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Are you a writer?

No?

…..

 

You’re a liar! It’s pretty hard to be a university student without being a writer.

Okay that was a bit harsh. But my point is, we don’t all consider ourselves writers, and a lot of us, although writing may encompass some part of our day (or even our jobs) may not consider ourselves good writers.  Or perhaps we write, but it’s a solitary exercise – we keep our lines and thoughts to our own notebooks and never tell another living soul.

Ronna Bloom is U of T’s “Poet in the Community” and this past Thursday I attended one class in a series of workshops entitled “Finding Your Balance”. To quote the description:

Finding your balance in university is like riding a bicycle. Use writing to see where you are, where you’re stuck, and what it’s like while you’re on the ride.

Hmmmm… right. Admittedly, from that blurb, I didn’t know what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. Ronna facilitated a short workshop that encouraged writing as tool to “see”, in a sense, those parts of us that perhaps we do not acknowledge outside of our own brains. You know, those things we think but don’t articulate.

Ronna (whom I should mention is a pleasantly lovely woman to share a space with) offered 5 rules of writing, which applied to the workshop itself, but can similarly be applied to any personal writing. The five rules are:

1. Don’t think, just write
2. Don’t censor
3. Keep your hand moving (this is a good way to cut through the censor)
4. You are free to write the worst crap possible
5. You don’t have to share

Ronna offered prompts for us to think about, and with “Go!” we all took to our notebooks and just began to write, just for writing’s sake, with no end process in mind. What I found, personally, is that the ideas and words that found themselves on my page had gone previously unacknowledged (at least explicitly). In a sense, writing in this way is a way to write your own mind’s narrative. It is a different cognitive process to read your thoughts, than it is to merely think them.

Short discussions after each exercise were insightful and I found the vibe of the room to feel very “safe” and open. For a 50-minute workshop, I was thoroughly impressed with the impact it made on me.

So, I suggest you attend the next one. It’s on Thursday, Feb 2^nd from 12-1pm at Hart House. Ask the reception desk when you get in where exactly the workshop will be held. You just need yourself, some paper and a pen. Everything else you already have. It’s up there hidden in your headspace somewhere.

Additionally – Ronna is facilitating another triad of workshops through Hart House in March entitled, “A Writer’s Process – the Inside Story”. The dates are as follows:

March 1^st – 12-1:30pm

March 8^th – 12-1:30pm

March 15^th – 12-1:30pm

**You are free to attend one, two are all three of the workshops in the series.

Happy thinking, happy writing my friends!