Away from the desk, sort of
I’ve been away from my (creative) writing desk these last few days, so there’s no post this week. Although that’s not quite what I mean, as it’s an illusion that writing takes place at a desk anyway – most of the process happens in the moments in between.
When I first had a blog, over a decade ago, I would write the posts in my head on my forty-minute walk to work, then do the day’s work, then go back over the blog in my head on the walk back, and then type it up straight out of my brain when I got home. Somehow the ideas, the phrasing, the writing of it stayed in my head from the morning until the evening, seemingly intact and unchanged.
That process gave me a lot of confidence as a writer, as it showed me that it’s not always necessary to have a place or space to write, or even a way to take notes; I could trust myself to remember the words I wanted to share because, as long as they were true to what I was feeling that day, they would be sure to take the exact same shape.
On the flipside, it also spooked me – an uncanny matrix-like feeling of finding I’m still predictably me even though time had passed between ‘morning me’ and ‘evening me’. That saying of ‘wherever you go, there you are’ is as true to writing as it is to travel.
At this point, I realise I’m pretty much writing you a post despite saying there would be none! Try to stop a writer from writing, eh?
So, I’ll be back next week with some words from the writing desk, or the writing walk, or the writing brain. Anyway, however they form themselves, they’ll be from me!