The tag line of this blog is that is about writing and the creative process. Well, I am feeling very Zen at the moment and having had a birthday last week, it’s time again for a re-focusing. Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that life can be a struggle and that my creative time is nibbled away with a whole range of things – from the need to make money, to care commitments or the self-destructive need to sit and do nothing for a while.
But, I am feeling charged up thanks to two books and a YouTube video. First, the video – I have suffered from insomnia all of my life and up until now I have used the hours before sleep to tell myself stories and to let my mind go to a million places (some of them useful, others, not so much). But none of this was good for my mental, emotional or physical health. On a particularly rough day, my husband passed on a recommendation for Yoga Nidra for sleep. I have listened to the video a few times but can now use its techniques and fall to sleep really quickly without it. The fact that I am sleeping better has made me a lot calmer (albeit I have only been using this technique for a few weeks) and I feel as though I can concentrate better rather than my head spinning in different directions, with nothing getting done.
Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library was one of the books that has given me pause for reflection too. If you don’t know the book, a woman is allowed to experience all of the lives she could have lived if she had made different choices. Wow – mind blown. A great mix of philosophy, engaging characters and realism.
The second book, I am only half way through, but again, my mind is a bit blown. Will Storr’s The Science of Storytelling is easily the best book I have read about writing. That’s not to say that it is highly technical or explains the process or gives you great story beats. Instead it links in with the very heart (or mind) of storytelling. I have a deep interest in psychology, so this book is ideal for me. It talks deeply about perception and perceptions, of how we construct the narrative of our lives and how we can construct the narrative for our characters. Cracking. This will not be left half-read like so many other books on writing that I have.
And so, to action. I am trying to add a photo here of a blank grid which I intend to fill with lovely pink rectangles over the next 120 days (each one marking a writing day) but my IT is being obstructive. I will show you it when there is something more to see.
Colette Coen 