Obituary workshop: write your postcard to the future
Let's do this together!
Hello everyone!
I recently began offering Obituary Writing Workshops to Sandwich Season subscribers—designed to help us get ahead of one of life’s inevitable tasks. If you join us, you can focus on writing an obit for yourself or a loved one.
By the end of our two-session workshop in Jan/Feb, most members reported completing a solid draft. That’s a win!
Let’s think of an obit as a postcard—an opportunity to share the high points of your or your loved one’s life.
How does it work?
We meet for two Saturday workshop sessions and do some solo writing in between.
Session 1 includes:
a brief background on obituaries
examples of obits
pre-writing exercises to help you reflect on you/your loved one’s life and legacy
templates
time for Q&A.
The goal is to generate ideas and material in Session 1 to use while crafting a draft obit to bring to Session 2.
Session 2 features a conversation about how the writing went, questions you might have, what you learned about yourself or your loved one, and the opportunity to share a favorite section or sentence of your obituary.
Each session will last an hour.
Why now?
Writing an obituary before someone passes gives us the opportunity to gather information and reflect without rushing. You might even learn something new about yourself or your loved one!
It also is an opportunity to complete an important project when you or your loved ones are not grieving and taking care of everything else that must be done when someone passes.
A completed obit can be used in newspapers, online sites and memorial service programs. Plus it can be printed off as a keepsake for friends and family.
The details
When: 1 pm Central Time (USA) March 15 and March 22, 2025.
Where: Online—I will send a Zoom link to registered participants.
Fee: Free to annual paid subscribers and founding members of Sandwich Season. Registration link is below. (Feel free to join us a second time!)
Others: When you sign up for an annual paid subscription ($50/year until March 5 or $60/year after March 5), the registration link will appear at the bottom of this post.
Why I offer this workshop
Professionally, I am a writer who has written everything from ad copy to a book-length memoir.
Personally, I was born two weeks after my due date and have struggled with procrastination ever since.
However … when my mom entered hospice care in 2023, I did something ahead of schedule: I worked with my dad to draft her obit.
With everything else that was going on in her final months, I found that having her obit ready freed me up to be more present with her and Dad, and also to work on other things that needed attention.
Now I want to help you complete your obit project—whether it's for yourself or a loved one.
Questions?
Please contact me by replying to this email. Or …
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