Keeping Our Writing Feet On The Ground
May 1, 2008 | 5 Comments
What image comes to mind when you think of “balance”?
For me, it’s standing bare foot on warm earth or sand, toes gently curling into the ground, arms outstretched to steady myself. It’s physical balance, but also connection back down to things that are real, physical, tangible. It’s rooting myself back to the present moment. It’s that sense of release we get when we’re present, grounded, here.
But what do I mean when I talk about keeping our writing feet on the ground?
Just that writing can help to keep us present, grounded, here.
Carving out the space to write - not for other people, not to promote our business, or to explain a big idea, or make connections but just for ourselves - well that can help us keep our feet on the ground.
Because with that kind of writing there’s:
- No right or wrong: in structure, style, grammar and writing rules, just the words that want to be written
- No right or wrong: in the content, in the feelings, thoughts, memories or dreams that we’re writing
- No past or future: just you, here, now. Pen moving over paper.
- No need for analysis and abstraction: you can focus right down on to the the present moment. This place, this fragment of time. This rock of the boat, the buzz of the engine, this warm mug of tea, this smell of cooked bacon… That’s all.
- No need to explain or justify: it’s just your words on the page, and the way your face changes as you write them: the wicked glint in your eye, a smile of remembered delight, a sudden flood of tears.
It’s easy to get lost in the swirl of ideas, information, thoughts, actions, and emotions that run through each day. (Heck, never mind day: that run through each hour!) Easy to lose our way and easy to lose our sense of balance.
Writing - personal writing in your own writing space - is a simple way to reconnect back to the present moment. To feel and to write the way you feel now, never mind the whys and wherefores. To let some stuff go and just… be.
To feel our toes uncurl, notice the warmth of the sand, feel our weight shift and settle. To know we’re grounded, present, here. And to stand up tall again.
Photo credit: Miguel Ariel Contreras Drake-McLaughlin
7 ways to spice up your writing
April 1, 2008 | 6 Comments
The relationship you have with your writing is just like any other relationship.
Sometimes you need a bit of TLC to freshen things up, keep things sweet or bring the flames of passion back to life.
Here are 7 things you can do to spice up the relationship with your words:
1. Try something new: experiment a bit, try out a different style, some new content, different outlets, a completely new genre. Even small changes can make a difference – try varying the usual length of your sentences and see what happens…
2. Add some heart: sometimes we feel like we’re just writing the same old same old, repeating and recycling other people’s words – or our own. Imagine dipping deep into your heart when you’re starting to write. What words would you bring out?
3. Use all your senses: get stuck into the detail of your experience and write it with all your senses. It’ll get you away from what you think to what you really feel: the taste of an experience, the shivers it sends down the skin on your arm, the music it plays in your heart
4. Take a risk: what is it that you’ve always wanted to write, but haven’t found the words, the courage or the heart to write – until now?
5. Indulge yourself: if you’re tired of writing to please others take some time to write just for you. Get a new journal. Start a private blog. Let your words drip with self-indulgence. Write just whatever you want.
6. Pay attention to the little things: focus on the detail of the place, the person, the emotion you’re writing and you’ll bring it back to life, for you and your reader. Look deep into the heart of the flower picture here – what do you see, imagine, feel? Tell me about the tiniest point of details, that smudge of yellow pollen, the memory of its stain on your finger tips. Write yourself into the detail and lose yourself in the heart of the experience.
7. Remember why it matters: forget your words, your craft, your style. Focus on what you’re writing, why you’re writing, who you’re writing for. Let yourself fall into the emotion you’re trying to evoke, in your reader or in your self: belief, hope, courage, laughter, love. Let the feeling run through your veins. Revel in it. And then, and only then, pick up your pen and write.
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alesun1/What Do You Dream About Writing?
March 3, 2008 | 8 Comments
Are you ready to share your writing fantasies?
Now I’m not talking here about the dream where you chuck in your job and make a fortune as a best-selling author. (Apparently more people in Britain dream about being a writer than any other job – I wonder what the figure would be in your part of the world?)
And I’m not talking about the books you might already have in the pipeline – the ones you’re thinking about, half-writing in your head, mentally slotting in for a year or two from now. I’ve got a few of those of my own – books about the work I do, ideas I’ve got for spreading the word and inspiring people to write in as many different ways as I can think of.
They might not all get written, but I know – somehow – that some of them will, that there’s a serious intention and a positive reason to write them, and that if I manage my time and energy I will.
No I’m talking about the writing that’s a much wilder kind of dream altogether.
Writing that has nothing to do with what you’re currently about, who you’re being, what you’re doing.
Writing that’s something you’ve always wanted to do, since childhood maybe, but never thought you could.
Writing that makes you smile, secretly, just at the thought of it.
Perhaps it’s poetry. The family memoirs. A loving history of the place where you live.
A children’s book maybe. Or perhaps you’re one of those creative geniuses who could illustrate a children’s book. (Now that’s something I could happily fantasise about.)
Short stories perhaps? I know a lot of people who have that on their list of ‘going to do some day’. And for some it’s to get their short stories published – and that’s part of the dream – but for others it’s the sheer fun of writing, the pleasure of mastering the form.
And mine?
I’ve got two.
One’s a crime novel. Perhaps it’s because crime’s my favourite form of escapist reading. Or because a good crime novel is so well constructed, so tightly written. Or because I live in Edinburgh, where the narrow streets are the perfect setting for gothic horror or modern noir.
The other’s historical romance. Totally over the top, feisty-female bodice-ripping historical romantic nonsense. Because it would be fun, because it would really test the range of my writing, because it would connect with a totally different part of my writing self.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get round to writing these books or even to experimenting with the forms. And you know, it doesn’t really matter. I enjoy the idea of them, playing with the possibility in my mind, knowing there’s always more and different I could write – as and when I want to.
How about you? Do you have books in mind that you ‘know’ you’re going to write… and others that you really dream about?
Writing to sustain the heart
February 1, 2008 | 7 Comments
Heartstrings:
1. The deepest feelings, the strongest affections
2. One of the nerves or tendons formerly believed to brace and sustain the heart
I love checking the dictionary before I start to write. It often provides just the inspiration that I was looking for.
And I love the idea of having something inside that will brace and sustain my heart (heaven knows it’s needed at times!) It might not be a nerve or a tendon, but our words and our writing can be used for the same effect. To brace and sustain our fragile, human hearts.
Most of this writing is deeply personal, and may never go beyond the pages of our journals. But it’s still writing. The search for the words, the act of putting pen to paper at those times when we need to:
Celebrate: there’s nothing like a burst of love to want to write, to create, to spill the most exuberant words on to the page. I’ve written many a love poem that’s never been shared (wisely so!) but I loved writing them, and enjoy looking back on them now
Grieve: writing it down can help us to process the grief, to name it, then let it go. These tear-stained writings are often kept private – but may be some of the most powerful things we ever write.
Express: we write to express and to communicate, not just our ideas but our emotions and feelings, to open up a window into a corner of our heart. We’re often scared to reveal something of ourselves in this way – but we nearly always feel better when we do
Connect: when we write ‘out loud’ our words will connect, will resonate with others. Writing provides a connection, a heart-string that ties us to others – that makes us stronger, and sustains the heart
Rant: some of those darkest moods, of anger, frustration, bitterness, regret – well they can turn into true, dark, bitter, searing prose. They’re words we keep to ourselves – but seeing them, writing them – well it reminds us of our power – in our words, in our selves.
Learn: the search for the right word or phrase, the hunt for the right expression, it’s not just writing but learning – about how we feel, about what hurts and what inspires, what connects and what feels broken. We learn as we write – and when we look back at what we’d once written.
Tell: this one can be scary too, but just think of how many notes, letters, odes, novels, poems have been written to try and tell another how we feel. And try as we might to craft the perfect prose - it’s the plainest, simplest words that always ring most true.
Remember: our words remain long after the passion is spent, the tears dried or the broken heart mended. They remind us of how things once were, how we once were, how those feelings shaped, moulded, changed us.
Our words remain as a constant, a lingering reminder, a string that remains – bracing and sustaining the heart.
Photo courtesy of sidereal on Flickr
Opportunity: the start of a new page
January 1, 2008 | 2 Comments
Starting to write is like the start of anything new – we’re never entirely sure where it’s going to take us. Sometimes the blankness of the page can get in the way of getting started, and we need some hints, some suggestions, some reminders, to get us underway.
At those times of stuckness I often turn to the dictionary to get me started, exploring the meanings and associations of a word to find a pathway through. This time was no different. “Opportunity” I typed. Opportune, the dictionary came back: a fitting time. A favourable combination of circumstances. A possibility.
Perfect.
Because January is a fitting time indeed. The start of a New Year, a time of resolutions, of new beginnings. A time when we look hard at the things we want to make happen in the months ahead.
And writing, our use of words, well that can help us to achieve those goals, make a reality of those dreams. Maybe that’s writing to promote our business, to make connections with new clients or business partners. Or maybe your writing will be the project – something you’ve been planning for a while, like starting a blog, or some travel writing, or a family memoir.
Building the space to write into your year ahead can help you achieve those goals.
But writing doesn’t just help us to make things happen – it helps to open up new possibilities. Because the more we write – expressing our ideas, our thoughts, values, dreams – the more we come to understand ourselves. We learn from what we write. Come to recognise what’s important to us.
And the more we know ourselves, well the more we open up the door to what might and will be possible.
Because as we write, so our words resonate with others. Make a connection. Our words intertwine. And people we might never have met and might never meet who will come to recognise the possibility of working, studying and learning together with us, of exploring new ideas, of creating new opportunities – and then making them happen.
Writing our way into a new set of possibilities.
The New Year offers the promise of a fresh start, a new chapter, a clean page.
In the words of poet Edith Lovejoy Pierce:
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
Enjoy the start of the New Year, and putting your words on that page.
Get Ready to Celebrate with the Gift of Words
December 2, 2007 | 4 Comments
I don’t know about you but getting into the right frame of mind, the right emotional state, can make a huge difference to my experience and enjoyment of celebrations. It’s the feelings that make all the difference – and are what we hold on to long after the event. The magical blend of anticipation, excitement and gratitude. The moments when we’re overwhelmed by our emotions - from profound thankfulness to exuberant delight.
And what I like best are the feelings just before a celebration gets going. It’s as if there are bubbles of possibility just waiting inside us – like the fizz in the champagne bottle, waiting for the cork to fly.
And as I thought about those feelings of anticipation ahead of a celebration – well I started to wonder how writing, and words, could help us to get ready. Because for me, writing changes the way that I feel. It changes my emotional state. Sometimes I can get those feelings of excitement, of wonder, of gratitude, of anticipation, of exuberant delight – just from the words on a page, my own, or someone else’s. And I realised that there were plenty ways that we can help get ourselves ready to celebrate – through the simple gift of words.
Here are some possibilities:
- Notice the words that other people gift you. Slow down enough to notice the positive words, the specific words that people use to describe you, to thank you, to notice and value you
- Take care with the words that you give to others. Take a few extra minutes to choose your words, to find just the right expression. It’s just like choosing a gift – and can often mean so much more.
- Be generous with your words. Take the time to write – a note, a card, an e-mail, a letter. Small acts of generosity can generate a powerful sense of well-being in the sender as well as the receiver!
- Be specific. Whether you’re writing for others or yourself – be specific with your language, pick the precise word that captures the essence of that person you treasure, that experience you want to capture, that moment you want to record.
- Write what you’re grateful for. Spend a few minutes each day writing down the things that you’re grateful for. However bad things are – there’s always one thing. And by writing even that one small thing – well it can shift your state, and help you to feel good, and grateful
- Switch off your negative words. What we write affects the way that we feel. The more time we spend on the good stuff the better we feel. Practice switching your language to more positive talk – especially when it’s about yourself. You’ll soon start to get the message.
- Connect to your intuition. Watch for words that give you a tingle, a shot of recognition and pleasure when you write them. They’re significant – they mean something to you, are valuable, somehow. Treasure them.
- Play with your words. Experiment with more celebratory language: words like funky, jazzy, exuberant. Notice how you feel better just by writing them? I can’t write the word jazzy without a wiggle and a smile.
- Tap into your celebrated memories. Write about some of the special times that you remember from the past – capture the detail of what happened, what you did, how you felt – notice how you’re starting to feel that way again as you write?
- Write the moment. Write about a moment, real or imagined, of wild, joyful, exuberant celebration. And capture the detail of how it feels in that moment: where you feel that mood of celebration, whether it’s the flush on your cheeks, the bubbles of excitement inside, or the quiet, insistent upward curl of your mouth as you start to smile the broadest of smiles…
Hmm. Blissful. I’m feeling so much better just writing this list!
Our words, our language, our writing – well for me, it’s a gift. And we can choose to use it – to give to others, and to give, most generously, to ourselves. To write our way into a celebratory frame of mind. To get ready to celebrate before any party. To learn how to feel good – not just for the holidays, but for the whole of the year.
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