Writing rituals for the inbetweens - and a poll!
My Friday letter to you
Dear Writing friends,
This week, I’m writing to you from the inbetween. Inbetween going to bed, which I should have done at least an hour ago, and finishing the online grocery order that I’ll pick up on 23 December. Inbetween laying out my work plans for January and finishing up this year’s projects. Inbetween cooking dinner and doing laundry and writing Christmas cards that must be posted. Inbetween talking to my daughter about her day and packing her lunch for tomorrow.
Any writing that I’ve managed to do in the past decade has been in these inbetweens, the slithers of time between one thing and another.
I’m guessing that you’ll know exactly what I mean.
This is why I invite everyone to create an opening ritual for our Writing Together workshops on Zoom, a moment where we can give ourselves space to breathe, to settle back into our weary bodies and allow our feet to touch the floor.
Without this threshold spell, it’s so difficult to step into the space of writing.
I like to imagine drawing a magic circle in the air around me. I like to light a candle and take a couple of deep, slow breaths.
What helps you to move from all the busy work into a place of writing and making? I’d love to hear.
I know that my writing thrives with even just a little space and breath.
When life feels overcrowded, when things are all jostled up against each other - which they so often are - it’s much harder to write.
And yet, if I can pick up my pen, then writing itself makes a space inside me.
Parts of myself that I’d forgotten, all the bits that get pushed down, compressed by layers of living, begin to expand. Ideas bob up to the surface. Sometimes they burst like bubbles and are gone. Sometimes they float, too slick or slippery to get hold of. Sometimes I can catch them in my little net of words.
But this process needs space. It needs time.
It needs tenderness.
Dear Writing friends, wishing you some space and breath for your words this week.
Sophie x
Writing Together 2024
More spaciousness for your writing?
Last week’s 90-minute session gave us a little more space for our writing. Would you like these longer sessions on a more regular basis? What days/ times work best for you? And if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, would one of these times make all the difference to you signing up? Please let me know below!
When you join us for a Writing Together session, you’ll find a gentle and restorative writing space where you’ll receive support and inspiration for your writing. Camera on or off, we’ll write together in response to suggestions and prompts and then have an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve written and the process. The first part of the workshop is recorded for everyone so that you can catch up later if you can’t join us in ‘real time’. The second reflective part of the workshop is never recorded, in order to honour confidentiality.
Thank you for making space in your inbox for my writing. Your ❤️s, restacks and comments mean so much to me and give me extra energy to keep building this Dear Writing community with you.
If I’m writing alone, I almost always either need to put on some inspiring classical music (usually by contemporary composers/artists like Max Richter, Jean-Michel Blais, or Carolyn Shaw), or be outdoors in nature as long as there are no other people around. If I’m writing in a group, I almost always light Japanese ceremonial incense.
Any of those times work for me, but Thursday mornings (Arizona time) are often very prone to interruption or external noise.
Yes, this time of year there's a pull to write because of the short days then the chaos of Christmas to manage. I find it really difficult to write in the between spaces without focused space so ritual has become important. When I can, I make a hot drink, close the door on everything else, literally, and light a candle too. It helps the switchover. Hope you find some time to write too x