Travels with the Writing Group and Susan Tuttle

I’ve been in my writing group for several months now.  It’s turned out to be exactly what I need.  I’m forced to keep my butt in the chair, face my laptop’s mocking blank screen, and sink or swim with every challenge thrown at us. 

It’s intimidating to learn about all the mistakes “amateur” writers make, that “how to” writers write about and editors scoff at (did I just end that sentence in a preposition?! 

And now did I just use an amateurish exclamation point?).  You can pick up any number of these books and find everything that you’re doing is wrong; and of course the promise that their method is the only sure way to fame and fortune. 

Last week I seriously thought I would not be able to complete an assigned writing exercise.  We were given a prompt and had to write a complete story from that prompt in 20 minutes.  Nothing at all was coming to me and I was in that all too familiar

frozen state where I usually find something extremely urgent needing my immediate attention in the garden or kitchen.  Except there in that room, with the other group members, I couldn’t escape.  I was trapped.  In a panic I decided that I just wouldn’t be able to do it and would have to accept utter defeat, face the group and say I just couldn’t do it.  But there were 20 minutes to sit through – I had to do something.  So I just latched on to the first random thought I had, any word passing through my brain, and began typing just to get something down.  I told myself I could still say I didn’t have anything, take a pass, and in that way I managed to keep typing.  The combination of giving up and being forced to stay put and face the screen in a stare-down competition, somehow worked.  I came out the other end with a story and some very nice and positive feedback.  Revelatory.

I need more of that type of exposure to kick me out of my carefully composed compulsion.  Sometimes, the more you learn, the more stuck you can get.  It might be infinitely better to be blissfully unaware, and just write freely, from the heart and worry about shaping it and molding it –

the polish – afterward.  I have a million ideas but for some reason I short circuit out when I have to finish something, actually complete it start to finish.  The quintessential ‘idea man’ which I’ve discovered is just another term for avoidant personality disorder.

The practical experience I’m getting from participating in this group is invaluable and clearly just what I need.  I’m learning I can actually complete something and the world as I know it won’t internally combust; my chair is in fact not on fire.  I don’t need to have every single word vetted and approved by the Left Brain Board Members. 

I need this type of hands-on experience and the format is just what the doctor ordered (well, along with the glut of heart meds of course).  And the course is growing.  Our intrepid leader, Susan Tuttle, just recently published her first volume of this series on which she bases her groups called "Write it Right."

There are excellent lessons grounded in practical and basic writing skills, sprinkled with unique and creative methods to engage the process.  To learn how to write a setting for instance - what’s needed, what’s too much, and how to find that perfect balance - she has the participant write the setting as an actual character.  It can either be a pure description of that character or even a short scene with them.  When I did this exercise I was truly taken aback by what showed up on my page.  He frightened me and made me remember exactly what my setting was and realize I had become too familiar and complacent with that place.
 
There are many exercises like this that take the normal routine drills we’ve seen thousands of times and turn them on their axis giving us a whole new perspective and a fresh approach.

 Susan is planning a total of six books in this series.  I intend to glean everything I can from every word – while keeping my posterior firmly planted in the seat.