When I give talks, in schools I am always asked, “When did you start
writing?” My answer is always the same, “I was writing before I could hold a
pen.” Writing has always
started with a feeling for me and I've had that feeling since early
childhood. I loved to climb as a child and would often take a notebook and pen
and sit high up in a tree, staring into space, in touch with my ‘writing
feeling’.
My writing feeling starts deep in
my middle, somewhere in the abdomen and it gives me an inward, reflective,
feeling which signals that I want... no need ... to find a space to write and
something to write on; back of an envelope, paper napkin, a corner of my
daughter’s Polly Pocket notebook, whatever. It usually evokes the need for pen
and paper but these days it can be satisfied sitting at a laptop.
The writing feeling cannot be
ignored and anyway, it is so precious, I can’t imagine flicking it away. If
there is no opportunity to write (difficult when you are changing a nappy or
taking a shower) then I let it grow and fill my mind and take me on a walk to wherever
the creative urge needs to go.
Picking up a pen for any reason
can suddenly and without warning, evoke the writing feeling, so that the very
act of writing – eggs, bread, three onions, green tea, small pack of mince - can
feel like the lines of a poem. This is the beauty and the glory of the writing
feeling. It doesn't mean you are about to write your masterpiece. It may not
come during the writing of Chapter 10 because you are in total ‘struggle mode’
and your precious ‘feeling’ has buried itself that morning. But when it comes
it comes with a great flood and great desire.
The certainty for me and I know
for many others too, is that the writing feeling will never desert me, it will
be there when it is there and it is the drive to write which has lived with me
since before I was three years old (the age I started to read independently).
I asked writer friends on
Facebook: What gives you that writing feeling?
Here are some of their responses:
Anna Wilson : whatever it is I go
all tingly
Cari Rosen : swimming
Wendy Meddour : bed and darkness,
unfortunately
Non Pratt : songs
Denyse Kirkby : Music and a
strong cup of tea. I can’t write when I'm running because I run to clear my
mind.
How about you? What gives you
that ‘writing feeling?’
