have worked on…that you feel you are learning the most from! Use our time together gorgeously…and send me questions about your work: guide our discourse to serve your learning!
I adore hearing how the assignments are working for you! Your enjoyment of this process, your growth and excitement and discoveries along the journey are EVERYTHING – you are always and ever invited to write me and share your thoughts and your work. For longer, in-depth responses, and more extensive, personal attention on a specific project you are working on, write me to set up some “private mentoring”!
8. How can I work privately with Judyth?
I am always available for private mentoring. I am very happy to work with you, in whatever way will benefit you in your writing/creative process! I charge 125. an hour, which includes my reading time, and my written praise, suggestions and revisions, by email. I also offer discounted rates….
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Basic Hourly Rates:
$125 per hour, 3 hours pre-paid to begin: $375
Discounted Rates for Pre-Paid Bulk Hours:
40 hours @ $105: $4200 (save $800)
20 hours @ $110: $2200 (save $300)
10 hours @$115: $1150 (save $100)
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To begin our work, I will need 3 hours prepaid, at $125 per hour.
I offer a big discount when more hours are pre-paid and bought in bulk: 20 hours pre-paid at $110, 10 hours at $115. And, if we are doing a long project, you can buy 40 hours at $105, or we can negotiate a contract. I am always paid in advance: I can supply an invoice at the time of payment. We write back and forth, with perhaps, assignments given and discussed…as seems to further the work best.
I am also available to work by Skype. Let me know if you want to do this, and we can set up appointments to meet in cyberworld! Have a cup of Cybertea! You download the Skype program (it is free!), and then, we can talk, or write to each other, in realtime. I have taken many poets through the entire process of editing their poems for a collection, putting the poems into an organic, sensuous and powerful; a river, if you will…of poems, helping figure out an appropriate publisher, writing the query letter and picking out the best poems to include in the approach. And I have guided authors with large unwieldy projects to Plan the Work…and Work the Plan! My gift is a blurb on the back cover!
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9. For “Tales of Arrival and Becoming” Writers: How do I pick out my Story for the course?
Please get a good translation of the Grimm Bros. collection (I recommend Ralph Manheim’s, Anchor Books) or the Hans Christian Anderson collection, or the Andrew Lang collections, and dip and dabble…read, and read….invite your story to come towards you….open the book at random…keep going with a strong and sweet desire…ask…if you are at a loss…(which probably won’t happen: trust the story’s wisdom to find you, since you will be, ultimately, deeply trusting your story’s wisdom…!) check out Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, The Handless Maiden, Hansel & Gretel, The Ugly Duckling, Jack and the Beanstalk, The GooseGirl…these are huge, intact stories…. and let me know which story you have elected to explore…and, in turn, be discovered by…!
Please contact me if you have more questions!
I want this to be fun, easy and a deep pleasure for us all!.