I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love words, reading or writing them. I get lost in my own world of characters and I have to be pulled back into the real world (sometimes begrudgingly). So I am in the process of getting those worlds onto paper. It is a roller coaster of an experience, sometimes I think I am the best writer in the world just undiscovered, or I plummet and think of myself as an impostor.
But, I have recently joined the Hastings Writing Group and just being amongst other writers has given me the push in my back to really try to take my writing from just a hobby to long-held dream of being a writer as my job. I have some time to really try to invest more of myself into the world of writing and I have found the more I write, the more I want to write. Whether it’s good or bad is not really the point, it is the key way I find I can be myself, to express what goes on in my mind; and also to be brave and take risks creatively. I am still in that safe place where being a writer is a pleasant experience, no critics, no rejections or push backs against my ideas. So obviously I have a lot more to learn, but I have just always loved the world of writing.
Books for me, are the best way to escape and when you find a good one, it leaves a mark. The experience of reading, the physical act of turning a page or even picking up a book is one that always makes me buy books, even when my bookshelf is overwhelmed and I have to start piling them up in corners of the house.
I find it satisfying when I have finished a good book and I hope that my work would be like that for someone else. Storytelling became even more important to me when my two boys were born, I surround them with books and thankfully, they both like stories as much as I do and it’s fascinating to see that children respond so well to being read to.
I get an itch to write if I haven’t written in a while, so I have a few projects in my mind, one is a tale of Kingdom in its death throes or its rebirth depending on who wins the battle, the other is a short story on loss particularly when someone goes missing and the final project is a series of grown up princess stories for those who like me love Disney Films. I am hoping they will be darker and truer to life, but also still retain some of the Disney magic somehow. So this is the hard bit, I actually have to finish these projects and that’s the next challenge for me, it is to get it done. To stop distracting my self with Facebook and Pinterest and actually get them done. To stop putting them off with excuses and focus and use my time constructively…well that’s the plan anyway!
I also bought my self a drop spindle and some wool and I am loving it! It is definitely not as easy as it looks and my yarn is so uneven but you have to start somewhere right? It is quite therapeutic and once I start spinning I can’t just do a little bit and let it go, and dinner has been late a couple of times because I haven’t managed to put it down in time! I have also just realised that I will have all this yarn and nothing to do with it, so I have set myself another challenge, to learn how to either knit/weave/crochet. I will have to find out what I can do and what suits my creativity.
So, this is me trying to lead a more creative life and finding out what life is like without the children constantly around me (a little strange and sometimes I have to admit a little boring) but I am beginning to see the possibilities that are opening up before me. I am hoping to include creativity as naturally as I do breathing and see how it reflects who I am and the world around me.
Time to take another step forward.
Writing, Reading, Living 