My Ideal Writing Space

“Describe your ideal writing space.  Fill it in to the last detail.”

In a glade by a lake surrounded by shade trees is a small rustic cabin.  The lake is a crisp clear blue nestled safely beyond the mountain range it reflects.  The clam clear waters house much life; fish, turtles, frogs and foxes are all denizens on this tranquil habitat.  A small stone path leads away from the lake and the mountains towards a great forest.  Not far away is a small rustic cabin, old but very well kept and surrounded by vibrant colorful wildflowers.  The stone path leads to the little front porch.  On the left of the porch is a comfy swing bench laden with plush cushions and to the right is a small table with two chairs.  Iron sconces adorn the sides of the front door.  Inside the cabin is bright and warm with large lace covered windows lighting the interior.  The walls are filled with book shelves and natural art.  In the corner is a reading chair deep as a dream with a small table and lamp as accompaniment.  The center of the room is dominated by a large hardwood desk and office chair.  In the center of the desk is a laptop, the heart of this operation.  Pens and notebooks, wildflowers and a statue of the goddess sit quietly in reflection.  At the back of the cabin is a modest full sized bed, the kind of bed which coaxes your dreams from your head as you lay down upon it.  The colors of the cabin are soft and natural, greens, browns, blues, and yellows.  Wind chimes attached to the trees outside tinkly softly in the breeze bringing visions of faerie magick and wishes come true.  On a low shelf to the right of the desk sits a small coffee pot and tea kettle, the shelf below filled with drinks to be.  Candles adorn the many shelves and few tables ready to offer night time illumination.  The air is clear, the energy is peaceful, the only troubles this place could ever have are the one brought with you.  It is a retreat, a place to relax, rejuvenate, and a place to create.  This is my ideal writing space.

Celebrate Your Creative Self

“Write about the pleasure writing brings and how writing is important to me.”

I love to write.  I have no idea why I just do.  It makes me feel good to be able to put my thoughts on paper in such a way that other people can understand and enjoy them.  I guess that is partly because I have such a chaotic and wandering mind.  My mind naturally jumps form one subject to the next quite often and my powers of association are nothing less than superhuman.  So to order those thoughts and put them down and have them understood brings me joy.

I have learned that the language and tone of my writings do not resemble my speech at all.  Being dyslexic and bipolar I speak from a very disjointed emotional place in my head.  My thoughts often crash together in an effort to pass the gate of my mouth.  It is common that I misspeak what I mean and have been known to say complete sentences inside out and backwards.  While even I am amused by this at times it does not a great communicator make.  But on paper magick happens!

On paper my words flow through me in a gentle rush of creative beauty and urgency.  When I write or type my thoughts seem almost, ordered.  Sentences become clear and while I still can’t spell to save my life word order and grammar appear out of thin air to turn my thoughts into comprehensive droplets of knowledge.  Metaphors and analogies, quips and wit, all become apart of my writing identity.  While I love speaking, especially public speaking I have to think slowly and carefully to speak intelligibly to be understood.  But on paper, I already am a writer.

Gratitude.  Am I grateful for this “gift”?  That I have not decided.  I think I should be but I want something to come of it.  I want my writing to have a purpose, without purpose these are nothing more than journal entries.  While that is good and fine for some it feels like I am selling myself and my talents short if I don’t try for more.  Talents are meant to be used, for others, for the greater good, etc. etc.  That is what I want and when I can do that then I will know I have a gift.

Positive Messages

“List the positive messages you have received about writing or about any creative undertaking.”

What little writing I have done has been very positively received by any who have read it.  I have one “great writing accomplishment” so far that was web published by another party.  This was a piece I did for the Witches Voice web site on Poly-pantheism.  Instead of the usual four month wait they published it the very next week!  I was elated!  Not only did I get great feedback from my family and friends but complete strangers took the time to e-mail me and let me know that my article resonated with them.  That is the first time I have touched the public with what I wrote and it was wonderful, encouraging, and exciting.

Besides that “big one” the only other writings I have done have been more trad based.  I have spent the last ten years developing my own Pagan tradition.  I am good at it.  I wrote a comprehensive book on the ins and outs of my tradition, which my husband coined “Victorian”.  This book turned out to be almost seventy pages and I knew I could add more.  This was my most comprehensive religious writing to date and I am still working on it.

Other than that I have continually written rituals and lessons for the past ten-plus years.  I so enjoy religious writing, it feels easy to me.  When I am in the right frame of mind the words come to me as if out of thin air, inspired by the gods themselves.  I have only good feedback from my writing and I have the desire to continue writing.  The question then becomes how do I write for a greater audience?  How do I convert my talent into what others can enjoy and understand?

To finish this prompt I will also comment about my other creative undertakings.  Besides writing I am a fabulous crafter.  I sew, burn, build, design, and decorate so many things and all of my projects are applauded for their exquisite beauty and design.  This always makes me feel good.  I love to create and I love the appreciation of others for my creations. 

The problem is not my lack of creative ability or my desire to create be it craft project or book.  The obstacle to my future success is me.  My procrastination.  My lack of peaceful space to express myself.  My excuses.  That is what I am here for, to begin by doing not by planning.  I am here, and I am writing.  This is my beginning.

Writing is Hard

“Acknowledge that writing is hard.  How am I going to make writing happen?”

Writing is hard.  That is an understatement.  And from what I have read writing is hard for the experienced writer as well as the novice.  I am actually pleased to see that it is common among all writers to need a sacred place to write.  A place that is both quiet and beautiful, filled with objects of love and inspiration.  I find that I generate ideas best when I am both alone and away from home.  The best of my ideas usually happen when I drive.  This is almost meditative for me, the energy is all mine and there are very little distractions beyond the autonomic traffic.  The hard part is I am in a car.  I can’t write anything down and have to rely on my perpetually distracted memory to remember those ideas and write them down when I can.

So writing is hard, I acknowledge that, now how can I make writing happen?  Well I think I have taken the first step, after all I am here, writing.  I have set aside three hours three days a week to write.  To leave my home, go to a coffee shop and write.  I need to leave the house to write well.  My home is filled with the beautiful but chaotic energy of my family.  While I love that energy in a way, it is also very draining on me.  At home I don’t actually want to do anything, I feel less creative for the most part.  It is not a place conducive to a good creative environment.  So Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I go to Caribou Coffee and I write.  This is only my second day and so far so good.  Even though this will work for now I know I will eventually need something more private and personal.  I also would like to be able to do this at least five days a week, but I will be content with three days for now.

Why I Write

"Write about your need for a creative life or simply your need to write.

Why do you do it?  What needs are fulfilled through it?"

For some reason I have yet to understand I have this great driving need to write.  I do not know why I have this drive, I have never considered myself a writer.  I have an obsession with journals, I collect them as much as I can with the intension of filling them with all of my crazy thoughts and dreams but this never happens.  All of my journals have about ten to twenty pages written in and then they sit on the shelf lonely and dusty.  Yet I still buy them, it is a need, a gnawing need deep down inside of me that I do not quite know how to satisfy.

One kind of writing I know I am good at is religious writing.  I can create a ritual, a celebration, lessons, or even a whole new tradition without really even trying.  I think this should be classified as a gift but I cannot truly see the benefit of this ability beyond a very small scope influence.  And I want something bigger, something grander to pour my talents and desires into.  I guess that’s the megalomaniac in me.

Still this need is here, without direction, without talent, without the know-how, I still feel the need to write.  I want to write!  But what do I write and how do I do it?  Can I write fiction stories?  Can I write an autobiography?  Is the only thing I am good for is religious writing?  How do I make that work for me?

I guess that question leads me to my end goals.  I want to be a published author.  Or do I?  I think it would be wonderful to be able to be an actual “Writer” pouring my heart and soul and strange and morbid thoughts unto the pages of public awareness.  Bending and shaping and twisting the minds of others, challenging them to see the world in new and different ways.  This is my end goal, to be a “Writer” and “Author” but how do I get there?

Well from what I read to become a “Writer” one must first write.  Go figure.  It sounds so simple.  I mean I am writing now and this is easy right?  Well this is just rambling about a subject that I got from another source, to me it has no meaning other than walking through my thoughts on paper.  Will it lead me down the path I want to go?  Can I get there if I keep at it?  I hope so.