CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Bridget Brandon in the lead-up to her Summer School class ‘Igniting the Creative Fire of Writing’ in January 2011. Click HERE for a full description of Bridgets' class & enrolment details.
KM: Your upcoming writing course in January Igniting the Creative Fire of Writing revolves around each participant's own life story. Is this focus on understanding one's own life, a crucial step for meaningful writing of any kind?
BB: I feel the core of my work is about creating the platform for individuals to dive into themselves and at the same time into their creativity...It seems we have a lot of hang ups about our writing in particular. In addition people think their life is ordinary and they can’t express themselves. Given the right circumstances and encouragement most people are creative.
KM: A previous student of yours said:
“I feel that 'writing' my life is also like 'righting' my life - setting it out before me, so I can look at and understand the reason for decisions I have made throughout the years I have been writing about.” (http://storyworks.com.au) Is this a common experience for your students?
BB: Yes it is!
My goal is to allow people to see their life is not ordinary. No ones life is ordinary. (It is) quite the opposite and telling their stories and having their stories listened to in a non judgemental way allows them to appreciate the uniqueness of their life. With the feedback I focus on what works and I get the group to provide feedback on what works. Once someone is feeling confident, sometimes then I introduce the element of what else or what if...
KM: What is an example of one of your ‘loosening up’ exercises to get thoughts and memories flowing?
BB: One example is to draw a word out of a hat and write about what it means for 5 minutes.
Another is to choose a colour and then keep observing where you see that colour and next day write for 10 minutes on that colour.
KM: What's an example of a writing discipline you get your students to use?
BB: Just do it, just have a go. Early on I give out 5 writing principles. These really help people deal with their critic and issues. Each day they choose one to work with and at the end of the day we check in to see how they have gone. So the key is active engagement and not letting them get away with saying they can’t do it.
…. Focus on the story and the words will follow whereas if you focus on the words paraylsis sets in and the story is lost.
An excerpt below is written by someone who I think sums up my approach:
I arrived at the Larapinta River without a story in my mind and no idea whether I would actually be able to write anything. I have never had any confidence about writing and this was my first experience of putting my stories onto paper. The week was full of insights, friendship, grace and fun. Thinking about what made it possible for me to get so much out of it. Here are some thoughts.
The written hints we were given (eg the Basic Prinicples/ Seven Rules//Haiku guidelines) were sufficient to give practical help and to set a tone of freedom without being prescriptive (ie that there was a "correct" way to write and a benchmark to achieve).
No activity went for too long - most of the exercises were quite short in duration and I had a sense that even if I wasn't sure I was "on task" it didn't matter as the time spent doing it was limited and the next task would come along shortly. I didn't have time to "get stuck".
The reading back to the group was great - it gave me a sense of each person's uniqueness and that there were a lot of different ways of approaching a task - all of which were valid and which, therefore, validated my own voice/expression.
The fact that it was compulsory to read aloud was important - it helped to know that you "could run but you couldn't hide"(as it were). At some point you had to put into voice the words written on the page.
I arrived at the Larapinta River without a story in my mind and no idea whether I would actually be able to write anything. I have never had any confidence about writing and this was my first experience of putting my stories onto paper. The week was full of insights, friendship, grace and fun. Thinking about what made it possible for me to get so much out of it. Here are some thoughts.
The written hints we were given (eg the Basic Principles/ Seven Rules/Haiku guidelines) were sufficient to give practical help and to set a tone of freedom without being prescriptive (ie that there was a "correct" way to write and a benchmark to achieve).
No activity went for too long - most of the exercises were quite short in duration and I had a sense that even if I wasn't sure I was "on task" it didn't matter as the time spent doing it was limited and the next task would come along shortly. I didn't have time to "get stuck".
The reading back to the group was great - it gave me a sense of each person's uniqueness and that there were a lot of different ways of approaching a task - all of which were valid and which, therefore, validated my own voice/expression.
The fact that it was compulsory to read aloud was important - it helped to know that you "could run but you couldn't hide"(as it were). At some point you had to put into voice the words written on the page.
I did find that once my secrets became stories they were set free. There was an alchemy that took place. The stories still belonged to me but they didn't have the same grip on me as before. They became things to respect as the experiences that had shaped me and I didn't feel scared that people would judge me.
Telling my stories allowed my light to shine. Active listening was important - you knew that at the end of your reading there would be comments which kept me grounded in the experience (not able to quickly slam the book and pretend it had never happened).
Working with metaphor was really useful. It was helpful to step outside my own reality and to use the language of "tree/landscape/nature" to write more evocatively. It allowed me to experiment with language and to look at situations from a different perspective.
The process of rewriting the "hard" situation using the language of the landscape was particularly helpful. It changed the language and tone of the story completely and that was a revelation to me.
The process of drawing the life scheme (rapids/billabongs/flowing) was very useful. To then take a "chapter" and break it down into "moments" made it easy to approach the story. It also allowed me to see how rich each of those "chapters" was and that there was a wealth of material for stories. I felt proud of my life when I thought of it like that - such a rich life!!
The consistency around the time keeping was good. Knowing that there was a set time to complete a task and that we would be kept to that made it possible to concentrate on the task at hand - your instruction to "find a way to finish the sentence" meant that the task didn't "bleed" into the time available.
The clarity of instructions and permission to take the task wherever it wanted to go. It meant there was both structure and freedom.
Bridget’s management of the "subtle “level to the group was masterful. Especially on the morning that Paul left - you brought us back to a a more centred space. You did this by naming the tension that was in the group and by asking us to renew our commitment to the process.
Having all the logistics taken care of was fantastic - it freed me to concentrate on the tasks at hand - no distractions and no rushing to ensure that I was on time for tasks - I was free to chill out and follow my own thoughts.
~ Participant 2005
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