To writing more


I used to enjoy writing. Like sex, I've never been great at it but I like the process. I stopped doing much of it around the time I bought a smartphone and stopped writing everything by hand.

In the beforetimes I’d write anything: stories, scripts, bad poetry, bad love letters, one break up letter which was pretty good. I even attempted to write a song once, which I still think about sometimes, then wince a lot and desperately hope that the green notebook I’d written it in is lost forever or at the very least doesn’t have my name in it, wherever it is.

Most dear to me was the process of working out how I felt about something through the act of writing about it. Like lttle essays. Scrap paper and pen was my preference. I’d thoroughly fill a sheet with thoughts and ideas. Chunks of writing and doodles everywhere. It was a mess in a comforting sort of way. I’d scribble a sentence, cross out a few words. I’d circle an idea I’d written at a 45-degree angle on the right side of the page and draw a winding line connecting it to the middle of a paragraph I’d written on the left. Then I’d shove the paper into my pocket and retrieve it when a new sentence or better wording came to me. Eventually I’d have something like a thesis and then I’d move it all to a new sheet and clean it up and have a good first draft of something. Then I’d throw it away.

It was nice, looking back on it, and a very useful method for helping me think through and reflect on things in a way I haven’t been able to replicate with a Notes app.

I want to start writing again. That’s what this site will be for.