What is The Thought Experiment?
The Thought Experiment is a creative writing group program originally created during my time at the Otisville Satellite Camp, in Otisville, New York. Its participants met weekly to share stories, poems, and insights written during the week, either based on a group prompt or a feeling of need. For new participants and The Thought Experiments’ place for future iterations, we created a mission statement. The mission statement set the stage for
- How to run the Thought Experiment groups
- What participants should expect to get from the groups
- What they are to give to the group
The mission statement:
The Thought Experiment Creative Writing Group is a creative outlet built on mutual respect for the written word. We offer space for feedback, support, comradery, and mentorship, to transform thought, intellect, and the voice of writers into vessels of expression.Throughout the writing process we have patience and an open ear, and provide room for questions as well as answers.
During my time there I found that Saturday mornings became my favorite time. We would meet in a small space, right after lunch. As the group matured, so did the relationships among participants and the written word.
Stories became fuller, with deeper levels of content, and deeper levels of vulnerability. In this group we found, what we could not find anywhere else at camp, truth, solidarity, and purpose without the expectation to be anything or anyone other than who we were.
We wrote to leave Otisville, if only for a moment, to explore distant places, or to travel back in time, to a memory, that surfaced, needing a bit of page time to dive deeper and expel pain. We allowed each other to remain, men, as our voices broke and tears were wiped away with harsh water-chapped hands. There was no judgment.
Our last judgment put us there. Judgment will come again, once we leave. During that time, it was a No Judgement Zone, only support, and constructive criticisms.
Below are my contributions to Thought Experiment, As I get more submissions, I will add them here. I hope you enjoy them. Please leave positive comments.
