Abstract

Writing Without a Parachute: The Art of Freefall shows both beginning and experienced writers how to get the thinking mind to step aside, so that writing becomes truly creative - a vulnerable and open-hearted engagement with the moment. Here for the first time, writing teacher Barbara Turner-Vesselago shares in print the method by which, for almost 30 years, she has helped hundreds of writers to publish fiction, memoir, non-fiction and poetry worldwide. By means of five simple precepts, she leads the writer step by step into real trust in writing through the art of Freefall: invoking the courage to fall without a parachute into the words as they come. This book can be used for inspiration, as a reference, or as a sustained, twelve-month course in writing. It will help all writers to connect with their deepest intention in writing, and to write with greater authority and grace.
Here is a book that charts new territory, inviting the writer to fall with confidence into the ether of the creative self in order to write with skill and authenticity.
Louise Green, Editor, Lapidus Journal
Barbara Turner-Vesselago has published two non-fiction books in Canada, Skelton at Sixty and Freefall. Her novel manuscript, No News But Kindness, was a finalist for the Chapters/ Robertson Davies Book Prize (Canada), and winner of the Short Story Radion First Chapter Competition (UK). She has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge and has taught at universities in the UK, US, Canada and Nigeria. She now lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her husband, Michael Vesselago, and teaches Freefall Writing workshops worldwide.
Read this book whether you want to be a professional writer or more likely, someone - basically all of us - who needs to find and hear their own voice - and let it flow - so that your life will also flow.
Richard Moss, Author of The Mandala of Being and Inside-Out Healing
This book has something most instruction completely misses: a practical set of exercises and explanations to help with the imaginative act of original composition. It will be useful for beginners, superb for writers in the middle of their training and an absolute lifesaver for pros who have lost their nerve. I shall recommend it to all my students and many of my friends.
Mimi Thebo, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Bath Spa University