This piece sings, Annie. Honestly. The image of you stitching those chapters together on the move, feet going, mind going, the story drafting itself as you walk, feels like creative witchcraft of the finest kind.
There’s nothing more thrilling than watching a book announce itself to its writer. What a joy to witness.
PS. I’m part of the Footnote Sisterhood too — walking, thinking, writing as one long motion. 😉
This is so interesting. Doing an all-day online retreat last Sunday with Beth Kempton gave me a chance to really dig deep into my own writing practice and I realised that involved two apparently contradictory things. First, that I take it seriously and do it every day, and secondly that I stop thinking of other activities as enemies of my creativity. Instead, I'm trying to integrate them into my writing practice by turning over ideas in my head, and I find walking, knitting and other repretitive tasks really conducive to this process. We don't need to be diving deep every minute of the day but we do need to find a way to make the spaces, even small ones, work for us and make it easier to be productive when we do. It sounds like you're going through a similar process.
I love that idea of weaving writing in with other creative activities, and movement. I think we have come to a similar conclusion: there is the ‘writing’ itself, and the idea formation, which often happens when we not sat at a desk. x
This piece sings, Annie. Honestly. The image of you stitching those chapters together on the move, feet going, mind going, the story drafting itself as you walk, feels like creative witchcraft of the finest kind.
There’s nothing more thrilling than watching a book announce itself to its writer. What a joy to witness.
PS. I’m part of the Footnote Sisterhood too — walking, thinking, writing as one long motion. 😉
What a beautiful and generous comment, thank you so much Denusia xxx
This is so interesting. Doing an all-day online retreat last Sunday with Beth Kempton gave me a chance to really dig deep into my own writing practice and I realised that involved two apparently contradictory things. First, that I take it seriously and do it every day, and secondly that I stop thinking of other activities as enemies of my creativity. Instead, I'm trying to integrate them into my writing practice by turning over ideas in my head, and I find walking, knitting and other repretitive tasks really conducive to this process. We don't need to be diving deep every minute of the day but we do need to find a way to make the spaces, even small ones, work for us and make it easier to be productive when we do. It sounds like you're going through a similar process.
I love that idea of weaving writing in with other creative activities, and movement. I think we have come to a similar conclusion: there is the ‘writing’ itself, and the idea formation, which often happens when we not sat at a desk. x