Writer's Retreat

ON APPROACHING A BOOK AS A READER

By Adilah Barnes

Back in the mid-1990’s I co-founded the Los Angeles reading group, Circle of Sisters: A Reading Circle . Over the years, this eclectic group of spirited women have committed to read countless books of different genres: from full-bodied memoirs to fluffy romance books, and back around the corner again to embrace genres richly steeped in mystery and history.

Some books have been outstanding page turner choices. However, whether a brilliant read or not, the group critiques the book thoroughly over dinner. I especially enjoy a read that evokes different responses from the women - and even an occasional heated and visceral discussion.

As a reader, I begin my books by reading the outside covers and proceed page by page from the beginning of the book. I thought most people read this way until I became an author and began to receive feedback on how readers stayed with my book.

I was amazed to learn there are a myriad of ways in which readers may choose to approach a book.

Some say they begin a book traditionally from the opening page, while others open the book randomly and land where they fall. If pulled in, they may then go back to the beginning and read the book in its entirety.

Still other readers eye the table of contents and choose chapters that most appeal to their literary pallet. They may flip flop around until they decide to go back and start again chronologically, thus allowing the book to build chapter by chapter.

Perhaps the most horrifying discovery I made in speaking with a reader was that she actually began my book by reading the last chapter first!

I have come to learn early on in the first few pages whether the writer is going to transport me. If not, I generally push ahead forward anyway, hoping for the best and determined to get through to the end. Conversely, as I snuggle up to a good read, I welcome the author to guide me.  I love unexpected twists and turns and I always want a good book to continue. Sadly, though, I release a good read as I slowly savor the last page. The trick of a good writer is to leave the reader wanting more.

Perhaps the most difficult element for some writers is finding the right ending.

I have read a number of books that held me until I got to the last page. I feel cheated when an ending just does not fit, and the book ends abruptly. It almost seems the writer surrendered at the end, and just wanted to get the book done!

As writers, we must pay as close attention to page one as we do to the very last page of our writing.

One element that contributes to holding me as a reader is the writer’s attention to detail. For example, I recently read the book Half of a Yellow Sun by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. My senses were totally activated as I smelled, tasted, heard, felt and saw all the images that were so craftily placed in front of me. Set during the Nigerian Biafran War of 1967-70, some images were pungent and distasteful, yet some were absolutely beautiful. All were as the author intended.

This writer understood the pay-off of detail in her writing.

I always go back to the subject of the senses because it is in this reservoir that we can tap into and deepen our choices of language and imagery. The more we can unlock our own inner senses, the more we can hold our readers page by page. It is not enough to describe an object by its name. The reader wants to know colors, texture, weight and size given in descriptions.

The reader wants to see and feel.

A useful exercise is to consciously choose times were we use all of our five senses: really seeing what surrounds us, really hearing the sounds that invade our space – tasting, touching and smelling our environment. Much can also be discovered by taking a sacred walk alone inhaling nature, passing a restaurant with aromas begging to be identified, or by listening to others speaking in conversation as we pass them, trying to make sense of a phrase we may have just heard.

These reflections can fuel our writing.

Let us keep stripping away the veneer of the obvious to find greater detail in our writing that titillate the question: “Have I conveyed all that needs to be said?”

For more information, contact Adilah Barnes at The Writers’ Retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

By Adilah Barnes  

  Spring is my favorite season of the year.

  As I take stock of my natural surroundings at this time, I am visibly reminded of new beginnings in my every day environment. I am soothed as I pay close attention to the changes in nature.

  I witness trees return to their vibrant shades of green, I see grass boldly reclaim its natural color, and I exhale through my senses the beauty of flowers as they gracefully and quietly make their presence known through a burst of vibrant color and organic fragrances.

  Because March is also my birth month, I also start my year anew during this time.

  As writers, we also need to jumpstart and start anew from time to time.

  We need to periodically embark on a new writing project, or just dust off a writing that we may have put aside due to lack of time, writer’s block or whatever reasons we may use to justify not picking up the pen again.

  If you are a writer who is feeling stuck, uninspired or are just plain procrastinating, perhaps one way to get back to your writing is to schedule an appointment with yourself.  This may mean scheduling a regular time and sacred space to allow spirit to speak, even if for only 30 minutes. It could be lunchtime at work, just before going to bed, and it can be any quiet space that beckons you.

  This may mean choosing to write every day, every other day, twice a week, only on the week-ends, or maybe just ONE day a week for 30 minutes.

  It is not the amount of time we choose to write, but rather the consistency in our writing.

  Our personal agreement to write ritualistically may open the door to begin to write more and more as time goes on. It may even be journaling on a regular basis that allows us to begin to freely express ourselves again.

  It can be that simple.

  If you are having writer’s block, you may want to use sensory exercises to get you back into the swing of giving voice to your work. For example, writing only one page of stream of consciousness writing using a childhood sense memory can be a very fertile playground to begin getting the juices flowing again. It may be a memory that involves a familiar sound from childhood, a smell or even something that you remember the taste of from childhood. Making the sense memory a familiar one may allow the writing to flow with more ease because it will be easy to remember in detail what comes to you.

  This exercise can have a remarkable effect in terms of unlocking both memory and emotional recall. I often use sensory exercises when I teach writing workshops and have actually seen students guided my an exercise take off in their writing -  be it the start of a new story, memoir or even a one person show.

  Like others, you may begin to free yourself up through the use of memory. You may be led in a way that invites you to venture far beyond where you imagined this exercise might take you. I urge you to try sensory writing and see where it will take you. You may be pleasantly surprised where your journey will take you.

  Enjoy your new beginnings as you write this spring!

  To reach Adilah Barnes, email abpro1@sbcglobal.net or visit her Web site at The Writers' Retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia

http://www.writersretreat.com (click to visit Georgia site)

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FROM THOUGHT TO PEN: GETTING THAT BOOK ON PAPER!
By Adilah Barnes

Many writers contemplate writing a book but are unsure of how to attempt such a seemingly monumental feat. It can feel a bit overwhelming as to where to start. The same was true with me.

But, we can find our way.

Mine was a three-year process with my now completed Essence Magazine bestseller nonfiction book released in December 2008. Perhaps a glimpse of my sojourn may serve as a way of supporting others who are at a crossroad in terms of how to approach the actual journey of sitting down to start that book.

It seems to me that the first step is to decide what the writer REALLY wants to write about. What is it that is burning inside that needs to be expressed and that must have value to a reader?

For me, my former acting students at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco had planted the seed in the mid-1980s. They gave me a white, dried flower-covered hardback book with a slip of paper inside that everyone had signed giving me the charge to use that book when I decided I was ready to “write my acting book.”

At that time, I did not intend to write a book. I did not envision putting all my teaching knowledge together systematically in the format of a “how to” acting book. At that time, I taught in the classroom. I had no thought of expanding my classroom to teach through the written word.

Fast forward.

In 2005, I felt the time had finally come to tackle writing this thing called an acting book. What I learned as I sat down to begin writing was that a traditional acting book was not coming easy. Though I had taught acting for twenty-seven years, I did not know where to start. The truth was, I could not think of what I might say that the acting teacher masters such as Stanislavski, Hagen, Strasberg, Meisner, Spolin, and others had not already given breath and pen to.

What new insights did I have that would make an actor also pick MY book up?

I spoke with a fellow actor, Brandilyn Amie, and shared with her that I also wanted to include my experiences from my internationally toured, one-woman show. At that embryonic stage of development, I felt there was no place to include that part of my journey. That chapter of my creative life did not seem to fit writing an acting book.

However, Brandilyn gave me the advice I needed. She said, “You can do that, too.” In that eureka moment, I realized my book would use my life’s journey as the backdrop for the lessons and inspirations that might give insight and motivation to another. I decided to use each chapter to focus on a different time along my path.

I would also learn later from my many readers that my book also had crossover value beyond the actor who might be reading it. Some found it motivational, inspirational, informative, and even of archival value.

Once I was clear on my approach to content, I decided on the title. I am a writer navigated by titles. For example, my one-woman show, I Am That I Am: Woman, Black spoke to my vision of creating a solo show portraying African American women through time. The title for me held a sense of pride, and at the same time, the title gave a sense of statistical value of who the women were ethnically.

The same became true with my “acting book.” Once I found the title ON MY OWN TERMS One Actor’s Journey, I became clear that this book would connect my creative dots along the way as an acting teacher, producer, talk show host, and retreat proprietor. What the reader learns about my personal life is incidental to the purpose of my book.

For me, finding my titles defines my themes, parameters, and core of my work. For other writers, a title becomes the last step of the work. Choosing a title for your book becomes the icing on the cake for many. For me, the title is the compass that guides me along my way.

Which approach works best for you?

For me, because my book was about my life’s story as an artist, I wrote each chapter chronologically. I began with childhood memories and recounted my evolutionary steps along the way. This approach served me well because I was able to use real time from my past as a structural device to move my story forward.

For some who are writing from the bones, they are fueled by a particular time in their lives that is rich in sensory and emotional recall. It could actually be a moment from adulthood. These writers begin wherever “there” is, and go from one memory to the next without any regard for chronology of experiences at all.

Whatever approach works, works. What is most important is getting the work down on paper without editing.. I suggest just getting the story out, no matter how raw and unvarnished the recollections and the wording. There will be plenty of time for the rewrites before that moment of opening the mail to find the completed galley copy.

Stay on the journey!

Adilah Barnes can be reached by e-mail at abpro1@sbcglobal.net at the retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

THE WRITERS' RETREAT NEWSLETTER

July, 2008, Volume 8, No 3

http://www.writersretreat.com

 

In this addition

 

CREATING A ONE PERSON PLAY

 

By Adilah Barnes

More and more writer/actors are beginning to combine their talents to create one person or “solo” plays. They are more commonly called “one person shows.” Some choose to create historical figures to portray, while still others draw from their own personal lives to create pieces that are sometimes termed “personal stories.” I have conceived both but for this article I want to focus on writing personal stories. In essence, I see this genre of writing as autobiographical or memoir writing in nature.

As Co-founder and Executive Producer of the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, I have produced over 400 solo artists from around the globe. They have ranged from first love, rape, family, breast cancer, culture, incest, identity, menopause, death, the workplace, the life of an actor, and many, many others.

 

I have also taught writing workshops such as From Thought to Pen, Connecting the Inner Dots, and From Stage to Page. In my workshops, the bottom line is first getting stories on paper that actor/writers want to tell.

 

Some say, “I want to create a one person show on my life but I do not know where to begin!”

 

I say, “Start with childhood memories.”

 

Our youthful days are filled with a plethora of memories, charged with emotions that are both pleasant and painful. One way to activate those memories is to use the senses to excavate our past experiences.

 

For example, as a writing instructor, I have an exercise I use when teaching solo writing workshops where I use guided imagery that makes use of all five senses, one sense at a time. In one group I taught, I guided my students who laid outstretched on the floor as they sensorally went back to their youth. One student in that workshop responded to the sense of touch with a memory of the feel of shag carpeting underneath him on his family’s New Rochelle, New York living room floor.

 

He remembered how he and his brother’s played “slow motion” football on that green shag carpet without ever disturbing any of his mother’s furniture or fine crystal. From that exercise, he activated the memory of that slow motion football game. That memory also connected him to his individual relationships with his brothers. From that exercise he ultimately created a one-man show called, My Boys and Me, a very compelling piece that explores his relationship with his brothers, both then and now.

 

Another way to activate childhood memories is to chronologically explore the past, either by age or grades in school. I personally prefer going grade by grade because I have remembered in great detail each of my grade school teachers by name and can visualize quite clearly our classrooms, which have also guided me to relationships and past experiences, year by year.

 

In either approach, once a series of experiences have been explored on paper, the task of deciding what to choose to what about may begin. Usually, through a series of exercises, there is one or more memories that seem to resonate more than others and that begin to take center stage. This may begin the process of narrowing down the theme of the solo show, as in the former student I mentioned.

 

I have found that writing in an unedited fashion by just getting the stories out can work quite well. Because we all have many personal stories dancing around in our heads, material is rarely an issue. Giving oneself permission to allow the stories is another matter. For different reasons, some stories we want to share with others, and some we choose not to.

 

I do believe the more free we are in our storytelling, the more engaging and riveting the work can be. In actuality, there are few experiences we have had that have not already been experienced by others. What sets our own particular stories apart are the specifics, but the broad strokes are essentially the same (i.e. a woman’s fight with breast cancer, the dynamics of coming from a dysfunctional family, coming of age, online dating, etc.)

 

The telling all begins with the desire to create a one person show. With guidance, the rest will unfold. How exhilarating it is to see a one person play develop step by step from thought to page and then from page to stage!

 

Adilah Barnes is a writer, actor, acting instructor, producer, Internet talk show host and lecturer.

 

She owns and operates The Writers’ Retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia. You may contact her directly at abarnes@

WALK IN BALANCE—A NEW RESIDENTIAL RETREAT IN GEORGIA

  When I first viewed the Web site of The Writer’s Retreat, I was most struck by the breathtaking, yet diverse beauty of each location. I remember thinking that I wanted to visit every one of them. That thought will remain a goal for me.

I am delighted to now join in the fold of our network with my new retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

  I gave thought to why one might want to also come to Sharpsburg. I was led to the obvious. My location offers a woodsy and serene environment where one can create, but less obvious is that the environment feeds the soul. To that end, I have one room that is reserved for those who wish to meditate, practice yoga, enjoy spiritual music, and just allow silence. A vegan myself, a healthy diet is also part of that spiritual feeding. The retreat is a smoke-free environment and a shoeless space as well.

  I have found that in order to write, I have to be in a space that allows me the freedom to express. For me, that includes quiet, focus, and a meditative state that invites my inner voice a place to be honored and to be heard. I try to allow at least part of one day a week to experience a “talking fast” so that I may rest my mind and settle inward.

  What I offer personally at our Sharpsburg location is my background as an artist. Although I am also an actor, acting teacher, talk show host, and producer, what I bring to the retreat most fittingly is my background as a writing instructor. I primarily work with actor/writers who are interested in getting down on paper personal stories that have been dancing around in their heads. My writer’s workshops at the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival have facilitated writers in reaching down to the core of their being to unveil memories that resonate in both personal and universal truth. I have found sensory exercises that take the writer back to childhood are a fertile source to unlock stories begging to be told.

  In Los Angeles, I have taught such workshops as “From Thought to Pen,” “Connecting the Inner Dots.” and “From Page to Stage.” In June of 2008, I will begin teaching solo writing classes at the award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. I welcome the opportunity to also serve my new bicoastal community as I begin to build relationships within its artistic world.

  The progression of unleashing personal stories from the heart to the page, and ultimately on stage, has been an extremely rewarding journey for me. My own solo show, “I Am That I Am: Woman, Black,” is a historical journey through time sharing the lives of seven African American “sheroes” beginning from slavery with Sojourner Truth to present times and concluding with Maya Angelou. My one-woman show has zigzagged across close to forty U.S. states, and has crossed the waters to the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. Though the stories in my one-woman show are not my own, they are personal stories of women I admire and who inspire me.

  My first book, On My Own Terms: One Actor’s Journey is slated for release this spring. A cross between a memoir, an acting book, and an inspirational walk, I now look forward to working with writers at our Sharpsburg retreat who are also developing non-fiction narrative works.

  I welcome women of all genres of writing to The Writers’ Retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia. We will together give honor to the literary word and celebrate the creative voice as we also learn from one other.

  You may contact me directly at abarnes@writersretreat.com or visit my Web site at www.writersretreat.com/georgia.htm.  

Until next time… Shape your vision into reality!!!

 

Micheline Côté, Executive Director   

The Writers’ Retreat 

Telephone:  (819) 876-2065

info@writersretreat.com

http://www.writersretreat.com

 

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