The Hague Online's 'Writer in Residence' Jo Parfitt is musing about . . .

Limbering up

May column 2011

I have always wanted to sing. Yet I have no confidence in my ability, fear ridicule and dare not sing in public, though I long to do so. My husband is a musician and I have no reason not to ask him to accompany me, but, blocked by my own fear of failure I never ask him. I have become very good at sabotaging my dream!

Then, last Saturday I was invited to join a special evening, led by Dru yoga teacher and music therapist, Jolanda Jonker, in which those invited would chant mantras in Sanskrit with the goal of helping world peace. The event was the brainchild of yoga teacher, Maggie Sanderson, who also teaches at Dru in Scheveningen, and was held to support the humanitarian work of World Peace Flame.

I was apprehensive about going. I have no experience of chanting. Little experience of mantras and am nervous about singing in public. However, I find singing in unison much less threatening than singing alone. Maggie is a friend and her goal of singing for peace appealed to me. I was not busy that evening and had no excuses not to go.

When we entered Maggie’s sitting room, many of the other guests were sitting cross-legged on the floor. I am rubbish at sitting on the floor, and was glad to be offered a chair. Jolanda sat in front of us all with an Indian instrument that looked like a kind of sideways accordion on her lap. Maggie handed us a sheet that contained the words we would be chanting and soon we were off. Jolanda would sing a line, and we would repeat it. In the safe hands of an expert we dared to sing and soon settled into the experience. We chanted nine mantras in two hours. Over and over. Jolanda has a beautiful voice and soon we were all growing in confidence and singing louder and louder.

The experience was soothing, meditative and strangely uplifting. Because we were joined in a common goal, the energy in the room was palpable.

Two hours later we left, taking our symbolic peace candles with us.

The next day, I found myself singing, spontaneously. My husband picked up his guitar and played my favourite song, At Seventeen, and I sang along with him. I knew the words already. I had sung it often enough alone in the car! We sat on our terrace and the neighbours could hear me. And you know? It was okay!

I had joined a group to chant mantras with trepidation but recognized that this might be a safe place in which to start. The evening had limbered me up, made me a little braver and allowed me to dare to do something I had longed to do.

So why am I telling you this? Because my experience with singing parallels with many new writers’ experiences of writing. Like me, they want to write, they love to write, but they are nervous about ‘doing it in public’, in other words, sharing their work with others. They don’t want to be laughed at.

Join a group
A writers’ circle can do exactly the same thing for writers. You will be in safe hands. You will find a safe place in which to share you work and, helped by this experience you will grow in confidence so that you will dare to follow your writing dreams later and alone. This is all part of the limbering up exercise you need to do as a writer.

And you can do it alone
Just as I sing in the car, alone, in order to do what I love where no one can see me nor laugh at me, writers can benefit from doing just ten minutes of speedwriting every day. Speedwriting refers to the practice of putting your pen on the page, having no idea what you re going to write about and just writing, anything, randomly, going where your mind takes you. Just writing.

For many writers, for even established authors such as Stephen King, their limbering up exercise has become a kind of talisman, something they begin with each day. In her book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron calls them Morning Pages. In our writers’ circles we begin each session with ten minutes of speedwriting and then, if we are happy to, we share our results with the group. This experience really helps us to grow in confidence. Goodness, if you dare to share something that we scribbled down in ten minutes, and if people like it, then imagine what that can do for your self-confidence. Imagine how your writing would be if you had spent time on it.

Baby steps
Do you have a dream? It may not be to sing or to write, but it may be to do something else. To cook? To run a marathon? To act in a play? Then, find yourself a safe environment and a group situation where you can take those baby steps. Doe maar. Like me, you may actually enjoy yourself!

If you wish to comment or express an opinion about this article please e-mail the editor@TheHagueOnLine.com