Subud Writers Club
The Editor writes…
Writers Club 21 started back in December 2020 when Lucy Houbart wrote an article for the Journal on how much she enjoyed her local writers group, and enquiring if anyone else in Subud was interested in forming one, and if so, to contact her.
About 10 people responded, and we had our first Zoom meeting on January 5th 2021 – and have met fortnightly ever since. There have been up to a dozen members, but, because the only time we can meet is early afternoon, new jobs, pressure of work and time zone difficulties have reduced our numbers over the months. Currently, we have a ‘hard core’ of six members, but would love to have more, so if interested in joining, please contact Lucy Houbart on: houbartlucy@gmail.com
The way we organise the Zoom meetings is for one of us to offer to chair the next meeting and to supply the writing ‘prompt’ with a word limit (usually 500 to 750 words). We’ve had prompts such as ‘Yesterday’, ‘A Journey with Food’, ‘Out of Range’ and ‘Coincidence’, as examples.
The writers have about 10 days to submit their piece to the chair, who then collates them in the order of arrival into one ‘anonymous’ document and sends to all group members. On the day of the meeting, each writer reads their own piece to the group and invites comments, observations and discussion.
During our meeting on October 5th, the idea for this article was born and the prompt suggested as ‘Why I like Writers Club’. The pieces were read on the 19th October and it was decided to include them all in this article as together they give such a full a flavour of how we work, what we each get out of it and what it means to us all to create for a non-judgemental, and dare I say loving, audience.
Membership of the Subud Writers’ Club
We all know someone who would like to write but has no time. Or somebody who has time but doesn’t know what to write. If I am allowed to take liberties, I’d like to introduce myself as both of the above.
When Lucy Houbart reached out and invited me to the first session of the Subud Writers’ Club during the first lockdown, I grabbed at the chance for more deadlines like a seagull grabs at your cheese and pickle sandwich as you’re walking along the pier. Because that’s how I like to work. To a deadline. Give me 48 hours a day, endless cups of tea, and a blank screen, and I will type nothing more worthy of a reader’s precious time than if I’d squeezed out an hour of writing at the end of a gruelling day. If you have a real urge to do something, anything, then you can and will find the time. I’m not so sure it works the other way round. At least not for me. So, the fortnightly deadlines imposed by a rotating chair (not a revolving item of furniture, in case that’s what you were picturing) is a vital part of the whole experience.
Added to that, I can enjoy the company of Subud sisters and brothers (none of whom I have ever met in person), who embrace each contribution as if it were their own baby. We might not be literary critics and we may sometimes be too generous in our praise of each other’s efforts, but if you want harsh criticism you can always post your stuff online. See how your nerves survive that experience!
The Subud Writers’ Club is a little virtual corner where nobody need fear ridicule or rejection for their epistolary endeavours. There is a place at the zoom table for writers of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, features, songs, comic strips … the list goes on. As I hope we will too.
Sandra Creemers
Why I like Writers Club
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed…
Always thought that description of writing as ‘my sullen art’ (from Dylan Thomas’ In My Craft or Sullen Art) summed it up so well. To me it gives a sense of that struggling alone for hours to satisfy that inner critic driving me to get it as right as it can be, meaning-, feelings- and readability-wise – all the time scouring my mind for the perfect phrase, the precise word. Dylan Thomas continues his 20-line poem explaining he doesn’t do it for money or fame or acknowledgement, and then ends with:
…But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.
So, if not doing it for ‘wages, ambition or bread’, why do I put myself through such lonely, labouring intensity? I think it’s to communicate my human experiencing with others in order, ironically, not to feel so alone.
And that’s why I enjoy Writers Club so much. The fortnightly prompt and my personal commitment trigger the hours of ‘sullen’ crafting: and the justification for labouring while ‘the moon rages’ is simply to be able to share it with others, hear their non-judgemental observations and responses – and in turn to listen to their, equally no doubt, sullenly crafted pieces, for they are ‘the lovers’ (of life and writing) that I do it for. Such a pleasure getting to know the group and a twice a month highlight in my calendar.
In My Craft or Sullen Art
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.
And if you’d like to hear Dylan Thomas reading this poem (at the BBC in 1945), go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiw3uOT2eUc
Marcus Bolt, Lewes Group
What I get from Writers’ Club
Considering the title of this ‘exercise’, I realised that the real question, for me, is ‘Why do I continue with Writers’ Club?
The obvious reason is: ‘nice people, nice chat, nice exchange of written pieces’.
Also, the fact that I can offer insubstantial ‘try outs’ and not meet a judgemental, overcritical reaction of: “What makes you think you can write?” Indeed the response is always encouraging… ” like this bit, where you….” and a possible “I wonder what would happen if you did this…?”. Listening to others read the pieces that they have written is most enjoyable, and their sharing how many times they re-wrote is very encouraging,
The less obvious reason is the challenge to my Fine Art of Procrastination. I have practised procrastination since I was a child and realised that curling up in a chair with a book made me almost invisible. Parental comments like: “Can you do…?” could be fended off with the response: “Yes, I’ll just finish this chapter!”, and I’d be safe from outside requests for another 2-3 chapters… the Art of Reading being sacrosanct in our house …. no book was censored, and Marvel/D.C. Comics counted almost as well as Dickens.
This love of the written word has a lot to do with my development as a performer, a storyteller and a ‘psycho-mythologist’. Stories to be told are very different from stories that are written down. To learn a story which others have written, learn its twists, turns, and possible inner meanings has its own joy: then, the teller of such stories can re-tell in their own way… no story is ever told in exactly the same way twice… telling a myth to a room full of adults is very different from sharing the same tale in a school classroom. As a stranger I can go in, throw belief in the outer reality to the winds, and stretch their imagination. (For many years the school curriculum wrote myths out of existence: it took Marvel Comics and ‘Star Wars’ to open the gate once more.)
The written word is very particular: it needs to be in the right space, the right tense, to play its part in the whole. It holds both cold facts and rollicking, rolling, fantasy together, or apart, for posterity. The words of the ‘teller’ are as seeds thrown into the wind… to be lost forever, or to take root in the imagination of the listener… and no one reader or listener’s imagination is ever the same as another’s! That’s a part of the challenge of the task which the Writer’s Group offers bi-weekly, causing the procrastinator in me to walk about, or read other things, whilst the ideas of the challenge jumble themselves together in the back of my mind, and then, when there is no more time, transfer the words to the solid fact of the written word, and the much needed discipline of keeping to specific number of words. Satisfaction!
Hesther Bate, Malvern Group
Every time I sit down to write my assignment for the Writer’s Group in time to meet the deadline, I have the same feeling of dread. I put it off but inevitably the time comes when you just have to get on with it – the worst bit. Luckily, after pushing past this, the excitement builds – words spill out and the first draft takes shape. Returning to the piece is easier and I change and alter, typing multiple copies. There’s a nervous feeling of excitement when I’m ready to send it off and then the best bit – the thrill of reading it out to the group and hearing their generous feed-back. Belonging to the ‘Writers’ Group ‘21’ has been a fantastic journey, revealing hidden parts that want to come out. I’m definitely enjoying hearing my own voice. It’s been a nourishing treat and sometimes a triumph! For me, it’s the way I can be most creative. I’ve been a visual artist but, in comparison, that now feels like just dressing up the exterior. Writing is like talking about content – like jumping into the centre of something. As an artist maybe I’ve been a bit scared of words and relied too much on the look of things.
I’ve written several stories about a child which has allowed me to repaint my childhood. She often complains loudly about the world and I’ve given her parents who listen attentively, making it all come right in the end. Some stories draw on memories and in others I manoeuvre events, so the protagonist is brave, direct and speaks their mind. Writing has brought a feeling of empowerment and being more proactive in a safe, supportive environment. Sometimes it’s involved working through difficult feelings but this is where the work is, in finding the way through. Voicing fears and frustrations that make one’s head go round in circles and expressing one’s ideals and hopes is maybe a way of creating a world that allows good things to happen.
Then there’s been the chance to get inside the heads of the other writers in the group. We get to hear what’s important to everyone after it’s been crafted and honed. With our word limitation guide, all the extraneous details have fallen away and what’s left is just the core. We’ve heard journeys from each other’s youth, experienced childhoods from the other side of the world and from different times. Sometimes it feels a bit like ‘testing’ with another Subud member – you get to know them from the inside out, experiencing the world as they feel it. It gives one a chance to get to know members from other places, including Belgium and Australia. Seeing them regularly, once a fortnight, they become an important part of ones’ life. I always enjoy Subud Congresses because one is reminded of all the lovely Subud members there are. The writing group, using Zoom technology, gives an ongoing Congress feeling.
Lucy Houbart, Central London Group
Soon as the task has been set I start panicking. I have no idea how I am going to write about the topic, no matter what it is, even if I have chosen the topic.
I know I cannot write and feel ashamed in front of the many accomplished writers whose books I have read in the past. There is some intimidation, totally self-inflicted I must say quickly, because the group is nothing if not truly encouraging to everyone.
Initially we had one or two Subud member who I did not know but got to know them soon rather well through their writing. It baffled me how personal writing is.
Creative writing group should be about creating stories out of the air I always believed. But it definitely was not happening in this group. We were finding out about each other in ways never expected.
I made several attempts at hiding myself from the writing, but the discussions and questions during the Zoom inevitably gave me away! There are one or two very direct and astute member in the group who can read in between the lines with precision of a diamond. I have noted other’s front guard also crumble at a small direct innocent question! How do they do it?
It is a deep interest in the people that we are which makes this group so profound – and not forgetting fun and easy.
Tasneem Samuels, Loudwater Group
