About 30 people sat around long tables in the beautiful Dave Brubeck room of the Wilton Library on a chilly night this week listening to Patrick McCord of The Editing Company. 

The Westport resident presented his "Write Yourself Free" workshop, of which similar workshops will be held in February and March at McCord's Westport office.  The "Write Yourself Free" method is advertised as a way for writers to connect to their natural strengths as communicators, so the act of writing feels free, natural, and playful. 

McCord, professorial in sweater vest and loosened tie, opened the evening talking about his own writing crisis, which occurred while he was having trouble finishing his Ph.D. dissertation.  He said he was writing for a specific audience; the professors who would sit in judgment of his work.  He was also afraid there were no jobs for "middle-aged white guys" like him.  He wrote 700 pages… but nothing was working. 

Around the same time, he visited a doctor and was devastated to hear that he had ALS and had only six months to live.  The horrifying diagnosis threw him into a state where any anxiety about writing disappeared in light of much larger concerns about his health, and suddenly his creativity was unblocked. 

The diagnosis, to his great relief, eventually turned out to be bogus, but the resulting emotional jolt helped McCord break through all of his fears about writing the "correct" way.  He threw out all 700 pages and started again, getting to the place where writing was simply "play."  He finished the thesis in two months.  He found new professors who liked what he was doing.  As a result, he completed his thesis, got the doctorate and got a job … and acquired a girlfriend along the way.  Sitting in the back of the room was that very girlfriend, now his fiancée, Tish Fried of The Editing Company, his partner in life and in business.

Of course, McCord doesn't suggest that everyone needs to be diagnosed with a fatal disease in order to respond creatively.  He has other less petrifying techniques to offer. 

It took a few minutes for the assembled would-be writers in the workshop to warm up (literally and otherwise) to the process, but soon folks were speaking up about their goals.  They included everything from a desire to write novels, nonfiction, screenplays and short stories, to getting help deciding what to write.

The group spent the next hour-and-a-half alternating between short bursts of frantic writing –  one exercise focused on writing about "silly magical powers" – and brief lectures by workshop leader McCord.  Participants wrote and shared with their tablemates, and sometimes with the entire group, five-minute stories inspired by one of those silly powers.  The table I sat at came up with an amusing crop of nonsensical tales involving chocolate chip bananas, grapefruits, and the ability to make popcorn pop by whistling.  We must have been hungry.

According to McCord, "Free writing is a way to create new brain cells."  He encouraged us to do it every day, and promised that it would get easier and create better results.

The "free writing" portion of the evening was reminiscent of other creative writing workshops I've attended, where participants were encouraged to ditch the editor in their heads – the one who blurts out statements like, "This is stupid.  No one wants to read what you're writing.  Why are you so slow?" 

There's no doubt that making yourself sit down and simply spew out words can force you to produce – and sometimes the work produced is even worthwhile.  That technique shows up famously Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" where she encourages artists to create "morning pages" every day without worrying about whether or not the writing makes sense.  The idea is that it greases the creative wheels and gets ideas flowing.

The same concept is behind a diabolical website called "Write or Die" where you set a specific amount of words you want to produce in a certain number of minutes, and if you don't keep writing, the screen changes progressively from pale pink to darker pink to bright red until finally you are beset by some horrifying music designed to force you to write something, anything, in order to make it stop.  Make it stop!

Some folks at my table were finding McCord's continued exhortations to keep writing more of a distraction than an inspiration.  His encouragement was much akin to the trainer in the gym who says, "Keep going.  You know you can do it.  Just one more."  Puff puff.  Scribble scribble.  Be quiet, so I can write!

Nevertheless, all of us wrote, and some of us even came up with a complete, if silly, story.  We shared them with our table, and some of us with the group at large.  It was nice to get the applause and the support of like-minded creative types.

"Bring your writing to other people," McCord urged us.  "A group, when they're all on task, is a very supportive place to be."  Several participants are already part of writing groups, and some folks came looking to connect with fellow writers on a long-term basis.

McCord left us with these words: "Empower yourselves.  Play.  Use the tools, lose the rules." 

I've been to a number of writing workshops over the years, from the large and luxurious Hawaii Writers Conference to the intimate and charming Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha's Vineyard.  "Write Yourself Free" falls in the category of inspiring and hands-on, though not touchy-feely.  It isn't the kind of evening designed to give you pointers on literary agents or publishing houses, but it may just get you started – or lift you past a major roadblock and forward along the path to writing success.

The Editing Company offers workshops under the name "Write Yourself Free" in various towns in Fairfield County.  The next free workshop is scheduled for February in their Westport office on a date to be announced, followed by another in March at the Westport Historical Society.