1. On writing again
Dear Readers,
I’m writing again, and today is a writing day. On writing days, I’ll write here first. That’s the plan, let’s see how it goes.
On days when I write begin by journalling a little, to warm up my fingers, which are usually cold, and settle my mind, which is usually full of racket. I use too many commas, but I’m okay with that.
I used to journal just-for-me on Scrivener. If I do it here maybe one of you dear readers will find it useful. And hopefully I’ll learn something.
I’m writing, again, because I can, and because of an intervention. Just before the pandemic I wrote and illustrated a book for children and during the pandemic I wrote and illustrated another one.
After I delivered the drawings for the second book, I stopped everything. I stopped writing, drawing, thinking, doing, reading, all of it. The pandemic was an exhausting time, as I’m sure you know well. And I was exhausted. I’d been writing and drawing in all of my time outside of my day job (I work full time as the art director here) for more than two years and I had nothing left to say.
A weird thing about stopping everything was that I couldn’t then just do nothing. I quickly filled my time up with volunteer roles that I’ll maybe write about later. I wasn’t able to get rid of a feeling that I wasn’t doing enough. And so I ended up doing too much, all through summer and autumn. Maybe I’ll write about that later too.
Around November my muse (lucky me) intervened. Sometimes you need someone to see what you’re doing wrong, see what you’re putting in the way of your happiness or satisfaction or whatever you like to call it, and tell you. Or tell you off, maybe. And so it was.
I stopped volunteering so much. I started attending this fine gathering. I didn’t really know what to expect there, or what to do. But I met some good people doing the thing that I’m trying to do which was hugely encouraging. You can find these people. And you can find the wise words of your heroes, learn something about process from a dirty tap, or just sit down and start typing.
And that’s what I’m doing now. I’m writing this, and afterwards I’ll write something else. And I’ll tell you all about it next time.
Yours sincerely,
Paul