Two for the Price of One
July 25, 2024
Tags: processing
I went to a small writing group today. I’m not going to say where it was, who was in it or who led it to protect people’s privacy. I’ve known about the group for a long time and have been interested so I finally got the courage to attend.
There was lots of banter before we got to work. I’m afraid I don’t do well with unstructured conversation. Even after sustaining my brain injury 28 years ago, I still have challenges. Conversing with a small group of people is one of them.
I process things slower than others without a brain injury and it was difficult keeping up with the conversation. It seemed to move so quickly, and I didn’t have anything to say. They weren’t strangers but I didn’t know them well. Perhaps when I get to know folks better, it will be easier.
I’ve never been to a writing group before, and I imagine there are different kinds. It was small – six of us. In this one, a prompt was given and each of us wrote for 15 minutes. The prompt was an excerpt from a book
I have difficulty writing due to the arthritis in my right hand. I have a rubber insert that I put on my pen, and I also wore my hand brace. Next time I’m going to bring my laptop even though I must type with my index finger on my right hand. It’s slow but I think it won’t hurt my hand so much.
I was nervous because I knew I was going to have the opportunity to read what I’d written. Whenever I write, I make lots of edits and never share the first thing I have written. When the others shared folks would comment in positive ways. I couldn’t think of anything to say, and I felt a little uncomfortable not speaking. Perhaps it will get easier as time goes on. It’s true that brain injury challenges get better the more one works on them – even after 28 years!
I went last, of course. We weren’t supposed to give any commentary before we read it, which was very difficult for me. It was scary reading my writing especially since I couldn’t edit.
I think I’m going to keep attending. It will improve my writing, but I’ll also be able to work on my brain injury challenges. It’s two for the price of one!