The Magic of Writing

While I am not quite ready to shed my tortured artist facade yet (look for me when normal service resumes, staring sadly at a case full of books in Waterstones convinced I’d have better luck at building the case itself with sponge cake than attempting to ever have a book of my own resting on it), today I thought that I might push the writer’s block, the self-doubt and the obstacles to one side. I thought that instead, I would give airtime to those moments – those lovely warm, tingly, butterfly-bellied moments that make writing one of the best things about being a human in a world full of words and blank pages. (And please, feel free to share your own below.)

• Unearthing forgotten words and being able to enjoy them as a reader.

• Formatting a brand new, fresh document for a brand new, fresh project.

• Falling in love with a character so much, they warm you through (and sometimes make you play songs for them.)

• Starting the first page of a new notebook.

• Getting to the last page of an old, full notebook.

• Finding the perfect word.

• The surprise of when a character appears, completely uninvited, onto the page.

• Looking back at your word count and seeing it’s far, far larger than you thought it would be.

• The stomach-fizz after pressing send.

• Receiving exciting emails.

• A gang of fresh, new characters that need a gang of perfect names, and it’s just you and the baby names book.

• When the words just come, and you feel as though you could write for a week without sleep.

• When your characters have a conversation between themselves, and you’re not writing, but eavesdropping.

• The excitement of plotting a brand new project.

• The excitement of a new idea.

• The intense missing of an in-the-drawer project.

• When it's time to take it out the drawer.

• When that conversation, paragraph, scene, chapter turns out just how you wanted it to.

• Writing the words ‘chapter one.’

• Writing the words ‘the end.’

• Pressing ‘print.’

• Admiring how ‘proper’ your novel looks on an e-reader.

• When the scroll bar of your document slowly shrinks upon opening, and you realise just how much you have done.

• Being long-listed, short-listed, or receiving positive feedback.

• When your work is read by others and enjoyed.

• Discovering and understanding things you never thought you knew or would.

• The floaty, cleansed satisfaction that comes after having just written for a good few undisturbed hours.

• When your characters say something totally wise and you had no idea you knew such a thing.

• Wandering around towns, cities, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, libraries, parks, and endless websites, because it’s research.

• When that plot point you’ve been desperately, desperately searching for appears as you’re washing the dog and it’s perfect.

• When you start out writing something, but it turns into something else entirely.

• The idea that flies into your mind in the middle of the night.

• The idea that's triggered upon seeing a stranger’s face.

• The song that inspires a moment, a meeting, a scene, a chapter, a story, a world.

• Making yourself cry.

• Making yourself laugh.

• Making your own heart thump.

• A clean, neat desk.

• A messy, note-filled, lived-in desk.

• Rainy days spent there.

• Especially the time spent with coffee, biscuits, silence, and words.

• The therapy: hard times and hard days eased - and sometimes cured - by writing.

• The freedom: being able to create an entire story, life, and place from the ground up, with just a blank space and a pen.

• The escapism: having the luxury of being able to board and get lost in a different world, without even leaving your seat.

Lia is a mum-of-one, working as a copywriter and studying for a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. Her first novel, Bubbles, is in the submission process and she is currently writing her second novel. She lives at home, in Hertfordshire, with her boyfriend, three year old, and stacks of clothes and books. Find her on Twitter here.