my writing practice
What are your writing rituals?
As I approach daily writing, I've noticed some patterns beginning to emerge. I start off with reading other Bear blogs, finding inspiration by being in digital proximity to other writers. Their post may be recent or it may be published years ago, but their impact still finds me all the same.
Then, I open my visual journal, an art sketchbook, and start doodling out whatever emotions, thoughts, and feelings are alive in my mind, body, and spirit at that time. Markers, highlighters, pens, colored pencils, I don't plan to draw anything specifically, I let intuition guide me to what shapes want to be born.
This act of drawing whets my appetite to write. Once 2 pages of my visual journal find completion, I turn to the native editor of the Bear platform and start typing away.
Maybe I'll reference a post that struck resonance within me, or maybe I'll find myself writing something entirely left field. Much like my visual journal, I'm letting the thoughts that want to be born appear onto the screen in front of me.
Once I preview the post several times, do some light editing, then I post and let the newly formed creation take flight. And once the post leaves its nest to roam amongst the Internet, I find solace that a piece of me will find a piece of someone else, and that they will become acquaintances, friends, or even partners.
There's a saying that once your art is released into the public, it is no longer truly yours anymore. It collaborates, percolates in other people's minds, hearts, and spirits. It can move that which is unmovable, or it can become wallpaper in the background. It's both beautiful and tragic that people can interpret art in many which ways, depending on their state of mind and stage of life they are going through.
Whatever happens after I publish my writings is not for me to determine. I'm sure every artist and creative hopes for the best - that the piece of them that has been courageously shared finds fair company with like-minded people. (And of course, that their art resonates so strongly that it begins generating sustainable financial support, or maybe that's just me). But to dictate and demand that of my art, my writings and drawings? Try telling the Sun to be cold and the Moon to stay full every night.
There are just some things that are untamable, deliciously wild, and pleasantly frustrating -- that is the nature of art.
And gosh, do I fucking love it.
Thanks for being here. ♥︎
Posting this officially at 11:42 PM, March 25th, 2025. I wrote the blog before 7 PM today but forgot to press publish after getting distracted from a phone call and then hot yoga class. Our daily streak still maintained - phew!
Sincerely,
Nadine