In my last blog, I described why I like writing children’s
stories. This time around, I’d like to describe one of the reasons I like
writing.
I was clicking through my favourite websites over my cup of
coffee yesterday morning when I came a Facebook post from a relative who’s a
dedicated conspiracy theorist. (9/11 was a US government plot. Vaccines are
killers. The Illuminati are running our lives. And on. And on.) That day’s post
offered ‘scientific’ proof that wearing face masks to prevent the spread of
COVID -19 is actually a danger to our
health.
Without wanting to wade into the whole mask argument, let me
just say such stuff drives me round the bend. Bloviating experts working on
‘faith’ alone infuriate me. This one infuriated me so much I couldn’t sit still.
I had to get up, walk around and talk to the cat for five minutes to calm
myself down.
The last thing I wanted to do was write. Sit and work on a
story about a little girl banding together with friends to save a local beauty
spot? I was so angry I couldn’t get myself into the calm, innocent frame of
mind I needed to describe her adventures.
Yet not writing only
made me feel worse. So I made a compromise with myself: all I had to do was
write one page. And then if I really
wasn’t in the mood, I could stop.
I opened up Word and started a new chapter. One page, I
told myself. 350 words. Perhaps because my anger at the mask post was still
boiling, I wrote them almost without knowing. By the time I’d finished them though, an idea had popped into my head for how to
continue. I hadn’t known it the week before when I stopped in mid-chapter. Now
I did.
I finished the chapter and began the next one, because that
new idea in the first had prompted a new idea for the second. I kept writing. Almost
before I knew it, I’d written 1,500 words. I’d also calmed down. A lot.
That’s the reason for writing I mentioned at the beginning
of this blog. It takes me away from all the nonsense and negativity of the
world. It makes me feel better. More positive. It makes me – when it’s going
well* – glad to be alive. I hope it always will.
*I could no doubt write another blog post about what happens
when it doesn’t go well. But if I do it’ll be another time.