Asha

It’s been 2 long years that I’ve had a project – to write a collection of stories – rattling around in my mind. So far I’ve accumulated a small amount of material – story ideas, bits of characterisation and setting and some passages of story and dialogue. But it hasn’t progressed beyond that. I’ve got to make a habit of writing every day.

One thing that deters me is how hard it is finding my own way to tell the stories. I get a little frustrated when I read back my work and realise that it isn’t authentic – it’s not my own ‘voice.’

I think it’s true what they say about needing to write a TREMENDOUS amount of awful, burn-worthy material before you can begin to find your own writing voice. You have to spend years writing out and unlearning all the cliches and quotidian ways of communicating via language. There’s sense to the idea that the more crap you write the more chance you have of an inspired bit of writing.

So far most of my writing efforts are based on what I call my ‘automatica’ sessions. I sit down and write whatever comes out, with no self-editing involved. Often, it’s just utter blab, derailment, monkey chatter and immediate sensory impressions. However, after a while some really interesting substantial passages of writing come out. What I’d like to be able to do is to kind of shape the direction of these automatic writing sessions.

I’m thinking of using ‘triggers’ to help shape these freewheeling writing sessions. But I’ll write more on them in a later post.

What further can be said or done about being in a bit of a writing pickle, other than to pickle on and just WRITE! It’s as simple and agonising as that. (She insists, trying her utmost to convince herself.)

P.S.
I found a great simple program to use for my automatic writing sessions. It’s called Creawriter: http://www.creawriter.com/ It’s a word processor (for Windows) with a clean design, basic tools and a relaxing background ambience. You might like to take a look at it. (Mac users have the similar program Ommwriter, which can be found here: http://www.ommwriter.com/)

Impatiently. Because Autumn means bulb planting time. Of putting on my garden gloves to bury those sleepy kernels under a blanket of soil, showering them with a lullaby of water until the sun warms them enough to rise up and bloom!

Digger’s Club here I come.

The secret to a nice, organised office/studio space is lots of white bookcases and a looong white table to work upon. Even a small poky room can turn into a surprisingly roomy space. Now I FEEL like working in here. Here’s a toast to productivity!