I started writing for fun again! I haven’t done any creative writing since probably November of 2013, unless you count the creative nonfiction piece I wrote about my wonderful mother. I think in my mind I had at some point, probably after my second NaNoWriMo, unconsciously associated writing with word counts and deadlines and typing gibberish even though I wasn’t in the mood. Thinking that way was the only way, I sort of shut it down completely.
But it started creeping back in, especially over the past few weeks. I spoke to a friend who wants to move to Spain and write his novel. I found some old snippets and scenes on my computer and didn’t completely hate them. Another friend talks about her daily writing practice and has given her book of essays a publication date in her mind. I read a piece that asked you to remember what it was you loved to do when you were very young.
So on Sunday, eating brunch by myself at my favourite café, I took out a notebook and started writing. It made me feel so good that I found a podcast on writing that I listened to while walking and bought a new notebook for writing scribbles on my way home. Later the podcast sparked a conversation with a friend of mine and she told me about the fan fiction she used to write.
It’s been so fun these last few days to just write, to practice, to live in a little world of my own making. It’s been great to let myself completely off hooks of any kind and just enjoy it without worrying about how much I need to write or what I’ll do with it. It’s been freeing (and laughably obvious) to realize that I don’t have to be a published novelist as my career or do absolutely no writing, but can find a little sweet spot for myself somewhere in between.
In the spirit of the thing, here are some links to awesome writing inspiration I’ve found or re-visited lately:
All Write Already is “a completely unpretentious literary podcast” where they talk about writing and interview authors about things like their writing processes and thoughts about storytelling. I’ve listened to a few episodes now and have found inspiration in every one so far.
I used to follow Sarah Selecky a lot more closely, back when I wrote more, and had subscribed to her daily writing prompts. This week I revisited her site and found this gem of an article about writing longhand (which I’ve been loving) and signed up for her twice-monthly letters.
I haven’t read either of his novels, but on the recommendation of two friends with impeccable literary taste, I read Junot Diaz’s short story A Cheater’s Guide to Love this week and liked it a lot.
I also used to read Fiction Fridays by Rachel on the Elephantine blog. She would post a scene or a poem on her blog each Friday and they were always very inspiring and very good. She’s since stopped because she’s working on her novel but I read through some of the archive this week and enjoyed them as ever. I don’t think I’m ready to do something similar on my blog here, but maybe one day..
Happy Wednesday!
