Stupendous workshop on Content

Carolyn and Renee did a great job leading us in several fruitful exercises on content.  Here is a response from Fran Goodson to one of the exercises in the workshop.

I thought I’d share with you my own experience of Renee’s invitation to write quickly, for ten minutes, about the image I saw before me and which you can see here.  A postcard among Renee’s

Stack.  I was amazed how easily I found words to describe what I was seeing and feeling in the image,

all the while thinking, what the…?!  Sit with an image unknown to me and write about my experience of that image?  Huh?  Say WHAAAAT?

But I can say that this little 10min. exercise in engagement stunned and satisfied,  was profoundly moving and I can now see the exquisite value in the process.  It clarified one path to determining content which has eluded me from the beginnings of my journey into bookarts.  Here goes!

A lonely, well-dressed woman, waiting.  Waiting for someone who doesn’t show up. It is nighttime.

She’s been waiting a LONG time, with an ever-present hope.

She was happy once, full of irrepressible zest and gifted in many ways. Watching her sitting in sadness,

and loss, dressed to the nines because that’s who she was, fills me with sorrow. Sorrow for what might have been, certainly what could have been, and with another outcome altogether.  My mouth goes dry and my heart races.  I become her pain.

She is definitely alone, without friends, although she has four sisters and what I presume to be a loving mother. She has a rascally father who has spent her mother’s fortune on race horses.  She made the best of her life, bearing two children but, alas, they too were estranged.

She was my mother.

I had a similarly surprising response to the words offered by Carolyn:

(essential, spring, void, y, top, ness, beneath, some, them, like, easy, to, lie). 

This was how my words were digested by my heart and dashed off in the moments allowed...

Lies.

Beneath them…

essentially-voids any ease

to spring to the top.

Some likeness here

to my life…

Perhaps your experience was as inspiring as mine was for me.  Perhaps not.  Now I finally have the tools to determine how I can create books for me that authentically reflect me and meet my criterion for quality.  Really, I’m all the audience I desire. I am the most important viewer.  Shows?  Naah.  I need to serve my soul first.

I am truly looking forward to crafting books with this new-found discernment, thanks to Renee and Carolyn’s rich presentation. Thank you both for an insightfully-prepared subject, meticulously and articulately delivered.

Hoping the shifting of gears was fun for you, too,

Francine goodson