It is National Writing day 2023. What a good thing. It is a day for celebrating; and a reminder of all the pleasures and benefits of writing.
Perhaps you already write regularly or it’s part of a plan you haven’t quite got round to. I think that much writing is solitary, and necessarily so. It is possible to celebrate quietly and alone. But since it is a National Day for writing, it seems to me that it would be a great idea to write with someone else. It might be with just one friend or a whole class of students. There is something transforming about writing alongside others and then sharing something of what you have written. There is a warmth, an exhilaration, a very special connection, in the quietness of writing and then the sharing.
Maybe you would like a starting point, a way in. Of course we can start with words, a list of them or a poem or piece of prose. Think also, about an action that allows for dreaming, wandering before writing. Make a fold, cut, take a line for a walk. Make a simple folded book, cut out a character or a small crowd of them, draw -something that you can see or something that arrives from your mind. The act of making creates a space into which pre-writing thoughts flow.
The six pages of a small book can suggest a form. As we cut and draw, we dream, letting the ideas unfold before the words hit the paper. It can be a quiet, meditative time that moves us from the busyness of the world to the inside and out again. Patterns emerge, a phrase or sentence comes to mind. We find ourselves letting the writing fall onto the page. We surprise ourselves.
When we come up for air and look around to see and hear what our companions have cut from card, what they have used to animate their writing and how their writing has unfolded, we are delighted. We learn, always, from hearing words read aloud; ours and theirs. I hope that you have time this week to sit down with one other, or with many, to write. And to hear each other’s writing.
One of the good things about having a special day to celebrate writing is the way it generates such a rich variety of ideas for writing. Start with First Story, the organisation which came up with the idea of this day, and play the roll the dice game. Choose one of the links on their website. Try Arvon or CLPE, the British Library or the Literacy Trust. There are more. Use the ideas now and save some up for later.