letters of our lives

I have some exciting news! For the rest of 2020, my friend and fellow writer Isabel Robinson and I will be collaborating on a project called Letters of our Lives.

Our Story

Phil and Iz met through the blogging community in 2015. Back then, Iz was studying in China and Phil was living and working in London. Both are writers – Phil published her memoir The Latte Years in 2016, the year after Iz began her first blog, Nanjing Nian chronicling her adventures in China. Internet tag followed; a blog comment here, an email there, and in 2017 Phil and Iz became proper penpals, writing long letters about their lives to one another from opposite ends of the world. Phil moved home to Hobart in 2018, and though only Bass Strait now divides them, the correspondence has continued.

They have met twice in person – that’s it!

Letters of our Lives is Phil and Iz’s first creative collaboration.

Our Project – Letters of our Lives

Inspired by the Women of Letters project begun by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire in 2010 to ‘revive the lost art of correspondence’ and ‘showcase brilliant female minds’, Iz (here) and Phil (here) will write a letter each month on a shared theme for the rest of 2020.

Letters of our Lives is also the title of a novel Phil wrote when she was 14. The story followed the lives of two teenage girls, one living in country Tasmania and the other in chic, cosmopolitan Sydney. While that’s not their exact situation (and the story had a tragic ending!), they love the reference to childhood and the value of a carefully composed letter in a world of texts and tweets.

[sidenote from Phil: I found the original Letters of our LIves the other day! Here’s the hand-drawn title!]

These letters are a response to our lives, inner and outer, past, present and future.

We hope you enjoy our project.

If you’re a writer and would like to join in, we’d be open to it. Please contact either one of us via the contact forms on our blogs.

Yours in correspondence,

Iz and Phil x 

how wonderfully precious this one life is

“When you take the time to draw on your listening-imagination, you will begin to hear this gentle voice at the heart of your life. It is deeper and surer than all the other voices of disappointment, unease, self-criticism and bleakness.

All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you learn to listen, the greater surprises and discoveries that will unfold.

To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life.

Your life is no longer consumed by hunger for the next event, experience or achievement.

You learn to come down from the treadmill and walk on the earth.

You gain a new respect for yourself and others and you learn to see how wonderfully precious this one life is.

You begin to see through the enchanting veils of illusion that you had taken for reality.

You no longer squander yourself on things and situations that deplete your essence.

You know now that your true source is not outside you.

Your soul is your true source and a new energy and passion awakens in you.”

- John O’Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher (excerpt from his book Divine Beauty)

write every damn day

As of this morning, I have done Morning Pages for 250 days straight!

I’d say the most noticeable impact it’s had has been on my confidence. When you consistently show up for yourself and do the thing that matters most to you each day, I’ve found the inner critic, while still alive and well, doesn’t have as much ammunition.

The whole routine/ritual around Morning Pages is now my favourite part of the day. And I am not a morning person!

A follower on Instagram asked if I had any advice on getting started and my response was just that - to start. Just begin and keep going, even if you think what you’re writing is rubbish - it will be, that’s the whole point. But after a month or so you’ll find yourself coming up with new ideas because all the muck has been cleared out. Or you’ll feel differently about something you’ve been stuck on. So start, and then persevere. And create a nice ritual around it too, like making tea or coffee, or having your favourite music playing.

I meditate first - I’m still going on my daily habit there too (since 2 May 2017!) - and then I put my AirPods in and select my favourite writing music. Most days it’s Ludovico Einaudi but other days it will be Beethoven or Bach I want to hear. Anything gentle. Then I pick up the pen, turn to a blank page and write for three pages. Often Tom will bring a coffee in while I’m writing and thanks to the noise cancelling headphones and being in the zone, I will barely notice!

And once the pages are done, I am free to get on with my morning. My writing work later in the morning, or later that day, is always better for having cleared the decks first thing.

The next step, at some point, will be to go through the Morning Pages books and see what themes keep appearing, what words and images I repeat, what is clearly uppermost in my mind. They are the clues to where I might go next on this creative journey.

Do you do Morning Pages? Or do you have a morning creativity ritual?

eavan boland: the lost art of letter writing

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay 

THE LOST ART OF LETTER WRITING

The ratio of daylight to handwriting
Was the same as lacemaking to eyesight.
The paper was so thin it skinned air.

The hand was fire and the page tinder.
Everything burned away except the one
Place they singled out between fingers

Held over a letter pad they set aside
For the long evenings of their leave-takings,
Always asking after what they kept losing,

Always performing—even when a shadow
Fell across the page and they knew the answer
Was not forthcoming—the same action:

First the leaning down, the pen becoming
A staff to walk fields with as they vanished
Underfoot into memory. Then the letting up,

The lighter stroke, which brought back
Cranesbill and thistle, a bicycle wheel
Rusting: an iron circle hurting the grass

Again and the hedges veiled in hawthorn
Again just in time for the May Novenas
Recited in sweet air on a road leading

To another road, then another one, widening
To a motorway with four lanes, ending in
A new town on the edge of a city

They will never see. And if we say
An art is lost when it no longer knows
How to teach a sorrow to speak, come, see

The way we lost it: stacking letters in the attic,
Going downstairs so as not to listen to
The fields stirring at night as they became

Memory and in the morning as they became
Ink; what we did so as not to hear them
Whispering the only question they knew

By heart, the only one they learned from all
Those epistles of air and unreachable distance,
How to ask: is it still there?

- Eavan Boland

some wonderful (and free) resources for writers

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Are you finding it a bit hard to write at the moment? Me too.

Thank goodness for my morning routine of meditation followed by Morning Pages, which I had established well BC (Before Corona). It is my anchor. Even though I find it hard to concentrate for solid lengths of time right now, the habits I’ve formed over the past few years in starting my day are serving me well. My Morning Pages are now less a brain dump and more of a daily “life in these strange times” chronicle which are making for entertaining and often mind-boggling reading weeks later. It’s bizarre to see life changing so quickly as the journal fills up. I’m very glad I’m writing everything down. I might share some, at some point.

But how to stay motivated with my actual writing?

The internet is a mixed blessing, to put it annoyingly simply. It is a source of endless distraction and I have found myself losing hours and days to browsing and scrolling, my original purpose in going online long forgotten by the time I realise what I’m doing and how much time has passed. It is also a way to feel frustrated, horrified, angry and despairing for humanity - one only has to go on Twitter to understand why the world is burning.

But on the flip side, it’s also a goldmine of useful resources, particularly for writers and creative people, and I have found some incredibly helpful and inspiring posts, courses, websites and podcasts over the past 40-odd very strange days. Today, I thought I might share some of them with you.

Writing Right Now

This is a post specifically about academic writing in the time of COVID-19 but I found it very useful and applicable to my non-PhD work as well.

The key for me during these extraordinary times is that each person ought to be given space to reevaluate what they are able to do. Thinking that you should be able to carry on as usual or, worse, be more productive is to underestimate the effect of everything going on around you. 

Writing Productivity for the Four Tendencies

Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies can be a very useful tool for figuring out how your motivation works (internal, external, both) in life and in your art. I think I’m an Upholder but when it comes to writing, maybe I am a Rebel! (side note: I just did the quiz again, I am a Rebel, full stop). This is a very useful post from Sarah with lots of ideas that feel very doable.

The Writer’s Room Podcast with Charlotte Wood

This is a wonderful podcast to get your mojo fired up again, or even just to entertain the idea of opening your document or picking up the pen again if you’ve been feeling stagnant. The standout episode so far for me is the interview with Jerry Salz. He reminded me so much of my old boss in London! Jerry’s brilliant article How To Be An Artist is a worthy addition to your bookmarks and self-motivational arsenal.

Originality did not conveniently die just in time for you and your generation to insist it no longer exists. You just have to find it.

Charlotte’s interview with Jerry is full of amazing truth bombs like this.

I would also recommend A Mind of One’s Own, which is Charlotte Wood’s podcast from a few years ago, designed for writers with lots of tips on how to enrich your creating life.

Tim Clare’s 100 Day Writing Challenge

I once saw Tim perform at a slam evening in London, about 11 years ago now. Scroobius Pip performed one of my favourites of his poems, and Tim was also awesome, reading from his memoir We Can’t All Be Astronauts (which I read later and really enjoyed). He’s a refreshingly honest, bold and witty writer. This is a writing course that, as the name suggests, is a daily prompt for 100 days, delivered by podcast (with an accompanying transcript). Tim is a genuinely enthusiastic course leader and when he says “I’m proud of you, well done for getting this far” each day, I really believe him (thanks Tim!). Already it has encouraged me to take a small idea and just run with it, and it has brought a lot of joy back into writing for me. Highly recommended.

Writing with Dev

Everything sucks until it’s finished, and most things still fucking suck. The bottom line is, we don’t write to be praised or paid or get a profile or win prizes. We write because it makes us feel better.

Another writing course delivered virtually with the Australian writer and comedian Catherine Deveny. You can watch her excellent, upbeat and irreverent writing course videos via Facebook or Youtube. She’s a great cheerleader, particularly when it comes to trusting and believing in yourself: “You have to become your own self-saucing pudding.” (a lovely image there).

Each lesson has heaps of prompts and writing exercises, which Dev does with you in real time. There’s a wealth of material and she has very kindly made it free but you can donate an amount of your choice, or buy her book and writing poster, if you’re able to.

Writing as a Spiritual Practice with Dr Polly McGee

This is the perfect course if you are feeling blocked, uninspired or unworthy (maybe all three). The ball of sunshine and positive energy that is Dr Polly McGee will put a big smile on your face and have you itching to create a writing ritual that serves and nourishes you.

I really loved this course - it felt like I was checking in with a wise and encouraging friend each day. Polly really encourages you to think of your writing as a service to the world and shares so many tips and tools to start writing and creating with purpose and soulful intentions. Highly recommended!

Helen’s Word Stay Home Writing Retreat

One of my PhD supervisors got me on to this. While it has an academic flavour, I’d highly recommend it to any writer. I’ve only just started it but so far it’s all about not only making time to write but developing robust strategies to maintain your writing practice. Helen also encourages you to write by hand to give your eyes a break from a screen and your fingers a break from the keyboard, which I am all for. I’m about to go and watch today’s “after writing” video now!

I’m doing my best not to be hard on myself for not being a productivity machine - the standards of the world we lived in two months ago no longer apply, really, because that world is gone. For now, at least. As Helen says, setting simple and attainable goals is probably most helpful.

What about you?

I’d love to know if you’ve found any helpful resources like these to keep you motivated and interested during this time.