Scarsdale Writers Critique Groups Offer a Safe Haven

The Scarsdale Library runs Writing Critique Groups to encourage local writers to explore new writing approaches, gain new insights and to provide them with a warm and supportive writing community. Lynn Beville, one of the participants, shared these thoughts on what the experience has meant to her:

As a nine year old in the 1950's, attending North Broadway School #2 (now a site of corporate offices), I used to slip, undetected into the second floor school library. This library was tiny, situated above the school nurse's office on the first floor. My plan was to be alone in the little space, lined with shelved books. I managed to do so, intent on reading the then controversial picture book about "Little Black Sambo". What an intrigue it was to peruse the pages of a story I knew both my parents and teachers would rather I not know about. How did I know this? Children pick up on grown-up's secrets and they grasp the innuendo too.

As children morph into adults, they sometimes harbor and deeply cherish the inclinations to read and write stories that have been sheltered in intrigue. But it seems both vaguely and imminently dangerous to do this, unless one can find a safe little place where uncovering or leaking secrets can take place. This is especially significant in post-adolescent adulthood because that is where the longest held stories are hovering.

I cherished for many years, both the intrigue and potential for re-visiting the quiet secret feeling I had in that tiny school library. I cherished concealed meaning in the writing of symbols in poetry. I relished the withholding of my life's secrets, and some leaking of them too. I found outlets for uncovering and catacombs for burying revelations in writing. Public and university libraries became favorite places to find refuge and solace.

Considerable vulnerabilities lurk wherever stories have been held back. Thus, a lot is at stake when the amateur writer opens up the backwash of untold tales and lets them flow out into the light of scrutiny.

I've ventured into several writing circles to gingerly leak out held back stories, some written, some circling, in the belfries waiting to be released. Workshops and writing circles are where writers can sharpen their talons of skill, toughen their skin for critique and advance their standing from amateur to professional; from obscure to recognized, in the coveted realm of being published. My experience in workshops over the years has varied from shockingly frontal to gently awakening. In some, peers have been supportive, in others the instructor has been supportive.

In semi-transition from a large writing community to a smaller one, I've discovered a writing group at the Scarsdale Library, facilitated by a working and published author. This branch of the Westchester Library system offers a welcome refuge from the hectic world we occupy. Although I am surrounded by staff and patrons when I arrive there, I am able to recall the quiet place feeling I had in my Elementary School library.

Barbara Josselsohn, a much respected instructor manages to encourage growth and literary mobility among the ranks of writers who trust their development to her. She instructs through skillful orientation, taking inspiration from, and giving inspiration to the process.

Very fortunately for me, the writers who have been drawn to this Scarsdale Library Club (one of several, by the way) are especially supportive to each other. They show respect for the challenge writing poses to the writer. I have found the safe haven for leaking out secrets that ride waves of vulnerability.

Lynn Beville is a retired school social worker (Westchester systems: New Rochelle, Yonkers, Mt. Vernon). She is also a veteran of Westchester Child Welfare systems and NY State Dept. of Mental Health. She used art and children's literature extensively in her work and has written and performed poetry with live music for many years. She has been a member of Sarah Lawrence Writer's Institute since the 1990's.