blogathon: my ideal writing weekend, part 4

a street in sardiniaoh boy, i thought i was going to write much more here in my report on my ideal writing weekend, but i was just so absorbed in what happened that i never got around to it. so this will be my last entry. it’s monday evening, and we’ve had an abso-friggin-lutely unforgettable 3 ½ days. we’ll leave for rome tomorrow afternoon.

what were the highlights? i’ve talked so much about the surroundings and the people and the food, let me tell you something about the writing.

we did some great exercises. one was where we were supposed to write a poem in the dust behind the big house. that was very touching. we birthed a poem, saw it come alive – and then disappear again. we each took a bit of the dust with us in a tiny little pouch.

we listened to an old woman tell a story in sardinian. no-one among us spoke sardinian, only a few some italian. we were invited to take notes of what she said and then turn it into a piece of writing. there were twelve of us, and each took a different approach. one turned it into an interview. of course there were short stories and poems of all sorts (one long sonnet stands out) but there was also a recipe, a brochure and a song, complete with music.

every morning we wrote at least one paragraph from our morning entry out loud. we did that in a circle, and the person to our left then took one idea from that paragraph and spun it out further. this was a very gentle and constructive approach to helping us deal with feedback and critiques.

best of all, we formed a strong support group for each other and made some pacts that will make it very difficult for us not to follow up with each other and help each other at least for the next three months. we each made a firm promise to carry out certain actions, and i am absolutely certain we will.

i’m about to go to bed, again, right by that wonderful window with the salty-sweet breeze drifting in from the sea. i am happy.

canadian mental health association

this is an entry for my participation in the 2008 blogathon, a 24-hour marathon of blogging. please support the cause and donate – however much, however little – to the canadian mental health association (vancouver/burnaby branch). to donate, email me or use this URL: www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=d2252. you should be able to get there by clicking the link; if not, just copy and paste the link into your browser. it will take you to the appropriate location at canada helps.

thank you for visiting, reading, commenting and, if you can, donating!

(image by oanababy)

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