I feel like I am in the presence of emerging writing genius'. The bloggers who participate in WOW over at the lovely InkPaperPen hang out are amazingly talented writers. I honestly don’t know how they do it. Every week they come up with this fantastic stuff, very often fiction, in such short bursts of time. I am way out of my league.
I am not the genius kind of writer. It’s not a self esteem issue. I’m not hanging my head and wallowing, begging for pity and understanding. It’s just a simple fact, a reality, that I’m learning to become OK with.
I think writing is so individual and personal. There are wordsmiths like Favel Parrett and Catherine Therese who just ooze vivid, real language. They write clearly and simply yet every single word they choose is perfectly aligned and right and beautiful for that moment in their story.
Then there are the literary genius’ such as Tolkien and Steinbeck and the like. The classic writers of a time gone by. The linguistically adept, ‘proper’ writers.
Then there are people like me. Ordinary, fairly run-of-the-mill sort of people who really aren’t that fantastic with words but who HAVE to write and record and reflect and regurgitate life in written form.
It is what it is. It’s OK. All’s well and good. Writing is, after all, about voice. Finding my writing voice and being true to that has been a long time coming but ever so slowly I am finding that voice and I am becoming more and more comfortable with it. It’s relaxed. It’s not wordsmithy. It’s not classical. It’s not always grammatically correct. But I think, at least I hope, that it’s still classed as writing. It’s edited a lot. It takes me time. I find that 5 minutes is a regurgitating session for me. A mere beginning of purging something from my brain. It doesn’t come out refined in anyway or clear or well said. But it’s a start. It would take me soooo much longer to get something worthy of recording publically, in a normal setting. I would never normally publish the first thing that comes to my head. But that is why WOW is such a fantastic platform for me to practice and challenge myself.
The fear and trepidation I feel of having these wonderful wordsmiths read my primary school type 5 minute blahs has me frozen week after week. But, after purging this here, in my own little safe haven, I feel like I can bare the pain and cringey pose that I have right now and post it regardless. At least I can today. Knowing that I am in the presence of such writing talent is enough to make me want to soldier on and stick with it. I can’t not. I’d miss out on too much. I want what they have.
So here’s my 5 minutes of blah. Unedited. First thing that came to mind. No masterpiece. It is what it is. No excuses, though.
Sit under a tree and write...It's Write On Wednesday
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.
Spike Milligan
Write On Wednesdays Exercise 7 - Sit under a tree and write: Find yourself a quiet spot. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Take a look at Kristy's Tree Photo. Write the first words that come into your head. Keep writing whatever comes into your head. Stop when the buzzer rings. Do this exercise over and over if you wish. If like me, you struggle with visual prompts, perhaps try sitting under a tree to write. I have heard that changing your usual writing place can spark new inspiration. Try it and see. Do both if you please!
Protection from the blasting heat of summer. Sheltering from the rain under a full, leafy canopy. Digging in the black chocolate brown earth, finger nails split and grubby, planting a new nursery find. Rustling, whooshing, swooshing, swaying in the breeze. Crunchy brown leaves drifting to orangey red leaf-littered ground. Fresh new, lime green shoots bursting out of their winter slumber. Grey and silver shedding slivers. Fragile branches bending under the weight of a visiting maggie. Forked branches make a safe haven for a nesting family. Cicadas cling then escape and leave behind their brown crispy skins. Trees rule, OK!
Kim xx
