I’ve long been wanting to add a section for writing about writing, to have a designated “container” for it. I have quite a lot of things to say about various aspects of writing—process, genres, craft, and the inner aspects of creating and writing.
First, though, I’ll set the scene a little by writing about my relationship with writing.
Backstory
I’ve loved writing since I was a kid, when I filled my notebooks with stories and poems. I have happy memories of writing in my room, in our yard, and on swim breaks at our neighborhood pool. Writing was magical to me.
Then followed a period of years in which writing was mostly lost to me, during the mental, physical, and spiritual strains of my teenage years and early twenties. Those were dark days indeed.
In my mid-twenties, I broke loose from my bonds and started healing—and writing.
Rising action
I don’t have much to show for it yet, outwardly. I’ve been more focused on writing than on trying to submit my work. I have made a few little attempts, and I got my first short story prize and publication last year!
My notebooks and files, however, are full of stories, poems, songs, children’s stories, essays, miscellaneous projects, and a few unfinished novels. The one novel I’ve finished is the one I’m currently revising and hoping to start submitting to agents soon. (!)
To me, notebooks full of writing are like gardens full of flowers. Writing means joy.
Plot twist
Here’s the catch: I know that writing brings me joy, but trauma shaped me to pursue threat-management instead of joy.
So, getting myself to actually do the thing that brings me joy is not a simple matter.
(I know many of you can relate to this problem!)
Therefore, writing very much involves tending to my mental and physical health and finding and enacting boundaries.
Plus, given that I’m a mother of young kids, it also involves a lot of clever strategizing, patience, and opportunity-seizing.
On the other hand, this means I have a handy diagnostic for how I’m doing (which I need because I tend to minimize my feelings and struggles): how much I’m writing!
Character
Leaning into this learning, I have begun calling my inner child Writer. It fits and makes sense: the childlike part of me who holds my core feelings loves and needs to write.
(I’m guessing that the basic concept here is true for most people: the inner child needs to create, though the medium will differ for different people—and not limited to purely artistic mediums, either—because we create art by how we live our lives!)
Asking my Writer how she’s feeling and what she needs is a shortcut for connecting to my core.
Setting
As you know, I love using the image of a river for the ebb and flow of life. In that imagery, my Writer has her own river—her own set of ever-changing conditions—unpredictable waters that she must face and navigate.
Now, when the current allows, she can write about her experiences in this new section called Writer’s Waters.