encouragement for the journey
There is a strange tension in writing this book. See the topic is grief. It involves delving into the hard stuff. It is not easy to write. When I do get words on paper it is inevitably draining.
Naturally this means I often find myself in creative procrastination, in order to avoid being emotionally battered by what I am writing.
This school year we are choosing a weekly theme, as a family. One of the early weeks of school was “happy” week as a way to get everyone adjusted to the school routine. Another week was dubbed “kind” week for obvious reasons!
The girls were very adamant this week should be “space” week. Not in a star-gazing way, but a focus on each member of the family giving the others space. It is that time of the term!
Today I have been thinking about space to write and to be honest I have been struggling. As I feel like I have had little space to write for the last week. But as I pondered those words this morning I remembered again that I am in charge of my own time. So if I have no space to write whose fault is that?
This morning my daughter grabbed some books off the shelf and immersed herself in them. “These are fantastic books mum, come and see”. As I went in, I realised the books she held are books written by my good friend, Elaine Fraser.
Continue reading “on writing, reading and the power of books”
I was asked the other day, if I am getting pleasure from writing this book, at the moment. It is a hard question, because it feels more like it just has to happen. This book has to be written. There is nothing I can do about it, I can write it or I could explode. They are pretty much my options right now.
On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend a gather and grow with Amanda Viviers. An introverted group of writers gathered around the table. All of us came with no clue if we knew anyone or not. All of us came with a desire to learn and an open heart to growth. And so this reticent group slowly and quietly aired their questions, and shared their fragile dreams.
And I came away thinking. “Yes! This is what it is about”.
I have been finding it hard to write lately. At first it was due to the amount of emotional effort that the Rising Strong book club took out of me. Then I had another thing on that was taking up my time, and energy, and then …
But you know, let’s be honest here, while these things are true, actually those are just excuses.
