Louise Cabral, BIOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY AS A TEACHER OF WRITING

I retired from high school teaching where I had taught speech and drama, English and creative writing after twenty-five years as an employee of the Los Angeles public school system. I knew I wanted to do my own writing and I was already deeply involved in the discipline of creating novels. I figured that and my love for the piano which I practiced every day would keep me busy and happy. It did but there was something missing: live people. I had a feeling I was not through with teaching and I began looking for other venues in which I might get involved with others in that capacity.

What would I want to teach now, I wondered. I could teach drama but I was already pretty exhausted from putting on major productions in the high school auditorium. I could certainly teach creative writing since I have been a writer all my life, first with poetry, then with short stories and finally with novels. I kept a personal journal for years of both my work and my life and I knew how important and therapeutic that had been for me. But that is not so much a subject to teach as it is to guide and encourage. No, I thought, the problem with teaching creative writing would limit me only to those who were in the process of writing or wanted to become writers. I felt ambitious to teach everyone in the world who had the slightest desire to write and carried the dream of writing somewhere in their consciousness for years. That was when I came up with the idea of teaching Lifewriting. After all everyone has lived a life. The only people who would be excluded were the once who didn't want to do. But so many wanted to and simply didn't know how to begin or how to do it. Those are the ones I would teach.

As soon as I got the idea I went into action. I called the Conejo School of Adult education and told them of my plan. "Great idea," was their response. They immediately placed me with a class of eager students in the Goebel Senior Center. The students there were wonderful. Every story they wrote was a gem. In so many cases they came up with memories they didn't even know was there. I never used the word "criticism" or the technique that it means because I consider that a demolition approach. Instead I make gentle suggestions after I have praised the good, effective things they wrote. Through that means, they not only recorded the precious happy and sad experiences of their lives which resulted in cathartic insight into who they were and created a legacy for those who followed, but their writing itself improved so much that many of my students were writing on a professional level.

Wow! I was happy. Now I had it all, my own writing, my piano and wonderful people to teach so that they had an opportunity to know themselves on a level that they never did before. I have been teaching in and near my community now for over twenty years. I have many full page newspaper articles written about my work. I have had many grateful people who have told me that there lives had been changed for the better as a result of the writing they did. I have earned very little money for doing this but my reward is beyond any price that money could bring.

It is only recently that I realized that many who had written or were in the process of writing their life story would like to write novels as well. I certainly was well equipped to teach that, having taught that for years as well and being the author myself of six novels and one book that taught Lifewriting. Some of my students confided in me that they have written poetry for years. Well, I could help them with that too and encourage their work as well. I have written poetry all my life and have a published book of my poems. Then there were those who wanted to write short stories and preferred that form of writing. I used to write romantic stories for a periodical that was at that time, long ago, know as "pulp magazines because the paper on which they were written were made of rough pulp. equipped then, to teach almost any form of writing.

Result will amaze you.

Once I asked myself, if I wasn't a writer what would I want to be? The answer came to me at once. I would want to be a psychologist. I am endlessly fascinated with people with the human consciousness and the subterranean levels of consciousness, sub- consciousness or unconsciousness that exists in all of us. There are so many dimensions and levels to each human being. I am convinced that, in the power of the written world it is possible to explore and know these levels of consciousness we might never have known without that discovery. I have witnessed the changes and insights into self-realization many of my students have attained through their writing and I am dedicated to doing this kind of work for as long as I am able. The book Islands of recall, that I have written (see page---) was meant as a guide for Lifewriting but it contains 48 short stories and principles that apply to the technique of any kind of writing. My novels may not only be used for pleasurable reading but may serve as examples of the technique I use to make my books as suspenseful and exciting as I can.

Now you know how my writing career began, changed and still continued. If you have ever had a thought or a dream of becoming a writer, join us. The results will amaze you.

The widow of renowned artist, Flavio Cabral and the mother of two grown children, she is now married to Judge Paul Wyler, and resides in their home in Agoura, California.