I started free writing, using pen and paper. I’ve only done it twice so far, so you can hardly call it a habit, but it does feel good. Until now I’ve always rejected the idea of using pen and paper to write. The lovely weather drew me outside though and a pen and paper are a lot more convenient in the bright sun than a laptop screen is. It was the push that I needed to try it.
I thought I might be put off by my less than perfect handwriting, or by not being able to correct mistakes. It turns out that both don’t bother me at all.

The reason for trying something different is twofold. I’ve not been writing much lately, mostly because of a lack of topics that I feel I have something useful or interesting to say about that isn’t already being said in a better way by someone else.
The other reason is that I’ve been trying to find my “writing voice”. I liked the tone of voice in my last two posts. They were very different from the type of post that I normally write. Both were driven by the emotions that I was feeling while writing them. They were written quickly and posted without many revisions. They sound a lot more like me.

Most of my other posts are about concepts, while the ones that I like are stories. I’m hoping that the free writing will keep away the perfectionist in me and allow me to write some imperfect stories that have heart in them. The free writing makes it easier to be kind to myself while I’m writing. Nothing that I write while doing it needs to be posted. If it sparks an idea that’s great, if it doesn’t I enjoyed the process of writing for the sake of writing.

It’s an experiment and I think the amount of activity and my voice on here will be testament to the result. Or lack thereof of course!