I have been told many times to do something serious about my writing. It has taken me most of my life to actually sit down in that chair before the towering keyboard with all those letters, numbers and signs.
It scares the living daylight out of me to write myself from a writer´s block. It terrifies me into the bones and the bottom of my soul to let go and allow my written material to be made public. And it haunts me in the nights, if I suddenly remember that I forgot a word in a sentence or cut some slack editing those first, second and third drafts.
But all that means nothing at all, when I sit comfortably at my desk, in my witch´s den or in my garden. Or when I get to study people close up at city malls, public places and passers in the street. And it definitely does not affect me when I´m in the process of trying to write something mindful.
What I love about writing is the inner adventure, where there is freedom of speech, quiet peace and inspiration to work with.
I like to let my fingers dance across the keyboard, preferably listening to music depending on my mood that day. I want to make playlists according to the inner feeling of the inspiration from the Muse that I get when I write to the sound of music.
It is as if the world transforms, when everything is set and done before a writing session. It is a voyage through unknown territory. There is only me, my writing gear and whatever background sound I feel comfortable with. Usually, it is music, the mumbling blurbs from the fridge or some episode of dear old Mr Barnaby in Midsummer Murders.
I literally move mentally from one state of consciousness to another. It is the ability to make a Director´s Cut, if only I could pull my stuff together and get that dream of a novel written down. I´m getting closer every day, but still I need time to just write. And read. And rewrite. And then, the last click with the mouse, to go public with my material.
I long for the wild ride again, when a draft is finished and put aside before editing. I need to learn to outline my writing, because I have this irritating side which just loves to procrastinate. And there needs to be some kind of structure when writing, in my belief.
How can you ask for directions, when you are not able to decide where to go ? Well, just another fiction book about somebody´s life, isn´t that old news ? To some people it probably is. That´s my masterplan, when I feel ready to look at some notes I made a couple of years ago. I need to do a lot more outlining and character development work, and I plan to learn much about it this fall.
I love the roller coaster point of view where you have the almighty power to either bring forth crystal clear words that inspire and makes you want to read more. Or to bulldoze everything together in an intangible web of bullshit. Sorry, but that is my best word for bad writing.
I know that I can write well in my second native language English. Thank you dear grandmother, thank you for my great heritage that I in this seldom moment not have the words to show for my feelings of gratitude. My grandmother on my mother´s side was born in the U.S.A. and thus English has always been my kind of playground.
What I love the most about writing is that it makes me feel good about myself. In the world of writing there are only the flaws of the characters and the plot to determine whether this is a bad or a good day. In my oh so very mundane world there are always some degree of physical pain, the mix between high and low when living with a bipolar disorder, and other ailments to consider before making any plans.
And when I feel good about myself, I tend to forget that my back hurts like hell, and that I have to hope for the ups rather than the downs of disorder this and disorder that.
It makes me whole, like with witchcraft and blogging, and I feel that I have accomplished something and so to speak embraced the day with a positive outlook.
This is my stream of consciousness for today :
As I´ve written, I have also walked the little wise old dog and fed the philosophical cats. At this moment, I´m making a new pot of coffee, because without fresh coffee I´m not only a bad writer but also pretty contrary to anything.
It has been challenging to write about my passion for writing, because it is a hell of a lot easier to tell than to show. I strive to include the art of setting the scene and create a certain atmosphere in my writing. And I try my absolute best to write better for every day I write.
The challenge of becoming a writer is irresistible to me. There must be a reason for people liking my writing. I´m prepared to work hard for it and spend the necessary hours reading and rewriting, until I´m ready to present my material.
My writing voice has already evolved, since I began writing on this blog. I´m not so scared anymore to show my writing to others. Constructive criticism is extremely important to me, however, because I like everybody else need some response on my work to be able to keep improving it.
I´m slowly, but surely, getting a much more disciplined view on writing. Nothing is accomplished without effort, and therefore a writer also needs to sit down and get the job done. Also today where my task is to show you – dear reader – why I love to write, so that you hopefully will continue reading.
Break, break, break…
I suddenly need some space, some fresh air, just to leave the words unwritten for a couple of moments. Stream of consciousness is a tricky little devil that plays games with me, when I think I got the feeling and the touch of it. All out of freaking nowhere my Muse took off and left me wanting for more…
Then there is only one way ahead, keep on tapping those letters, keep on writing that first draft without editing until it is ready for that, and keep on believing it is possible to make a dream come true.
In the meantime I found my old notes, oh dear Universe, please help me remember to get organized fast, because this mess I found, there is only one way, to get a grip and to rewrite the lot. Luckily, I have the time and the resources ready for that. I´ve bought a bunch of note books, and have plenty of space left on my laptop for some structure developing about the art of keeping notes organized and thereby useful.
As deadline is closing in by the hour I´m preparing myself for the editing part of the work. It is always an inner fight between me and my Muse. She is a demanding little bossy cow at times, because she shoots down any attempt to jump the fence. But I still can´t help but love her, for she is almost always present in my mind.
I turn up the volume to music, I pour myself another cup of coffee, and as if nothing had happened at all, just as suddenly as she went, she´s back on my shoulder, my Muse is ready to work with me again.
What I love about writing is the whole package. It makes me feel alive, it helps me connect to my inner feelings, and it releases me from the stress of the mundane world of today.
One last thing about loving to write is that if done properly, it has great potential to make people meet across borders, inner and outer walls and whatever masks we wear to protect ourselves. I think it is extremely important that people wake up and try to accomplish that.
There are so many crazy thing going on in the world today, and we can´t count on anybody but ourselves to do something positive about it. Thoughts are yet to be charged for taxes, thank you Universe for that. And I´ll keep writing as long as I´m able to breathe.
Keeping an eye on the word count is, however, an equally necessary ability as are my core principles of writing, always write something you want to read again, and never give up, especially not if in a writer´s block period.
So therefore, dear reader, the last part of today´s post concerns my love about blogging. It´s challenging and funny, it´s also me.
What I love about blogging :
Blogging is a new art form to me. I view it as a kind of running agenda that evolves over time. Without making any mistakes, it would not be so much fun. It demands that you really want to do it, it takes time to accomplish, and it is a whole new world to me.
I´ve only been blogging for a little more than two months, and I´ve already learned that the most important thing for me right now is to create content worth reading.
To dare to begin this new adventure with a new name (Daily Witchcraft in a Writer´s Life), new agendas (writing about the process of writing, blogging and witchcraft at the same time), and new pages (coming soon) is a thrilling journey, because it also shows that I´m not scared of changing directions.
Writing on a blog is somewhat different from that of writing a book or a manuscript for a theater play or a movie. Today there are seemingly a certain structure to keep, certain expectations to meet. I dare to say that rules are meant to be broken from time to time.
I want my writing on my blog to be as genuine as everywhere else. So I break some rules here and there on purpose. I´m in a learning process and want to show my readers that it is okay to make mistakes, the world will not spin more or less around itself.
I also want to keep my personal writing style unmistakably me so that my readers will always be able to know my writing voice from that of any other writer´s.
What I love about blogging is that it is a channel of manifesting what I need to do whether that has to do with writing purposes or my second passion witchcraft.
Speaking of the latter, there is magick in writing too. It is magickal when what you sit and think about becomes alive in front of you. When everything play in the same tune, when there is rhythm and music in the words, and when you just know it feels right.
It also has to feel right when I´m writing content for this blog. I hope to inspire, to share and to communicate what I believe and why. I´m convinced that once I´ve written a couple of months more, you will be able to see a remarkable difference from that of the first stumbling steps that I´ve shown you so far.
There is room for hope and dreams in this world, although it often seems to be on the edge of drowning itself in bullshit from above and all kinds of fake news and boring celebrity gossip.
And I have yet many dreams to achieve here on this blog. There is only one way to do that, sit in that chair, do the writing. Then 500 words a day suddenly becomes 1,000 words at a time without trouble. Yes, I do love writing.
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