The idea of hosting a writers' conference in the holy city of
Safed was a longtime dream that catapulted into fast forward.
Our writing group meets weekly and we dreamed together of
inviting other women from out of Safed to come and share
together with us in our creative endeavors, to let our
creative energies merge to generate more and more writings.
Once the dream began to materialize, it took less time than
we thought possible (although lots of work!) in coming
true.
October 1-2, the Tuesday and Wednesday directly after Succos,
were the days chosen, "when my husband is home to help out
but the kids are IN SCHOOL..." Thirteen out- of-Safed women
participated, including Varda Bronfman and Judy Belsky. Some
decided to remain in Safed for an extra couple of days too,
and two women brought their husbands along, turning it into a
real vacation.
Esther Rubenstein was our first guide who gave an exercise
called, "Getting to know you -- who is your character,
really?" We let our minds relax, chose a person we knew, and
answered questions on a hand-out sheet on which to recreate
our real-life character into a fictitious one to work with
throughout other exercises in the conference, if we chose
so.
"Write whatever pops into your mind," Esther's calm voice
coaxed us.
Questions on the sheet included:
* What makes him/her happy/sad/angry?
* What are his/her strengths/weaknesses?
* What do others like/dislike about him/her?
* What does s/he want more than anything right now? What's
stopping him/her?
With our character now firmly formulated in front of us, we
went under Suzy's charge. She had someone read a children's
book to us called, Fortunately, Unfortunately by Remy
Charlip. No real character development and wildly imaginative
circumstances that proved to be pure plot. The main
character, a boy, `fortunately' has a birthday but
`unfortunately' the party being made for him is in a
different part of the country. `Fortunately' his friend lends
him an airplane to fly there, `unfortunately' the motor of
the plane blows up in mid-air. `Fortunately' he falls into
the ocean and knows how to swim, `unfortunately' there are
sharks. And so it continues until `fortunately' he
does arrive at his birthday party.
Suzy then asked us to take a day in our lives and write our
own tale of `fortunately/unfortunately'. It didn't need to be
dramatic or spectacular (although it could be!).
Then Suzy asked us to take our characters from Esther's
exercise and put him/her through a series of
fortunately/unfortunately's.
She also wanted us to notice in what we had just written, how
often things `happened' to us as compared to us `making' them
happen. For example, from the children's book that was used,
the boy found himself in a tunnel (this `happened' to him)
but he knew how to dig...
Then...dinner...entertainment: a dance group, singers, skits,
a juggleress...
Etc. and some more exercises the following day till the final
session:
Creativity through Revision with Rifca Goldberg.
Step one: Take anything you've written, as rough draft as you
want or something completed.
Step two: Circle any word/phrase that `calls out to you' for
whatever reason. It could be that it doesn't seem to fit. It
could just be very noticeable to you.
Step three: Cluster. That means -- take the word or phrase,
put it in a circle in the middle of a blank page and draw
lines out of it, writing whatever comes to your mind that's
connected with that particular word. You can also make lines
going out from any of the new words you've written. This is a
wonderful way to get past the words themselves and realize
what is really within you, what you're really trying to
say.
Here's my example:
(Intro.) I went to a friend and we had a long conversation. I
felt so moved that I wanted to write about it. This is the
rough draft:
She and I spoke. And spoke. And spoke. I didn't want to
leave. I just kept telling her things. Layers of things. She
didn't try to solve my problems. She didn't give me
criticism, either. She just listened. I don't know why, but
it felt so good.
Okay. It's a nice thought but what am I going to do with it?
Maybe it'll fit into a piece some day. Meanwhile, though, the
word `layers' kept going around and around in my mind.
Finally, I clustered it. I've numbered the clustering so you
can follow my thinking. Imagine the lines radiating
outwards.
1. LAYERS 2. layer upon layer, like snow on the ground 3.
layers of tears 4. layers of pain 5. peeling off the layers
6. peeling a hard boiled egg to get to the fleshy part 7.
permission to reveal 8. permission to be, to really be me.
Final step: Write! You can write a scene, an article... I
wrote a poem.
I open my heart
You hold it gently
The warmth of your hands
Embracing my pain --
Comforting --
Accepting --
Giving me permission to reveal
And reveal more
Until your soft empathy
Holds the very flesh of my emotions
And I'm nurtured.
For the remainder of our time we read, we shared, we laughed,
we cried.
For most of us, this conference was a real dream come
true.
Comments from out-of-towners who attended:
Excellent / Achdus / Warmth / Acceptance / Beautiful AND "Do
it again"
which we hope to do the week after NEXT Succos. Looking
forward to having YOU join us then!
