At the end of 2022, my partner gave birth to our son. It may be a cliché, but it has been truly humbling to nurture and be alongside this new human as he discovers the world around him, witnessing him use his innate creativity and curiosity to notice new things and learn new skills (such as chewing his toes and rolling over on his tummy!).
Perhaps not coincidentally, despite being fairly exhausted, I have been feeling more creative myself this year. I’ve been writing more (often typing into my phone while holding a sleeping baby), generating ideas for stories and other pieces, playing with words and splurging rough drafts of poems in my journal. I’ve been wanting to write more publicly again and to stop procrastinating on my writing plans, which include both fiction as well as more non-fiction writing.
As a starting point, I have decided to set up a blog with the aim of encouraging writers, myself included, to embrace creativity in our practice, whatever kind of writing we’re doing. I’ll be exploring what creativity is, how we can play and experiment with our writing, antidotes to perfectionism and more. I’ll be drawing on a range of literature and other sources that, in different ways, touch on creativity, craft and connection, as well as on the politics of language and writing (because everything is political!).
One of the things I want to explore in the blog is the relationship between fiction and non-fiction writing – particularly in terms of craft, techniques and the use of storytelling. Although I primarily edit non-fiction at the moment, I am in the process of developing my skills to also edit fiction in the future, so the blog’s focus may start to reflect that over time. For me, writing is about communicating and connecting with others. It enables us to develop and share our ideas and thinking. So I hope that, by putting more of my thinking out here, writers looking for an editor might learn more about me and my approach and whether we’d be a good fit. But, more generally, if you’re interested in the topics I’m writing about, I’m keen to connect with you whether you’re looking for an editor or not. I love geeking out and learning together with others passionate about words and writing!
Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay.