The Writing Path
Writing every day is the practice of anchoring myself in the present, yet channeling the past.
Flying to England from Australia I read an article about how women writers (and readers) now dominate the book publishing market. One of the reasons suggested was that writing is inherently a solitary craft which enables women to push back at hierarchies within cultural industries. 1
Dedicating myself to becoming a writer may be a good fit for me - a fresh, creative life path. Pushing back at hierarchies is a delightful bonus!
WHY WRITE ?
With the rapid rise of ChatGPT it occurred to me that becoming a writer might be a dead end idea at this point of human evolution. Could an inevitable textpocalypse even be upon us?
Walking the South West Coast Path I wrestled with this, and if there was a sensible reason to focus on writing. I decided, if nothing else, the discipline and skill to learn how to write and publish a book is a process - and as anyone I have worked alongside knows, I LOVE a process!
“Writing is the process by which you realize that you do not understand what you are talking about.
Importantly, writing is also the process by which you figure it out.”
WHERE AM I WRITING ?
Boscastle (North Cornwall) is a ‘split’ village. Most of the residents live ‘up the hill’ and there are very few living ‘down in the harbour.’ There is a constant flow of day visitors - if it’s sunny they start buying ice creams at 10am.
At night there is only half a dozen people and two street lights after the pub closes.
I enjoy folks wandering past the window and peering in occasionally, aiding a sense of connection and a flow between imagination and reality.
I’ve set up on a wonderful long wooden kitchen table that echoes with the laughter of many de Souza family holiday meals, no doubt featuring a tomato salad. I tried every chair until the perfect one revealed itself, Grandpa’s chair!
HOW AM I WRITING ?
I spend a lot of time preparing to write.
The need to quieten my busy mind with meditation or walking, then the housework and life administration need to be dealt with so as not to be a distraction. I dress to ‘go to work’ (as I always have working from home for twenty-five years). Caffeine and a candle are mandatory. The affirmation : “it’s not going to bloody write itself de Souza” is useful too.
Kairos time living aligns well with finding an opportune time to write for a few hours every day.
Sitting at the table with instrumental jazz, classical or electronic music playing at an intensity that sits comfortably underneath the volume of my thoughts - earlier ideas and scratch notes become solid. The words and flow arrive.
I decided to do what other writers suggested - write 1000 words a day on the book manuscript. Don’t read it back - keep going.
Proactive creative work is new to me. Maintaining the motivation day after day can be a struggle. When I break to walk across the cliff tops and look back in awe at how far I have walked I’m reminded the process is the creative work.
Cliff by cliff. Chunk by chunk. Chapter by chapter.
“It’ll all come good if she can put in the hours.”
© Tim Freedman “Beauty In Me” Performed by The Whitlams
WHAT I AM WRITING ?
The ‘all-in-purge-draft’ of my story.
The book manuscript is revealing itself as a ripping coming of age adventure in the Australian music industry in the 1990s. It is raw, uncensored and I’m writing from the spirit embedded in emotional flashbacks and the soundtrack of my life. For now, this is what it needs to be.
I’m finding peace by understanding how complex trauma responses have impacted my working life. There is a natural quest for self understanding but it’s an illusion to think of the writing process as ‘finding myself’. The trick is to not take it all too seriously and be in the present.
Walking keeps me in the present. As I wander the paths of the nearby woodlands in the early evenings I am reminded again of the wisdom of trees.
The rings of a tree’s trunk tell its life story - the disruptions, injuries and seasons of growth and hardship. Trees carry their their past with them but contend with present conditions via the outer layer of bark, sap and new growth.
I am writing about 1971, 1986, the hazy summer of 91/92 and the whirlwind of 1995 onwards. I carry all the trials and triumphs of my past with me but I don’t spend too much time back there - it is the present where the magic is.
I love meandering through libraries where the title of a book can send me down a rabbit hole where ideas are sparked and connections made. There are many seeds germinating for other stories, essays and ethnographic research brewing.
Knowing my ancestral links with this region of Cornwall was cause for yet another notebook, this one to jot down ideas and tidbits of local history and folklore.
It was synchronous that I stumbled upon a “Writing Family History as Fiction” talk at the Bude Library and was welcomed into the fantastical library and archive upstairs at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. I spent hours taking handwritten notes from anthologies of oral histories and local newspapers reporting Cornish folklore, cunning ways and charms of the pellars and white witches of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Every day is a joy and I am grateful to have this time here to write - even more so when I know I will be sharing it with others, either here on Substack, social media posts or the book (eventually!).
It’s a new moon today and I will be arriving in Paris at the next full moon!
Thanks for reading! LdS x
Listening - “So Tonight That I Might See” Mazzy Star’s 1993 album that still sounds vital and the joy, memories and hilarious shockers of the 1995 ARIA Top 100. I mean, the guilty pleasure of “Here Comes the Hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze!!!
Reading - Celtic Myths edited by Jake Jackson (Flame Tree Publishing)
Eating - the most delicious ‘pressed’ roast lamb with pistachio crumb, gravy, asparagus and new potatoes at the Blisland Inn after a bracing walk up Rough Tor
#walkon2023 Step Count - accumulative total 366,051 (as at 20 May 2023)
“Women now dominate the book business. Why there and not other creative industries?” by Greg Rosalsky in NPR 4/4/2023
Pistachio Crumb! Mmmmm