The Art of Freefall

In Writing Without a Parachute: The Art of Freefall, respected writing teacher Barbara Turner-Vesselago shows both beginning and experienced writers how to get the thinking mind to step aside, so that writing becomes a truly vulnerable and open-hearted engagement with the moment.

For the first time, Barbara Turner-Vesselago shares in print the method by which she has helped hundreds of writers to publish fiction, memoir, nonfiction and poetry worldwide.

By means of five simple precepts, she leads the writer step by step into developing real trust in writing through the art of Freefall.

1. Write what comes up for you.
2. Don't change anything.
3. Give all the sensuous detail.
4. Go where the energy is.
5. The Ten Year Rule.

As the name suggests, Freefall invokes the courage to fall without a parachute into the words as they come, into the thoughts before they have fully formed in the mind, into the unplanned structures that take shape, without prompting, to contain them. Ultimately, this book shows you how to connect with your deepest intention in writing and to write with authority and grace.

"I always thought I could only do journalism, not creative writing, until I discovered Barbara and Freefall."
– Iola Matthews, OAM, author of My Mother, My Writing and Me: A Memoir and Chequered Lives

"Read this book whether you want to be a professional writer or, more likely, someone – basically all of us – who needs to find and hear their own voice – and let it flow – so that your life will also flow."
– Richard Moss, author of The Mandala of Being and Inside Out Healing

About the Author

Barbara Turner-Vesselago has published two nonfiction books in Canada, Skelton at Sixty and Freefall. She has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge and has taught at universities in the UK, US, Canada, Nigeria and Australia. Since 1992, she has been leading highly effective Freefall Workshops throughout the English-speaking world. In 2019, she published How to Talk About Writing: A Fundamental Shift in Perspective with Vivid Publishing.