I was on the hunt for a spare notebook the other day and found one buried at the bottom of a drawer. Flicking through the pages I was struck by how neat and upright my writing was compared to more recent messy scribbles that pass for my handwriting. It was all a bit tight, a bit too neat given it was meant to be the midweek scribbles of someone dealing with some major life stuff.
I felt myself holding my breath as I skim-read the sentences and couldn’t help but think that even in this notebook, a notebook for my eyes only that I was probably focusing far more on filling the page with ‘the right thing’ than writing what I really felt or needed to say. Slightly missing the whole point of free writing.
It’s the silent self-judging that trips us up, isn’t it? I vowed in January to hold this year more lightly, to dial down the judging and dial up the lighter, experimental, have a go attitude. Because all too often where you find creativity, you’ll also find self-judgement and self-sabotage.
It’s why I’ve been approaching writing with ‘experiment and practice’ in mind and learning to trust the process, and enjoy the sight of a blank page rather than seeing it as a path strewn with invisible traps to trip me up.
It’s why I like to think ‘breathe into your words’ and post photos of the moor whenever I get the chance. Anything to remind me – you, us – to take a deep breath and roll the shoulders before diving in with the pencil.
Because the chance to write is an invitation to connect, whether it’s with yourself through free writing or journalling or with another person.
And what could be better than connecting with someone? Unless you’re appealing a parking ticket or writing a letter of complaint. Although having been to two Letters Live events now where gloriously, uproariously funny letters of complaint were read out, I’d argue that you can get creative and have a lot of fun writing them too.
But something happens in between acknowledging the thought or idea in our head and what appears on the page. I was going to say I wish I had a magic wand so that we could miraculously pass through this part, but the reality is that those awkward first few words that land on the page are so valuable.
They’re our warm-up, it’s where we get to explore and poke our nose into all the dusty corners. It’s where we establish a steady, deep breathing pattern that we take into our words. Bonkers? Maybe, maybe not but what have you got to lose?
Breathe: find a way to do the writing equivalent of rolling your shoulders and taking a few deep breaths as you move the pencil across the page. Whether you’re writing a proposal, email or article: breathe first and then smile.
If you do need help limbering up because the sight of a blank white page fills you with dread, try a writing prompt to get the words and creative juices flowing.
- Write no more than 50 words about ‘home‘ and think show, not tell. Describe and tap into all the senses.
- Set the timer for 5 minutes and finish this sentence: ‘I wish I knew how to…‘
- Set the timer to 5 minutes and write down everything you can see, touch, hear, taste and smell.
Embrace the white space: swap A4 for A3 and turn the notepad landscape. Or go small, if you tap into the laptop, try tapping into notes on your phone instead while the kettle boils or set a timer for five minutes and just write out the recurring thoughts in your head, whether obviously connected to the piece you’re writing or not. Move to a different room, stand up and lean on the kitchen counter and write. Just shift your view and try something different.
Dig out the Thesaurus and the dictionary: have fun with the words, we have so many brilliant words at our disposal, sometimes we just get a little stuck with the same ones. I bristled at all the ‘don’t use a thesaurus’ posts that did the rounds on LinkedIn not that long ago. Bonkers (or bananas, gaga, loony, crazy, bats – thanks Thesaurus). Let’s use them to spark our imagination and help us find to find our voices rather than just regurgitating other peoples’. There has to be an alternative to ‘smashing it’ and life gets dull when we all use the same phrases, so let’s explore and have some fun as we do it.
“We tend to think that what we’re making it the most important thing in our lives, and that it’s going to define us for all eternity. Consider moving forward with a more accurate point of view that it’s a small work, a beginning.
“The mission is to complete the project so you can move on to the next. That next one is a stepping stone to the following work. And so it continues in a productive rhythm for the entirely of your creative life.”
Rick Rubin via Sheryl Garratt from The Creative Life
Trust yourself, enjoy the process and just write
It’s too easy to leap ahead and get wrapped up in the ‘what next?’ and the end product, rather than relishing the chance to write and be creative for the hell of it. So embrace and learn to love the blank page, relish in writing outside the lines and feel free to remind me of this if you ever come across me staring blankly at an empty white page!
Thanks for reading, Harriet