LAKE COUNTY – “Write badly!”

Can you imagine a teacher saying this to aspiring writers, and meaning it?

That’s exactly what Clive Matson will do Saturday, Oct. 10, and Sunday, Oct. 11, at the Lakeport Arts Council's Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St., Lakeport.

Can he be serious? We should “Write badly”?

“I‘m serious as a heart attack,” says Matson. “Write badly, and write a lot!”

He has eight books of poetry, a tutorial, “Let the Crazy Child Write!,” and numerous stories and essays among his publications.

“There’s no better way to short-circuit the critical and editorial voices in our minds,” Matson says.

He waves a portfolio of exercises aimed at stifling those voices. He’s used them all in his more than 35 years of teaching here in Lake County, at University Extension in Berkeley, at private workshops in the Bay Area, and at venues abroad.

Those analytical voices have a way of stopping our unique, blessed creativity before it gets going. They do at times need serious remedies to quiet them. They’ve been well trained by our school system, by our parents who told us to get real jobs, by the teachers who said our talents for sure lay elsewhere.

But 99 percent of the brain’s activity is unconscious. And in this realm lies more inspiration and creativity than you can shake a stick at. In anyone. In everyone.

There’s so much creativity there we don’t have a chance of bottoming out. Even if you write twice as much as Shakespeare!

You might think the unconscious is full of dark, chaotic, troubling material, but once it starts coming out, you may be in for a surprise. Lightness, playfulness, awe, passion, jumping images and stories, full of an intelligence all their own. Be prepared to learn from the power of what comes pouring out of you. It’s often a great surprise.

The goal is to get in touch with that unconscious energy. These inspirational workshops teach you to write from the “itch in your body.” And write whatever it suggests. The editorial voices, which we all need, rightfully come after the first draft is down on paper, after it’s gone through all its rough glory.

Clive Matson has used these techniques for 35 years, and been the midwife to many novels, poems, stories and essays. He continues to be the guide to inspiration for a number of writers and writers’ groups in and around Lake County.

You can read Matson’s work at www.matsonpoet.com and peruse the first chapter of “Let the Crazy Child Write!” (New World Library, 1998). Or pick up a copy at the book store next to the gallery and begin the creative explosion when you “Write badly!”

The class begins on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and writing and feedback sessions continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with a break for potluck lunch.

To sign up for the class or to get more information, contact the Lake County Arts Council, 325 N. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-6658, or call Clive Matson at 510-654-6495 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

This event is supported by Poets & Writers Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.