Writing is a most generous form of creativity – if one is bold enough to take pen to paper, or finger to laptop – and to be inspired – and then let go and see what comes. It is an experience I knew nothing about prior to 2008 when I embarked on an MA in Creative Writing at Swansea University.
Just as an example – I am reading Laurie Lee – As I walked out one Midsummer Morning. An inspirational book about a young lad in the 1930 who sets off on a long walk.
He arrives in London – and an example of his writing is:
There seemed to be two Mrs. Flynns: one girlish and easy, the other born to furious protest. Mornings saw her most angry, a chain smoking sweeper of rooms, a tousled mop in a dressing gown. Then at night after supper, she emerged in a laminated gold, with silkily reconditioned hair to engage the world in a monologue of bubbling non-sequiturs, full of giggles, regrets and yearnings. Sleekily, bent to her cocoa, splendidly robed and corseted , she would then tackle any subject on earth.
So reading about London and the streets and Mrs Flynn I then felt a pull to write something about the fog and the damp London nights. This is what I just wrote:
London 1930’s
Fog creeping nights,
Swirling gas lamps, shoulder to shoulder they stand,
Shining light on filthy tramps, murderers, and bullies.
Heaving their clattering bundles of other’s jewels,
Grasped with withering bones of fingers into deep velvet pockets.
The Fagins of the underworld.
With their tethered broken dogs, hungry for fresh air and light.
The NIGHT of London in all its decadence and tawdriness,
Shivering into the coming dawn.
They scuttle into the deep alleys to pick over their takings
And remember when they were once young.
What I wish to say here is that the above took me 3 minutes to write – and when one is full of some feeling or image or story it is very illuminating to just write and see what comes. I have been so surprised with the ACTION of writing – just putting a pen to paper – or a pencil to one’s thoughts.
If you have not tried writing then be inspired by something you read and then give it a go yourself. I hope, like me, that you will be amazed at what exudes from the pen. It can often feel like MAGIC.