Soulmates

How did the writers who lunch meet?  We met through an Adult Education Course at Kirklees College called ‘Creative Writing for Beginners.’  This is not the type of class where you ‘bring a friend’.  The chances are that you will be unique among your friends and they will view you with a mixture of awe and bafflement. 

So we pitched up alone, a brave shot in the dark in which you trust in fate that you will find like minded folk who will accept you and might even like you.  Added to this, you will soon be reading out your work, whereby you might as well be shining a light into your soul.  Risky maybe, but don’t most things that are worth having in life involve an element of risk?

That introductory week we were set our first homework task, a short piece of fiction. Yes, homework.  It’s just like being back at school again.  Old habits die hard.  If you left it to the last minute then, you will inevitably do so now.

Reading out your work is at once terrifying and thrilling.  You can hear your voice talking to a silent audience and you have no idea what they think, but you forge on.  You will probably be shaking slightly.  But something magic happens.  You are making yourself vulnerable but at the same time you are connecting with others in an immediate and intimate way.  Your words hit their ears and their brains instantly process them, each person interpreting what they hear in their own unique way.  For those few minutes, time stops.  Your classmates’ varying worries and thoughts are momentarily suspended as they submit themselves to Art.  There is something about it that lifts the soul of all involved. 

You finish and there is a brief second where you look up from your work and half smile in embarrassment, but you also feel triumphant, like you have faced all your demons and won.  You wait, adrenalin pumping around your body, for the first response.  Compliments such as ‘I really like that’ or ‘that’s good’ are jumped on and savoured like sweet treats.  Relief floods your body.  They like it!  You didn’t make a fool of yourself!  You belong here, at least for this week.  And now it’s your turn to sit back and listen to someone else.  And you know just how they feel.