La Serrania: Freefall Writing, Barbara Turner-Vesselago

FREEFALL is a method some writers discover spontaneously, but many have to (re?)learn: the technique of writing from the larger Self, beyond reach of the ego and its censors.

As the name suggests, FREEFALL invokes the courage to fall without a parachute, into the words as they come, into the thoughts before they have fully formed in the mind, into the unplanned structures that take shape, without prompting, to contain them.

At first, doing FREEFALL with a group is invaluable.

The group's spontaneous response to the writing works to free the writer from the need for self-criticism. And then the magic begins . . .

The moment when someone shifts into that deeper level is unmistakable. Everyone can hear it. As a result, in Coleridge's phrase, "the wheels catch fire from their own motion," and the whole group moves to a new level of achievement.

The results, in writing, are spectacular.

Since 1982, Barbara Turner-Vesselago's FREEFALL WRITING WORKSHOPS have been helping beginning and experienced writers to overcome blocks, access energy, and establish or renew a vital connection to the written word.

In FREEFALL WRITING WORKSHOPS, you learn by doing: powerful writing immersion is balanced by informed, personal guidance. Every word you write is read by Barbara; selected (anonymous) passages are read aloud and discussed in a supportive, small-group setting. The primary emphasis is on learning to 'let go' in writing so that the creative process can carry you. Technical aspects of the craft (scene, dialogue, structure, voice) are discussed as they arise in the course of the writing.

Since 1982, Barbara has been leading highly effective FREEFALL workshops throughout the English- speaking world. She brings to the teaching of writing a unique combination of writing and teaching skills, literary knowledge, psychological expertise and insight that has made her workshops popular in centres as diverse as England's Rising Dragon Tai Chi School and the Yale University School of Medicine.

An expert in modern literature, she has a PhD. from the University of Cambridge, and has taught at Girton College, Cambridge (England), University of Jos (Nigeria), and the University of Washington (US), but in 1982, after having been mentored by Canadian author W.O. Mitchell at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the Canadian Rockies, she left academia to write, and to teach writing.

Barbara Turner-Vesselago's novel, No News But Kindness, was chosen as a finalist for the 2001 Chapters/Robertson Davies Book Prize. She is the also the author of Freefall: Writing without a Parachute (The Writing Space, 1996), and author/editor of Skelton at Sixty (The Porcupine's Quill, 1986). In 1995, she was chosen as one of six "Voices of the Nineties" to lecture on creativity at the University of Western Australia.

Asked in an interview why she teaches Freefall, she responded, "I teach this way of writing because it works. And it's the only way I've ever come across that really does."

To visit Barbara's website: www.freefallwriting.com

For information about joining this workshop Click Here.