Our writing, our painting, our creative work, whatever it might be, will not look after itself. It needs our attention. All the attention a true gardener gives to her garden: seeding, planting, tending, checking in on, every day.
In the space that has opened up for me in this last week my writing has, dare I say it, flourished and bloomed. Sometimes a few hours snatched here and there in a fragmented life are simply not enough. We need emptiness and we need time -
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you - ZADIE SMITH
Writing is about sitting alone in a room - PAT BARKER
We need daily practice too. At times like these, when I’m trying to reclaim my writing life, I return to my five a day practice - you can find a description of it here, if you’d like to try it out. It’s a very useful way of keeping the wheels oiled and the words flowing…
Here is my five day from Easter Sunday - less observational than my suggested practice, these are more reflective, interior thoughts, which perhaps says something about me finally finding the time and space I need to read, to think and above all to write..
A thin slice of lemon tart, and the flavour dancing still on my tongue
The tap tap of my feet on the floorboards as I exercise, I’m reminded of my father tap dancing on the blue and white tiled kitchen floor, making us smile.
I am trying to understand how it was possible for a mother to give her three year old child, ‘the hiding of her life.’ Where does such rage come from?
I’m also trying to understand how people who claim to be Christian can support Donald Trump.
The Pope washes the feet of women prisoners, in Rome, drying them and kissing them with great tenderness.
Thanks for reading and for understanding my need to concentrate my efforts on my own work
Avril x
Wonderful inspirational words on tackling the sharper corners of the serious writing process
All writers should care about this.