Managing Negative Thoughts

If you are being waylaid by negative thoughts, you know what I mean, those voices inside that tell you that you have nothing worthwhile to say, that no one cares, and who are you to think you should be writing, then welcome to the experience of being human! I live with those voices all the time, every day! They don't even want me to write emails! Or post blogs! Or say any of this! 

The truth is those thoughts are conditioning inside us that we can subvert! We can talk back to them. But sometimes that takes more energy than we have, especially when they get loud and use all our energy to sap our strength! 

One thing I do to make sure I don't get re-traumatized by all those negative thoughts is that I have other thoughts in place, a kind and inspiring response ready to go, for when my negative thoughts start up. I tell myself, "there are so many people who will be soothed and saved by my stories and my experiences and my words. I can't stop writing. I can't stop trying to get my work into the world, or the people who need my words will never read them or hear them. People would be surprised to know what I have lived through, and it will give them strength. I have to tell my stories. I have to write down my truths. I must do this work because it will mean something to someone." 
You have reasons to write too! If you can write down those reasons, you can get past your critics and censors. Write about the people who need your work! Imagine helping them with your sense of humor, with your imagination, with any part of your writing that you think will help them! Create a built-in response to those bullies who rise up when you want to work. Write your response down and tape it to your desk! 

Countering our Critics

If you are being waylaid by negative thoughts, you know what I mean, those voices inside that tell you that you have nothing worthwhile to say, that no one cares, and who are you to think you should be writing, then welcome to the experience of being human! I live with those voices all the time, every day! They don't even want me to write these emails! Or post blogs! Or say any of this!

The truth is those thoughts are conditioning inside us that we can subvert! We can talk back to them. But sometimes that takes more energy than we have, especially when they get loud and use all our energy to sap us!

One thing I do to make sure I don't get re-traumatized by all those negative thoughts is that I have other thoughts in place, a kind and inspiring response ready to go, for when my negative thoughts start up. I tell myself, "there are so many people who will be soothed and saved by my stories and my experiences and my words. I can't stop writing. I can't stop trying to get my work into the world, or the people who need my words will never read them or hear them. People would be surprised to know what I have lived through, and it will give them strength. I have to tell my stories. I have to write down my truths. I must do this work because it will mean something to someone."

You have reasons to write too! If you can write down those reasons, you can get past your critics and censors. Write about the people who need your work! Imagine helping them with your sense of humor, with your imagination, with any part of your writing that you think will help them! Create a built-in response to those bullies who rise up when you want to work. Write your response down and tape it to your desk!

Come to Brave Space and write with like-minded people. We are all learning to talking back to our critics and judges!

DOES WRITING FEEL IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU RIGHT NOW?????

Do you remember that quote from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll?

“Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

​'​I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!”

​Try remembering a time in your life when something impossible and completely unexpected happened, when you were stuck and somehow the future arrived and you got unstuck. This has actually happened to me so many times, I had to start a list!

One of my most obvious examples of the impossible happening to me was when I was in my twenties and completely depressed and feeling useless on the planet. I had no high school diploma. I had been thrown out of college twice. And all I loved to do was read and write!

Wait a minute, how did I get to college when I wasn’t even a high school grad? That's 2 other impossible stories right there! But I digress.

I got a phone call from a person who ran an MFA program inviting me to get an MFA and saying, “just ignore the fact that you have no other degrees, come!” I was so surprised, I insisted they send me a fax with the official offer. When the Dean of Admissions called to find out what I’d been promised (by a person who had been fired recently) I was able to produce the offer in writing, and the dean honored it. Including the part that said tuition-free! So impossible things do happen.

Start your own list! Let me remind you that when you were small and saw a big sibling tie their shoes, that seemed impossible to you! Stairs used to be impossible too. Think of moments when you felt stuck and the shifts that happened that you could not have anticipated.

We cannot know what our future holds. Practicing believing in the impossible will help you start to change your mind. You all know that quote from Buddha that goes, “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.”

I know we all want to open the door to a better, more creative future, so start a list of all the impossible things that have already happened to you! And let me know about the new possibilities in your life!

On Completing Writing Projects

A year into the pandemic, I hope we've all had time to reflect on the kinds of writers we want to be, what we want to bring forth into the world, and how we might begin. I am always happy to begin, and I have a million beginnings in notebooks, files and pages all over the place; it's the completing I have trouble with! I wonder if you can relate?

I start something, get excited about it, and then I don't even know where I left it. Or I come back to it, and suddenly it's not what I thought it was. Or I start to feel like I've lost my way. Or I get distracted, and days/months/years go by, and I don't remember what I was trying to write or why. Doubt sets in. It's amazing to me I've finished anything.

So here are a few strategies that have helped me in the past.

Create a system. I grab a working title and make a file for any idea that floats past my nose. I try to write as much as I know about a project as soon as I know it. I add to this project file as soon as I think I know more. If I should make a note outside the file, by hand in a notebook, I title it and make a note on page 1 of the notebook so I can find it again. I leave the first page of all my notebooks blank so I can list what's inside.

And I forgive myself when I screw up, forget, and lose things. I offer myself compassion so that I can move on without feeling the burden or the anger of the inner critic. Kindness is one more way to reduce the stress in our lives. I hope you will offer some to yourself tonight! Kindness takes the pressure off. Whatever we thought we'd accomplish by now, we are all doing the best we can amidst very difficult circumstances.

How does accepting failures and offering kindness work? It creates an atmosphere in which work can happen. It is the beginning of permission to fail. Without permission to do things badly, nothing can get done. Especially writing. Writing is like hacking at marble - the best sculptors know that we don't need the fine sandpaper until the end.

Let me know if you'll join me in Brave Space.

Resistance is Real (Strategies from Brave Space)

Resistance is real. Resistance keeps us from doing all the things we want to do (not just writing) unless we have a system. Brave Space works to give you a system. Every time you enter Brave Space with me, you are discovering some of the best ways for you to beat your own resistance while you actually beat the resistance!

1) Breathing - yes, you're doing it right now, but are you aware of it, can you feel the cool in-breath at your nostrils? Can you let your belly be soft? your chair or your bones or bed or furniture hold you so you don't have to do all the work? Let your jaw relax? Breathing can remind us of our essential mortality and spur us toward setting just a few minutes aside for a few lines of something. A note to self about the color of today’s sky. A memo on the pressure I feel to do x, and how I'm gonna push back against it. A line for a poem to be. (The line I saved today for a future poem is, "you appeared in 17 searches this week.")

2) Being a writer - walking the walk, list all the things you think that writers do or get to do, and then write so that you can do them! If I write for at least 5 minutes, I get a piece of writing chocolate. I try to do at least 1 thing every day that is related to writing, like read a great writer or check out a place where I might submit my work or actually submit something or reach out to a potential collaborator. If you are just starting out with writing, you might try to read more writing like the kind you want to do or identify part of the craft you want to master and look for examples of how other people have done it.

3) Make a plan to resist the resistance. Block a time every day to write and then write. Easier said than done, right? Block a time and write a plan on a sticky note about what you're going to do with that time and then do it. 5 minutes to write is a good start. If you can do 5 minutes every day for a week, you get a big gold star from me, and you get bragging rights! And you get what you wrote!

Showing up is hard, but you can make it easier. You will surprise yourself if you start to plan even if you're a seat-of-your-pants person. A little planning puts dinner on the table. A lot of planning will put a novel on your shelf with your name on the spine. Come to Brave Space for more strategies and a community of like-minded people doing what you’re dreaming of doing.

Creating Safety in Your Writing Practice

When I feel the urge to write, or see my daily calendar reminder, I often also feel a strong urge to swerve, to not do it, to put it off. When this happens, I know I don’t feel safe. And when I don't feel safe, it's hard to put my butt in the chair and write. But I have to write. I will explode if I don't write. (Or do some other not-very-good-for-me practice like disappearing into my scroll.) So I create safety. Yes, it's my own invention, but it works. And in truth, a war isn't breaking down my door to force me to flee. I am relatively safe here at my desk. The scariest part is my mind.

But the mind can be terrifying! So I create ways to say yes to my work - and many of you know how dark my work can be. How do I do this? I invent safety.

Each time I sit down to work, I promise myself an ending.I set a timer.I make sure I give myself an out. This means that even if I fail to invent safety, my time in a dangerous place will be limited.

Then I work on creating the safety itself. I set an intention. I'll decide to work on scene 4 only. Or I'll do character work. Or I'll have some sort of plan. I'll write a poem inspired by something specific. I keep a list and lots of poetry around for this purpose. Poems often take me into other kinds of writing, not just poetry. So the intention I set doesn't sound too scary. I never sit down to write "a book about my life." I never sit down to tell "a story about my traumas." But I might write a list of 3 things about my mother 's intense need to compete. Or I might write a story about when my father was accused of being a spy in the army.

I set an emotion I want feel while working, even if the feeling in the writing will be different. I didn't believe this would work for me - I didn't even fathom it was possible! But deciding how I want to feel for the next 15 to 30 minutes is helpful! And possible!

With a few deep breaths I can pull that feeling into my body. It usually makes me smile. Smiling makes me feel even more of that feeling whether it's peace or joy or calm or blanketed in warmth, I can enjoy my writing session more deeply once I've set an emotion for myself to live in while I write.

We are imaginative creatures! Why not write by the ocean today? Feel the sand at your feet... Your writing practice is for you. So I hope you will take a few simple steps to be in charge of it. That way you’ll get the writing done that you want to do. Set a safe place to write and you will not swerve the next time you think about sitting down to get some writing done.

Writing is Power

Writing is Power. We talk a lot in Brave Space about the canon of white male writing that can hang over us all like a giant SHOULD casting a pall on whatever we want to do. I say, kick that to the curb! 

I say, life post-Covid (for there will be a post-Covid) must allow for each person to make their own work from their own visions, dreams and intentions. 

We are seeing a great de-colonizing. From the deaths or retirements of several old white men who reviewed shows and books to a brand new world where criticism is at the dawn of considering who is doing the writing and for whom. Writing is becoming its own thing with its own internal rules and structure. 

The take-away: run with the story, run with the characters, go each and every direction with all your impulses and when you come to the end (and you will) the work will show you what the structure needs to be. Trust yourself.

If you are writing at home on your own, please set an end time for each writing session. No one just writes forever, all day. That's setting yourself up for doubt and failure. Set a timer. Do the writing. If you go over by five minutes or so, fine. But please don't go beyond. Celebrate the wins! Enjoy the dopamine! Live to write again!

Problems with Praise

In Brave Salon and at Brave Brunch, writers come to share their work created in Brave Space. It is an evening or an afternoon of nurturing feedback. Some would call this feedback praise. You’d think it would feel good. But for some of us, including me, praise is an experience we have to learn to manage.

As a child, praise happened before I got tricked or hurt. Praise was used as a weapon to betray me. Adults used it to get me to do things they wanted me to do. I learned to be wary. Praise can trigger me and make me feel unsafe.

My goal with Brave Space and this website is to help get more words written by women and non-binary writers into the world. Often, in order to encourage writing, praise happens. So I want to offer a few ways to deal with problems with praise.

The first step is to be aware of the problem. If you can notice that you are triggered by praise, you are halfway to helping yourself manage it. (One way to test this is to sign up to share in Brave Salon or Brave Brunch, and see how you feel afterwards.)

If you are triggered by praise, first put your hand on your heart and offer yourself some self-compassion. Let yourself know that you know that you are suffering. This is a real thing. Acknowledging your suffering will help. Naming it is important. Naming creates some distance between you and what you are experiencing.

The biggest thing is to KNOW it - like a moment of recognition in any good play/movie/story, you have realized something that will then automatically allow for change and transformation.

You can decide how you want to receive praise. You can come up with creative solutions for your discomfort. You can research the story about how you became praise-resistant (or praise-depressed or praise-phobic). You can label it for yourself and throw darts at it. You can ask for help in dealing with it. A therapist would find it a worthy goal. We should all be able to enjoy praise!

I do a thing called Self-therapy from IFS (Internal Family Systems). The book, SELF-THERAPY by Jay Earley shows you how. I am taking classes in it. IFS allows us to identify parts of ourselves that protect us for various (mostly childhood or trauma-related) reasons. Now that we’re grown, these protectors might not be necessary, but we’re used to them. That doesn’t mean we’re stuck with them. We can learn how to deal with these parts to help them grow up. Moving on is possible!

You can create a plan to help yourself learn that some praise is safe and enjoyable. I have used the recommendations I receive for my plays that are posted on newplayexchange.org to practice my praise capabilities. I print out the praise and tape it to my kitchen cabinets and practice taking it in. Praise gets easier with practice.

BUTTERFLY HUGS

It upsets me that most trauma survivors don’t know about butterfly hugs. I didn’t know about butterfly hugs until a kind therapist told me about them and showed me how to give them to myself. Why didn’t I know this? I’d been dealing with having trauma for over 15 years already - shouldn’t this be common knowledge?

Apparently it’s not.

What are butterfly hugs? They are a way to reset a triggered nervous system. They will calm us in simple do-able steps that anyone can manage. They help!

How do we do them? Give yourself a hug so that each hand is on the opposite arm. Then pat each arm with each hand that is hugging there. The right hand, then the left, in a slow tapping way. Or cross your hands at the wrist and let each hand rest on your clavicles, tap one hand then the next in a slow calming rhythm.

Why does this work? It’s a form of bilateral stimulation like walking or knitting, it will calm you automatically - it’s the way we’re wired. So if you find yourself triggered or hyper-aroused or upset, you can give yourself a butterfly hug and feel better quickly.

There are so many different things that need to be shared so that everyone knows. So I will keep sharing what I can even though I am not a trained therapist. I am merely a person who has lived through trauma and likes to find ways to feel better. I also can’t keep anything to myself. I believe secrets are toxic. So I’m sharing.

Happy New Year 2021!

Dear Brave Writers, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life!

I will be holding Brave Space at 12pm EST, and if you want to make sure you start the new year with some writing, whatever you are working on or something completely new, you can join me.

Brave Space is an easy way to dive deeply into a project from wherever you are. I will get you grounded and clear. There will be a prompt to help you move through whatever you need to do. I will be there to chat if you need me.

Brave Space is an amazing community of writers of all kinds doing incredible work. If that makes you want to run, telling yourself you won't measure up, you're wrong.

Every writer deals with critics and judges and mothers and in-laws and all kinds of voices shouting, "who do you think you are?" In Brave Space we shout back, "I am an unstoppable writer!"

Make a resolution to join me Fridays at noon in Brave Space where it only gets better.

Happy New Year!

Emma

More About Brave Space for Survivors

Brave Space for Survivors is basically the same as regular Brave Space except the term "survivors" is mostly defined in that space right now as those who have survived sexual trauma. While I have survived this, I have also survived physical traumas through serious illness and the physical trauma of birthing as well - these can go hand in hand sometimes if - in particular - there is childhood trauma, which is the case for me since I survived early childhood sexual trauma which can set a person up for a lifetime of trauma. I wrote a play about it after #metoo started in October of 2017, and that play puts me in a rather public place as a survivor. It spurred me to create Brave Space (just the regular Brave Space at first, and now the Brave Space for Survivors). 

Brave Space for Survivors (BSS) is a rare place in that it's one of the few places outside therapists' offices where survivors can be open about what we have lived. There is no hierarchy of survival in BSS because I don't believe that one kind of survival should be arranged above another. Mostly we do our writing - I don't change the kind of prompts we have, although I try to be mindful to make them potentially as joyful as any other prompts - they are not specifically about trauma because trauma survivors aren't expected to write about trauma. 

Afterwards when we discuss our process, trauma can come up in terms of how it affects our abilities to make work. Because it will do that. We might be writing about trauma, and that can be a difficult thing to do, so the process might be about discussing that. We try to do so with non-triggering language which means being kind, being thoughtful, but mostly we are now a community that embraces an open dialogue about what it means to be a creative person who has survived trauma and how that affects us and our work. 

Of course the things I do to facilitate work for writers in regular Brave Space is also available in BSS. If a writer comes up against a difficult passage and chats to me for help, I help! I am there to virtually hold anyone's hand through the writing process with the creation of strong boundaries, (e.g. let's set a timer for 3 minutes and I'll check in again then), or with questions that will help a writer find their way, and with general support as someone to witness the struggle. 

Brave Space for Survivors tries to be a non-judgmental space where anyone can choose to write about or not write about trauma in a kind and supportive environment and discuss this struggle openly afterwards. 

FLOW

Dear Brave Writers - I want to remind you that Brave Space is a place for creativity; it's not just a place where we get stuff done. Getting stuff done sounds like work, and that might be what happens at Brave Space, but it is not my intention to bring us all together and crack a whip. 

I try to show you how to start at the top of the hill, give you a bicycle and a little push, and set you to writing with the rush of the wind in your hair! Wheeeee! 

I want you to think of your writing as a grand, unstoppable possible. Yes, a novel! Why not? And yes, a story, a play, a poem. Yes, and - just like with improv. I want you to use the prompts as a way to get out of your own way. 

The prompt tricks the brain which is used to working hard, buckling down, pushing uphill. Instead of all that hard work, the prompt says just focus on responding to this. The prompt can be the booster rocket that sets you off into orbit so that you can allow inspiration to flow through you. Access the greater consciousness that we all are so that you can write wisely, more articulately than we all are in regular life. That's called flow. 

You can set an intention to get into your writing project, and you can allow any part of any of the prompts take you into your project through any door you choose. You might go in through a character exercise or a theme or a line from a poem or an exploration of a particular aspect of craft or a sensory prompt. I try to set up several "doors" in each prompt for you to travel through to get to where you need to go. You will naturally be attracted to something that will help you even as it fools you into thinking you are just playing a game. 

You can flow in Brave Space. NEW TIME - MONDAYS at 3pm Eastern. 

Let me know if you want to join me! 

Emma

PS Give it a try! Set a timer for 3 minutes. Pick a noun, a gerund verb and adjective at random, or from a page of a phrase in a book that inspires you, or try: home, packing, frantic and write as fast as you can whatever comes based on those words for 3 minutes as a way to move into your own writing. The idea is to keep your hand in motion the whole 3 minutes repeating the words if necessary until you find the impulse to move forward with the next word. Noticing and allowing your impulse is a habit to cultivate.

On Silence

I'm out as a Jewish Palestinian Ally and I'm out as a Survivor of childhood sexual abuse and incest and rape. I'm trying to change the conversations we have so that there is transparency and ease (yes, ease) around difficult ideas and topics to prove that silence is not our friend. The women at the Survivors Summit (https://survivorsagenda.org) over the past 3 days were so inspiring to me and reminded me that silence is a kind of violence, and I think we do ourselves harm by diminishing ourselves through our silences and then by the way we blame ourselves for being silent. 

Silence for me was a strategy for survival. Silence is a scary thing to break. But consider the difficult position we put ourselves in (because our cultures put us there first), consider being blamed for speaking out and being blamed for remaining silent. If I am to be blamed either way, I'd prefer speaking. Writing gives me the opportunity to shape the urgent impulses I have so that the work can speak to many. 

I'm not suggesting you put yourself in any personal danger. 

If we are constantly asking ourselves how dare we say this, questioning ourselves at every turn, where is the opportunity to find our voice? How can we learn to trust ourselves? How can we create a practice to recognize our innate wisdom that can't be shared yet because we aren't able to open the channel to find its flow? We must begin with a sense of possibility. From this crack of light, we learn freedom. 

I suggest starting a practice of self-compassion. The Buddhists call it Metta or Maitri and these are google-able practices worth learning. https://www.doyou.com/maitri-practices-for-developing-loving-kindness-for-oneself/

Bravery grows like any other plant via nurturing light and love. That is what Brave Space tries to offer all of us. I hope you'll join me! 

Brave Space for Survivors

 Tomorrow is Brave Space for Survivors meaning anyone who has survived trauma. There is no hierarchy of suffering in the space, so if you think you want to try it, feel free to do so. You won't be called on to announce your trauma or feel obligated to tell us about it. 

We have been writing together in Brave Space for Survivors for 3 weeks now - this will be our 4th week - and it is a meaning-filled community that feels warm, sisterly and supportive. 

We do an embodiment exercise to ground us in our bodies to keep us present because a history of trauma can make presence difficult. We write with intention from a named emotion so we can work with joy and courage and whatever we need to do the work we want to do. 

We aren't necessarily writing about trauma. We write the full spectrum of experience about whatever we want. 

There is no Friday or Monday Brave Space this week or next. Our next Brave Space (after tomorrow) is again Brave Space for Survivors on Wednesday 9/30 and then we'll be back to our regular Friday on 10/2. Monday 10/5 will begin earlier at 3pm Eastern. 

Set an intention to join me and let me know when. I'll see you soon! 

Our First Brave Brunch

Today was Brave Space’s first Brave Brunch. I changed our Brave Salon, usually in the evening during a weeknight, to a Brave Brunch at midday (Eastern time) on the weekend, so that we could be more inclusive. I am proud to report that we had writers and participants from as far away as Oregon, outside Talent, and Italy outside Venice! That is a far distance, and I am so happy I could bring us all together via Zoom.

We heard work from Kendra Augustin, Sacha Rosel, Domnica Radulescu, Gwen Sonnenberg and Jessica Carmona. Actors included Zann Hall, Crystal Marie Stewart, Sheree V. Campbell, Maria Wolf, Tzena Nicole, Jessica Carmona, Helene Galek, Kim Gambino and Jeanne Lauren Smith.

The thing about being able to come together like this and hear each other’s work, work that was created in Brave Space together, is to be able to have a chance to hear what we’re writing, since we don’t get to share it in Brave Space. More than that, it is a time and place to step up and share our own voices and to be heard.

When writers ask, but what should I share? I ask them to share what needs to be heard. What they need to hear. This isn’t always (or usually) the most polished or finished. A writer needs to hear their work aloud so that they can know it better, realize its power, see what it does or what it needs for themselves.

Our job as listeners and responders is to literally feed the writer back. Feedback must nurture the writer and help the writer understand what we understand, what we heard, what we are taking in. If we can offer that honest response about what landed in us, then the writer can know the truth about how her words exist in the world. Our judgments, our ideas, our assessments are irrelevant. It is for each writer to be her own judge, and surely we are. But others cannot judge what a writer is in the middle of, only a writer knows that or is hoping to learn that.

If we relate to something we don’t need to share why we relate to it, only that we relate, and where specifically in the text we related is also very helpful. The more we can respond specifically to the text itself, the more helpful it is for the writer. This line made me understand this and feel this. It’s rare to get this kind of feedback.

I want us to develop our own aesthetics and ideas for our own works for our own voices. I want us to be able to bring in a part of a new piece knowing all or only some of the other parts and not have to worry about explaining the whole thing. I want us to find out by sharing what rings true or what is upsetting or what we could see clearly in our mind’s eye, and what we are getting excited about or what we love.

And we did that. Brava to us all!

Writing Replenishes the World

In 1949, Louise Bogan wrote, "No woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart." 

This is still so relevant and apt. Writing in community chases shame away! And what a great mission to have for one’s writing, to give back to the world.

What are you trying to give the world with your writing? What has your writing already given the world? What would your writing give the world if you could courageously share it?

If you dream of writing something to replenish the world, write that down! The more you allow yourself to acknowledge your dreams, the better chance you have of achieving them.

A Prompt from Hélène Cixous

Dear Brave Writers,

September is here! This September the Survivor's Agenda Summit will take place to create an agenda to end sexual violence! https://survivorsagenda.org

Here is a quote (and a prompt) from one of my favorite writers of all time, 

“By writing her self, woman will return to the body which has been more than confiscated from her, which has been turned into the uncanny stranger on display - the ailing or dead figure, which so often turns out to be the nasty companion, the cause and location of inhibitions. Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write your self. Your body must be heard. Only then will the immense resources of the unconscious spring forth.” 

― Hélène Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa

In addition to this being a call to all of us to write our bodies and our selves, I am also inspired to write the uncanny stranger on display or hiding; the ailing or dead figure who is in deed the cause of inhibitions. This also calls me to erase the censor through creating the spells to do so and to call forth the immense resources of the all of my being in community with all of you.

Join me in Brave Space where we can do this together.

What Happens in Brave Space

Dear Brave Writers:, Some of you come regularly; some of you come when you can; and some of you wonder, what happens in Brave Space? Should I be doing this? Is it worth my time? 

I can't answer the should - what should anyone be doing these days? But I can tell you a bit about what happens in Brave Space. 

We start with an embodiment practice. Becoming aware of and alive within our bodies, we  might start with a foot massage or a neck massage or a simple movement influenced by my teacher, Irene Fornes. 

By the time we start writing, we are embodied and breathing and aware of ourselves as channels for the universe, for all the wisdom we can access, and we don't start from nothing - we begin with support from the prompts, from the chat, from the faces in the tiles, and from the earth itself in which we ground. 

I can't say what happens inside each of us, but we struggle, we reach, we stretch, and we grow. And we write. We get words onto pages. We make meaning. 

Brave Space is a way to make meaning out of the mess of every day's existence. Especially now. Is it worth your time? You tell me. 

Blue Skies

Dear Brave Writers: it is a rainy day here in Manhattan, cool for the first time in ages, and I find it delightful! I love a good gray day that doesn't try to be as cheerful as all the other days. Blue skies insist we all act so happy to match. Sunny days exhaust me. But when it's like gunmetal, I honestly feel as if I can enjoy my happy state more. The backdrop of gloom helps me gush about any joy I find - I shine (and annoy people) in bad weather. 

I tell you this because I think it's a great way to build character. Pick some oddity you enjoy and use it to fashion an entrance. I imagine a character gleefully entering from a storm. Or use a bit of quirk to write a monologue that is mostly metaphor or subtext because no one talks about the weather (or whatever) and means the weather (or whatever). 

Come write with me tomorrow! Let me know if you're planning to be there. 

Why Brave Space?

Dear Brave Writers: I created Brave Space because so many people called me brave after I created FUKT which is an autobiographical play about traumatic memories that returned to me after giving birth to my son back when I was 38. (I turn 55 in August.) I have made it part of my mission to help women get our words into the world with support, hence Brave Space. 

I was about to open the show (as a workshop for 8 performances at NCTC in NYC) when Covid happened. FUKT was recently named a finalist at BAPF and was a finalist at Unicorn the year prior. It is an unusual show that I wrote as a response to the events of October 2017 when women started to tell, and I felt the need to respond to that directly. 

FUKT is an oddly uplifting personal tale of traumatic memory, incest, murder & private parts! With zombies, a striptease and song, this immersive, fearless journey to bare all is a healing balm for anyone with a secret. FUKT is about how three fragmented aspects of a traumatized person come together to heal. 

The cast has been very patient waiting for theatres to reopen, but we don't know when that will be, and this is quite a non-traditional show, and who knows when (if ever) any theatres will take a chance on it. When I was given the opportunity to do a reading at the Dramatists Guild, I decided that even though Zoom is not a great platform for a performance of FUKT, I would like to at least have the play read there to keep it out there, to give the actors some time to play with it again, and to remind the world that it exists and isn't going away. 

If you'd like to see this reading for Free, it will take place Friday, September 11th at 730pm EST, and here is the link to register. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-online-friday-night-footlights-tickets-117800202577?aff=erelpanelorg

There are limited seats, and it's first come first served. If you decide not to attend, please let me know so I can put your seat back into circulation.