by Mark Yates, graduate student

Most writers know the feeling. After several deep breaths and a few minutes of almost painful concentration, the first few words emerge. They bring more. Our fingers dance over keyboards and tap out the rhythm of our thoughts. We harmonize with our ideas as they appear on the computer screen as if by magic.

Then our pinkies slip. We backspace to correct the error, only to find the sustained epiphany we just had is gone. Our ideas grow big and cumbersome, lopsided and impossible to describe. We repeat the same three words over and over, trying desperately to get them to work. But it is too late. We're stuck.

Writer's block was one of the topics Portland author Sallie Tisdale (Stepping Westward, Talk Dirty to Me) covered in a graduate literary nonfiction writing workshop offered by the School of Journalism and Communication from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19. Because Tisdale's work often focuses on deeply personal issues and has received widespread acclaim, she was invited to the University to share her experience and suggestions. The participants came from the School and the professional world. Literary nonfiction grad students sat next to professional master's students, who sat next to editors and reporters.

It was the third in the "Writing About..." writing workshop series featuring notable authors recruited by professor Lauren Kessler, director of the School's literary nonfiction program. Portland author Robin Cody (Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River) led a workshop on Writing About the Natural World, while journalist/author Spencie Love (One Blood) taught master's students to write about the past.Two intensive workshops are scheduled every year. John Daniel (Looking After: A Son's Memoir) gave a Writing About Loss workshop in January, and novelist Karen Karbo will present Writing About Relationships in the fall of 1998.

"The story is in the details." --Sallie Tisdale

The weekend workshops are made possible with a gift endowment by the Hearst Foundation to bring professionals into the classroom.

During Tisdale's workshop, the eclectic group of writers learned how to avoid the pitfalls often associated with the personal essay. Many were surprised by some of Tisdale's unconventional techniques.

For instance, to handle writer's block, Tisdale suggested drawing. She handed out crayons, colored pencils and sheets of newsprint to the 12 students who had given up their weekend to meet with her. Sometimes you need to stimulate other areas of the brain, she said, adding that coloring can help with that.

Staid and used to fighting their own cognitive battles, the collection of students slowly picked up the elementary art utensils. Soon the waxy rubbing of crayons and the sound of paper sliding over the tables replaced skeptical sighs and shrugs. As a professional writer, Tisdale recognized how difficult it can be to stare at a computer for hours at a time. A great deal of the workshop centered on novel approaches to uncogulating creative clots.

However, the meat of the workshop focused on generating ideas for extended personal essays. Tisdale encouraged the participants to explore their feelings and embrace the challenge of writing about difficult experiences. One of the participants wrote about a runaway daughter, another about abortion, another about being adopted. Tisdale told all of them to carefully examine the relationship between the personal and the universal, to watch for the details that would bring the reader into the writer's experience.

She also discussed writing about memory. Some of the participants wrote about events that happened when they were children, while others wrote about events that happened just last year. Tisdale advised writers to take the time to map out the past.

Sometimes it is helpful to actually draw a map of the story or the setting, she said. Drawing can help to really see the connections between different events. She reminded the group to slow down while they wrote -- to take the time to recall what an alley smelled like, what kinds of noises filled a room or how a hospital gown felt against the skin.

"The story is in the details," she said more than once.

By the end of the third day, each of the participants had a story for her or his personal essay. They had sacrificed their weekend to struggle with free-writing, the composition of leads and editing each other's work. Then all they had to do was write the essays. With luck, none would have to wrestle with writer's block.