Hello, reader. How are you doing? Someone I’ve loved for a long time asked me how to write more. He sees me as prolific, and it’s true. I make a lot of zines–it’s been 36 years– and I used to blog here every day.
Now I have multiple websites, write a monthly column for a local zine Dissonant Times, and my writing is spread around more. I’m up for trades, if you want to trade zines! Also I will accept your unfinished art and finish it for you.
In addition to websites and zines, there’s writing I do privately that no one sees, like in my journal. I make lists and write about relationship struggles, vision what I need, and put the date to help me track how often emotional upsets are happening in various important relationships, which helps me figure out if I’m getting what I need over time. I track the trends, a scientist of my own life.
How to write more is a great question.
how to write more
These days I think of truth as God. Truth is sacred. I’m here on earth to do some special work, using the gifts my ancestors handed to me. Some ways I tell the truth are:
- fat, disabled dance
- art
- loving my dear ones
- singing
- autistic liberation including freely stimming
But writing is a favorite way I tell the truth and share it. Words are so limited, but I like to try. It’s a spiritual practice.
Responsibility to my ancestors and to the world is motivation for writing and for all I do. Why are you here on earth?
word milk
Writing is how I process, so devoting time to writing behooves me. My experiences are rich, and they matter in the moment. But afterward I find meaning and context in what I do by writing about it.
I’m like a cow who needs to be milked–my udders ache if I don’t utter the truth in the form of words. I get full of words and gotta let them out.
How to write more could be summarized as–make it part of who you are. Make it necessary.
Making it part of your identity could be good too. Joining a writer’s group, getting support from others who are on a similar path, making a pact with a creative friend, setting goals if you’re a goal kind of person… For some people it helps, to make it official.
Another idea is to make it easy. If you have a desk at home, you can set it up so writing stuff is easy to grab. You can make it part of your routine by combining it with morning tea or before or after a meal. I like to write in the early mornings while making breakfast.
commit to bravery
It was important to commit to bravery. There was a point when I had to decide if I would talk about my most personal things like mental health and queerness in a way that can be traced back to my “real name.” (What a real name is, I no longer know.)
I wondered–Should I try to keep my internet self free of objectionable material, for the sake of future employers and inlaws?
Fuck no, I decided. There will be no future employers, and the inlaws will be ok. I decided to tell the whole truth, and never looked back.
cheap
Writing is so much cheaper than making movies for example. I’m grateful for how inexpensive a pen and paper is, comparatively.
Your truth needs to be spoken. You know how Audre Lorde taught us that our silence will not protect us. Your life matters, and writing is an act of self-love.
Please understand that people are hungry for what’s real. So much real is inside you, and I’m excited for what you create.
