Soul Writing and Me!
I’ve been a freelance journalist for about eleven years, and whether it’s writing for a daily, monthly or news blog, my formula is the same. I need to write my articles before I type them. Why? Well it may be long and laborious, and sometimes I can’t read my writing, which does resemble an elderly spider on speed, but I need to see the words form. Not in some digital way, but in the way that a rollerball glides over a sheet of virgin white paper. As loops, squiggles and dots replace actual words, my brain is reacting in different ways. It sees connections, adds footnotes or blindly refuses to accept the words I’ve written.
Writing longhand makes me smarter and faster. I can doodle if I’m stuck for a word or can’t quite get a sentence to sit right. Multi-tiered boxes or daisies adorn the edges of my work as my brain hops over obstacles like a well-trained showjumper. There’s magic I can’t contain. I love words, and words belong on paper. They talk to you, whisper messages and take me along paths that I would never travel if I just sat in front of my laptop. To me, my computer is faceless, it does a job, no more no less! But it doesn’t speak to me or offer me tantalising glimpses of creativity.
Do I write left or right-handed, I can do both, but each hand changes the effect. My left hand is neater and more chronological, my right is messy, with lines, dashes and dots creating a crazy shorthand that even the Chinese gave up on when I used to write to my brother in China. So, I use my left hand for practical, no-nonsense writing, freeing up my right for creative meanderings, thoughts and dreams. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but my desk is set up more for my left-hand scribblings than right. Because……….when I want to be creative, I don’t want to be tied to my desk. I need to be free, to lay back, dream, think of characters, have conversations in my head, and in my office, I can’t do that. So, I do my creative writing while I’m sitting in on the couch, with a mug of coffee beside me and possibly a cat or two resting against my feet.
But I have to be on the right side of the couch and to write effectively I have to have the right pen and a special notebook. Call me crazy, but having the right tools makes all the difference. I like thin nibbed pens that scroll not scratch. I can only write in hard-backed notebooks with borders I can doodle and make notes. I only write on the right-hand page so I can make notes, amendments and even re-write whole scenes on the left-hand page, but above all, I love watching the words form and flow as ideas, thoughts, conversations and characters tumble out of my mind and onto the page. It therapeutic, cathartic, and when I do finally type it up, I am already working on my second draft.
Digital may be faster, but the pen gives me time, time to think, loosen up and tap into the recesses of my mind I ever knew existed.
It’s a skill that is being lost. It’s like a lover you can’t quite remember. It’s our heritage, our history. We all need to write! We just sometimes need a nudge in the right direction.
For me, I have to have the right tools. I love playing around with different pens, colours and moods. I used to like scented jelly ball pens. Colours inspire me as black and blue can be boring. The pen has to sit nicely in may hand, and it needs to have a mind of its own, it needs to make me feel creative, bold and daring.
My notebooks also have to be inspiring. When I was younger, I went to a school where you had to design and make your schoolbooks; so for me, I’m always looking for something creative, unusual and occasionally twee.
Until you share it, writing is personal so don’t be afraid to experiment, if dancing unicorns are your thing, then buy the notebook. No one has to know its for you and not your daughter.
I always carry a pen and notebook with me. It’s easier to set up than a laptop, especially if I want to scribble down a few words before I forget them. And with no social media to distract me, it is incredible how much I can achieve and how much more focused I am.
Enjoy, enjoy watching the words form on the page. This isn’t cold hard type; it is your soul, your very essence that is unfurling before you.