with Diana Kiesners of The Writing Space

DK: "Can you start by describing the way you teach, specificially the
technique of Freeefall?"

BTV: "Freefall is a way of writing which teaches people, very quickly, what I
consider to be the essentials. First off, you don't sit around thinking
about writing: you plunge in and write. And having started, you don't stop
yourself. I don't mean that you write without stopping - it's not that -
rather you learn to write without dividing yourself into the writer and the
reader or critic. Your job is to write. To that end, you don't change
anything. You learn to let it be, and then see what you've written
somewhere down the line.

"And once you've learned to enter another world than the one you're sitting
writing in, you learn to stay there. Stop. Look around. Take in (and
write down) all the sensuous details. Follow the energy that's there for
you, and see where it takes you. Stay with what's happening no matter how
intense it gets instead of, say, going to the fridge. In other words, you
write, and let the writing teach you what you need to know."

DK: " As I understand Freefall, at least at the outset it has a lot to do
with autobiographical material. Do you find that just the process of people
revealing those things about themselves to other people in the group also
heightens the energy of the group and makes it cohesive in a way that other
kinds of writing wouldn't?"

BTV: "There are several aspects to that question. I've said to myself a
number of times over the years, 'Can you say that it's going to be
autobiographical material?' And this is what will happen: 'you will now
write autobiographical material.' And I've never been willing to say that.
I've always said, 'Write what comes up for you.' Some people will write a
certain amount of autobiographical material, but some people, especially
men, will often take off into something that's a complete fantasy. And
that's really just as useful. You know? It's going to have all the same
problems and the same criteria."

DK: "So that by saying it will be autobiographical -- "

BTV: "They will limit it to that. Yes, I think that will happen. But the
other thing is, it's impossible to separate the two strands. Because when
students are deeply into a scene that is no trouble for them to imagine - if
they are in fact largely imagining, but think they're recalling - they will
then really let go in a way that they wouldn't let go into something where
they were always wondering, 'Is this believable?' Of course it's
believable, it happened. So they'll just enter into it fully. And that
kind of authority will open other people up. So I'm not even sure whether
it's the fact that it's autobiographical material and they're revealing
something about themselves, or maybe even admitting something to themselves
for the first time. I think it may be just the experience of hearing
somebody truly standing in their own authority, and speaking from there,
that does open people up and let them say, I can have authority about
things too."

DK: "And it creates a sort of context of safety."

BTV : "Yes. You know, for some reason the subject matter is never separate
from the quality. When they're really, really on the current of an
authentic, authoritative story, the quality of the writing is so good that
people in the group begin to relinquish all their doubt about the process.
So do you see what I mean about it all being intertwined? People will
think, 'Oh the class is working okay, I'll jump in too.' And they will
jump. [. . . ]

"It's an important question because I realize again and again that the
reason that I teach these precepts is because they seem to me to be the
fastest shortcuts to learning about writing. For instance, it's not my
purpose that people learn to write about their past experiences. It's my
belief that if they won't prevent autobiographical material from coming up,
then it will teach them an enormous amount very fast about how to stay
involved and immersed in a situation."

 

from "An Interview with Barbara Turner-Vesselago" The Writing Space Journal

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