writing
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The most important thing you can do for yourself as a writer is to show up for yourself and then, keep showing up. I came close to stopping posting altogether recently. I thought perhaps it was time for a break. Maybe I had lost direction, maybe I needed to step away for a while. But… Read more
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Yesterday, my second poem was published in Flare Issue 32. It’s called Searching for the Stillness. When I wrote it, I was searching for something. I was asking myself, what is my purpose? I spent a lot of time in my head, thinking about life and meaning, sometimes so caught up in the questions that… Read more
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This third break has been different. I’ve stepped away with more awareness of the break itself and what happens when I stop writing. I’ve been keeping a few questions in mind: What did the break give me? What was it like not writing? What am I bringing back with me? Has anything shifted, even slightly?… Read more
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On 22 June, a friend and I started body doubling. The idea was simple. We would work alongside each other. No complicated system. No checking up on each other. No reporting back. Just two people quietly getting on with their own work. At first, I thought the benefit would be obvious. I would get more… Read more
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I’ve been thinking about rejection. Not the dramatic kind. Just the quiet little emails that arrive after you’ve sent something you’ve spent time making. Thank you for your submission… Unfortunately….. Not this time….. I’ve had a few of those recently. And, if I’m honest, they sting. Because there is something vulnerable about sending your writing… Read more
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I was chatting to my writing friend Anne about first drafts. We both agreed: they are hard. Not just a bit tiring hard. They are a beast of a thing. It feels a little like giving birth to some strange creature that you don’t entirely recognise. You have spent all this time creating it, feeding… Read more
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I’ve been thinking about what happens when we grow. Not the slow, steady kind of growth that is almost invisible while it’s happening. I mean the sudden kind. The kind where, almost without noticing, you find yourself finishing things you would once have abandoned. Writing more. Creating more. Sharing more. Becoming more visible. A Creative… Read more
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Second post of the day, to satisfy the scientist-researcher part of me. Yesterday, I thought finishing would feel like sunshine. Today, I finished. And drew a turd. 💩 I couldn’t help becoming curious about what had actually happened. Why did reaching the end of something I’d worked so hard on not feel like the moment… Read more
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Yesterday, I was hopeful. The end was in sight. I had spent weeks writing, thinking, rewriting, questioning, changing things, finding new ideas and occasionally wondering why I had ever decided that writing a research paper was a good idea. But yesterday, I could almost see the finish line. There was a little bit of excitement.… Read more
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There is a particular kind of fog that arrives at the end of creative work. I have started to call it the finishing fog. It is not the fog of not knowing what to do. It is not writer’s block. In fact, quite often, I know exactly what needs to happen. I just don’t want… Read more